Young children, music and diversity

Young children show great enthusiasm for music, especially singing and dancing. They are willing to explore and to perform. This positive energy should be nurtured, especially since interaction with music holds a wide variety of immediate and long lasting benefits for children. Music is exceptionally well suited for children to learn about cultural diversity and fuel their curiosity for other cultures. Musical development offers opportunities for children to appreciate and participate in diverse cultural activities that expand their world view. This project explored the potential benefits of providing children in early childhood programs with high quality experiences of music that reflect cultural diversity. Taking a qualitative, interpretive approach this thesis examined children’s learning and explorations of music using a socio/cultural lens. In order to achieve this goal, children’s present musical experiences in their early childhood setting were observed. Building on these observations appropriate musical experiences, representing culturally diverse music features, were introduced as part of the early childhood curriculum. Reflection centred around changes in children’s response to familiar and unfamiliar musical material and the learning that took place within music explorations in a play-based setting. Music was the chosen focus as it is an acknowledged language of childhood (Office of Early Childhood Education & Child Care, 2009). The exploration of diversity had particular significance in the light of the cultural diversity generally prevalent in Australia.