’I don’t even dare to do it’: problematising the image of the competent and musical child

The purpose of the study is to problematise the image of the competent and musical child. The study focuses on children’s interactions in order to gain insight into their musical field of interest and understand their learning process when left to themselves. The study is based on the following research questions: (1) How do children negotiate the framework for play in the studied activity? (2) How do children actualise their previous musical performance experiences in the play?

The findings show that establishing a shared opinion about what is going on in the play activity is a complex task that involves coordinating the participants’ perspectives. Agreeing on the play activity is not a sufficient framework for playing the game, because the children continue to negotiate. Although the children are competent in how to playfully carry out a musical activity, they still need the help and support of the teacher to coordinate their different perspectives and to give them the resources to succeed in their willingness to perform musically.

The analysis of the children’s play shows that it is an interpretive reproduction. The children use the resources they have; how to use a microphone, sing a song from this year’s singing competition, know the rituals of a performance. The play also indicates what the singing competition it is based on means in children’s daily lives.

One of the children announces that he will sing and is met with cheers by his peers, but he does not find the confidence to sing in front of an audience. The boy’s shyness challenges the image of children as ‘natural singers’. It can also lay the foundation for a reassessment of music as ‘free’ expression, because the children have difficulty finding the courage to sing, but also knowing which song to sing.

The authors suggest that the children are competent and that they can be helped to further develop if the teacher participates in the dialogue with them and in the music activity.

The study is part of a larger project on play-based pedagogy in kindergartens. The study in question is based on one of the video recordings from this project. The kindergarten teacher filmed the relevant play activity because it was considered interesting in terms of documentation, analysis and discussion. Six children aged 3-5 years old participate in the activity, four girls and two boys.

Lagerlöf, P. & Wallerstedt, C. (2019). “’I don’t even dare to do it’: problematising the image of the competent and musical child”. Music Education Research, 21(1):86-98.