The purpose of this degree project is to describe and analyze how pre-school teacher´s didactically arrange different music activities in the work. To gain understanding and the importance of music didactics in preschool. The study was conducted using qualitative interviews through phenomenographical methodology in which six preschool teachers were interviewed. The theoretical background is based on music didactics, musicking and variation theory. The music activities in preschool rarely follow any form of didactic planning, focus is usually on another subject area, mostly language and the subject of music end on second place. There is a vision that the music subject should end in the first place, and that it requires a greater commitment and prioritization of time from the preschool teachers. The dreams and visions that exist for the music activities are about having access to a room like a studio where material in different forms of musical instruments is available. Another dream among preschool teachers is to gain more competence development and inspiration. Another vision is that the children should be challenged more and have the opportunity to explore the music subject further. Preschool teachers have different deductions for different subjects and usually it is in the staff that has the most musical skills that are responsible for the music activities. / Syftet med detta examensarbete är att beskriva och kartlägga hur pedagogerna didaktiskt tänker kring olika musikaktiviteter i verksamheten. För att åka förståelse och betydelsen kring musikdidaktiken i förskolan. Undersökningen genomfördes med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer genom fenomenografisk metodansats där sex stycken förskollärare intervjuades. Den teoretiska bakgrunden utgår ifrån musikdidaktik, musicking och variationsteorin.Undersökningens resultat visar att musikaktiviteterna i förskolan sällan följer någon form av didaktisk planering då fokus vanligen är på ett annat ämnesområde som mestadels är språk och musikämnet hamnar i andra hand. Det finns en vision om att musikämnet ska hamna i första hand och att det då krävs ett större engagemang och prioritering av tid hos förskollärarna. De drömmar och visioner som finns för musikaktiviteterna handlar om att ha tillgång till ett rum likt en studio där material i olika former utav musikinstrument finns tillgängligt. En annan dröm hos förskollärarna är att få mer kompetensutbildning och inspiration. En vision som finns är att barnen ska utmanas mer och få chans att utforska musikämnet vidare. Förskollärarna har olika engagemang för olika ämnesområden och vanligen är det den i personalstyrkan som har mest musikalisk kompetens som får ansvaret för musikaktiviteterna.

Syftet med studien är att få syn på hur de yngre barnen i förskolan är delaktiga och hur de interagerar i musikundervisningen. Detta har undersökts genom observation av 1–3-åringar i ett musikrum på en förskola. Undersökningen är en del av ett utvecklingsarbete utifrån ett behov på förskolan där studien är gjord. Studien är utförd genom en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med deltagande observation. Empirin till studien är insamlad genom fältanteckningar och filmning. Vår teoretiska utgångspunkt i studien är det sociokulturella perspektivet som hanterar samspel. Aktuell och relevant forskning hanteras. Fokus läggs på begrepp som musicking, delaktighet, interaktion, samspel och undervisning. Resultatet visar att barnen är delaktiga på olika sätt, som genom verbal kommunikation, kroppsspråk, ögonkontakt och att utforska kreativt. Resultatet visar även att utformningen av miljön inverkar på hur musikaliskt stimulerande den är och hur den bidrar till barns delaktighet i musikundervisningen. / The purpose of this study is to see how the young children in preschool is participating and how they interact in music education. We have observed preschoolers at the age of 1-3 years old in a music room in a preschool. The study is a part of a development project from a need the preschool had. The study is made through a qualitative research method with observation. The data is collected through notes and filming. Our theoretical starting point is the socio-cultural perspective that handles interaction. We look at new and relevant research. Our focus is on words like musicking, participation, interaction, interplay and education. The result show us that the children are participating in different ways, by vocal communication, body language, eye contact and by exploring creatively. The result also shows us that the environment affects children’s participation.

Den fysiska miljön har betydelse för barns meningsskapande, och en plats där meningsskapande sker i förskolan är skogen. Intresset för att bedriva förskoleverksamhet i skogen har ökat de senaste decennierna. Musik har länge haft en central plats i förskolans verksamhet, men forskning om musik i förskolan fokuserar ofta på inomhusmiljön. Forskning visar dock att det finns fördelar med att genomföra musikaliska aktiviteter utomhus. Kontexten har betydelse för musikaliskt meningsskapande, och syftet med denna studie är därför att undersöka hur skogen används som plats för ljud- och musikupplevelser för och av förskolebarn, och vilka meningserbjudanden som möjliggörs genom dessa upplevelser. Gibsons teori om meningserbjudanden används i kombination med teorier om musicking och musikaliska meningserbjudanden för att belysa barns möjliga meningsskapande i skärningspunkten mellan skog som plats och ljud- och musikupplevelser. Barns ljud- och musikupplevelser i skogen hos tre förskolegrupper har genom etnografiinspirerad metod observerats. Etiska riktlinjer har följts i enlighet med Vetenskapsrådet. Resultatet visar en skillnad i hur pedagoger och barn använder skogen som plats för ljud- och musikaktiviteter där pedagogernas musikaliska meningserbjudanden främst består av ett kulturarv av traditionella sånger som överförs till barnen. Genom dessa upplevelser möjliggörs framför allt meningsskapande genom musik där andra ämnen än musik hamnar i fokus. Musikaktiviteterna av barn kännetecknas både av ett reproducerande av tidigare inlärda sånger, men även nyskapande av musik, där sociala processer av musicking leder till meningsskapande. Meningsskapande sker genom både receptiva och produktiva musikaliska meningserbjudanden där producenterna består av människor, djur och skog. Interaktion i ljud- och musikupplevelserna leder till att en ömsesidighet skapas mellan skogen och barnen, där också pedagogerna, tidsutrymmet och barns tidigare erfarenheter har visat sig spela en betydelsefull roll. Resultatet visade även att meningsskapande oftare blev synligt då det fanns en koppling mellan musikens innehåll och skogen. Detta leder till slutsatsen att platsen har betydelse för barns musikaliska meningsskapande. Denna studie lyfter fram skogen som en värdefull plats för barns meningsskapande genom ljud- och musikupplevelser där musicking, förundran och kreativitet frodas. Kunskap om barns meningsskapande genom ljud- och musikupplevelser i skogen kan ur ett didaktiskt perspektiv ha betydelse för personal i förskolan, men även för lärosäten som utbildar förskollärare. / The physical environment affects children´s meaning making, and one place where meaning making occurs in preschool is the forest. The interest for preschool education in the forest has increased during the last decades. Music has since a long time had a central place in preschool education, but research about music in preschool often focus on the indoor environment. However, research shows that there are benefits from conducting musical activities outdoors. The context has impact on musical meaning making, and the aim of this study is therefore to examine how the forest is used as a place for sound and music experiences for and by preschool children, and what affordances that is made possible through these experiences. Gibson´s theory of affordance is used in combination with theories of musicking and musical affordances to shed light om children´s possible meaning making in the intersection between forest as a place and sound and music experiences. Children´s sound and music experiences in the forest at three preschool groups has through ethnographic inspired method been observed. Ethical guidelines have been followed accordning to Vetenskapsrådet. The result shows a difference in how pedagogues and children use the forest as a place for sound and music activities where the pedagogues’ musical affordances mainly consist of a cultural heritage of traditional songs that is passed on to the children. Through these experiences is especially meaning making through music made possible, where other subjects than music is focused. Music activities by children is characterized by both reproduction of previous learned songs, but also an innovative music making where social processes of musicking leads to meaning making. The meaning making occurs both through receptive and productive musical affordances where the producers consist of humans, animals, and forest. Interaction in sound and music experiences lead to the creation of a reciprocity between the forest and the children, where also the pedagogues, time space and children´s previous experiences have been shown to play a significant role. The result also showed that meaning making often became visible when there was a connection between the content of the music and the place. This leads to the conclusion that the place is significant for children´s musical meaning making. This study highlights the forest as a valuable place for children´s meaning making through sound and music experiences where musicking, awe and creativity flourishes. Knowledge about children´s meaning making through sound and music experiences in the forest can through a didactical perspective be of importance for preschool staff, but also for preschool educators.

This qualitative study explores the experiences of creative improvisation in music therapy sessions of a group of 12 first-year international students. The students took part in a group music therapy process which consisted of eight sessions. Music therapy is explored as a possible approach for offering first-year international students valuable social, emotional and psychological support in light of literature findings that note the continuous struggles faced by international students in their transition to university. Data collection was in the form of a focus group interview, which was conducted after the final session, and two video excerpts from different sessions within the process. I drew on these data sources to explore how music is used as a medium for expressing and sharing first-year experiences, and how the group music therapy sessions afford students opportunities for the development of mutually supportive relationships. Data were coded, then categorised and in this process, themes emerged. The emergent themes suggest that creative improvisation in group music therapy sessions facilitates moving from disconnection to building more friendships and deeper relationships; creates a platform for increasing openness towards exploring, expressing and sharing experiences and emotions concerning being a first-year international student; and how music as an alternative medium to verbal and/or other expression for expressing and interacting, allows for this expression of emotions and experiences, and connection in the group. The findings indicate that it was in expressing and sharing their experiences with one another through musicking that students were able to develop mutually supportive relationships. Copyright / Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Music / unrestricted

ABSTRACT The use of the arts as a tool for conflict transformation, or what has been called arts based peacebuilding, is a new and emerging field. Yet, there is sparse empirical evidence on its outcomes. The Nile Project, a musical collaborative from East Africa that brings together musicians from all of the countries that border the Nile River, is aimed at finding a solution to the dire water conflict and crisis in the region. This study aims to explore how their collaborative process of creating and performing music despite their linguistic, cultural, musical, and political differences, can illuminate how music can be used to address conflict. Using a combination of collaborative qualitative and arts-informed research methodologies, original members of the collective as well as the co-founder were interviewed. Observations were also done of the musicians' rehearsals, performances, and classroom visits at a New England University and during a musical residency in Aswan, Egypt. Findings suggest that an outcome of the Nile Project's work is the development of relationships, deeper learning, particularly about other Africans, and that the process of making music with those from diverse musical traditions can act as a way to practice peacebuilding skills: creating unity, while honoring diversity. This study seeks to add to a limited amount of research documenting the arts in peacebuilding suggesting that music might be an effective tool for transforming conflict.

A presente dissertação constitui um estudo etnomusicológico do musicar de artistas imigrantes haitianos no estado do Rio Grande do Sul. O trabalho etnográfico contemplou a observação-participante de eventos do grupo diaspórico haitiano, apresentações musicais, sessões de gravação, entrevistas e apresentações de programas de rádio feitas por e/ou com diversos artistas haitianos. A pesquisa foi fundamentada em trabalho colaborativo e participativo, no qual exerci uma função de mediação e tornei-me ator social dentro do próprio fenômeno, e incluiu trabalho netnográfico em redes sociais e de comunicação. Através de um olhar voltado à autonomia da migração, o objetivo do trabalho foi analisar na produção e atuação musical de artistas imigrantes haitianos as dimensões e fluxos transnacionais, as questões de cosmopolitismo inerentes à condição diaspórica de haitianos enquanto imigrantes negros no Brasil, a manutenção e reposicionamento de identidades socioculturais assim como tensões ligadas à religião e a processos de construção de alteridade racial. / The present thesis constitutes an ethnomusicological study of the musicking of Haitian immigrant artists in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The ethnographic work consisted in participant-observation conducted in events of the Haitian diasporic group, musical performances, recording sessions, interviews and radio broadcasting, done with/by various Haitian artists. The research was based in a collaborative and participative work ethos, in which I exercised the role of mediator and social actor within the actual phenomenon studied, and included virtual fieldwork in social and communication networks. By means of an autonomy of migration gaze, the purpose of this work was to analyze, through the music of Haitian immigrant artists: transnational flows and dimensions, issues of cosmopolitanism inherent to the Haitian condition as black migrants in Brazil, the maintenance and repositioning of sociocultural identities, as well as anxieties regarding religion and processes of racial othering.

This thesis considers ordinary Swedish teenagers and their everyday use of,and views on, music. The aim of the study is to analyse the relationship between identity and adolescents’ use of music in their daily lives. Theories are employed that hold identity to be a process, and that comprise the social as well as the psychological aspects of the individual (Giddens,1991; 1997; Jenkins, 2008). Since for both Giddens and Jenkins the reflexive identity process takes place in everyday life, it is a concept that is essential to this study. The idea that people are active, not passive, in their day-to-day use of cultural products ultimately leads to Small’s (1998) definition of musicking. The empirical part of the study was carried out among fifteen eighthgraders (14–15 years) in two schools in two Swedish cities. An initial questionnaire provided outlines of the adolescents’ musical preferences, and were followed by focus group conversations centred on six music examples. Later, interviews were carried out to chart the informants’ individual relationships with music and their personal use of it. The material is analysed thematically in three chapters on music and ‘them’, music and ‘us’, and music and ‘me’. In the final chapter, a competent musicking agency is held to be a combinationof individual and social factors. Whether these aspects can coexist boils down to the question of authenticity: much like Giddens’s competent agent, the competent musicking agent moves between life sectors, maintaining balance between uniqueness and normality, and is therefore perceived as authentic by both herself and others. In school, pupils tend to choose music that promotes their public image. Instead of yielding to a tussle between self-image and public image, it is suggested that music education should become a free zone where the well known is looked at in newways, and where one could get to know the unknown.

Denna studie baseras på kopplingen mellan musik och sång och språkutvecklingsarbetet i förskolan. Syftet är att få syn på vilka uppfattningar förskollärare har om musik och sång som verktyg för att främja verbala språkutveckling. Studien baseras på kvalitativa semistrukturella intervjuer med förskollärare från en mindre kommun i södra Sverige och fokus ligger på två avgränsningar inom ämnet: Vilka uppfattningar förskollärare har om musik och sång som verktyg för att främja barns verbala språkutveckling samt hur förskollärare använder musik och sång för att ge stöd åt barns muntliga språkutveckling. Intervjuerna baseras på sex intervjufrågor som ger förskollärarna tillfälle att beskriva sin syn på musik och sång i relation till språkutveckling. Resultatet visar på en mestadels positiv uppfattning om musik och sång som språkutvecklande verktyg samt att arbetet med musik och sång i förskolan baseras på barnens delaktighet och intresse. Detta kan betyda att musik och sång verkligen används för att utveckla barns verbala språk i förskolan samt att förskollärare inser nyttan i användandet av musik och sång med förskolebarn för att utveckla språket.

A presente dissertação constitui um estudo etnomusicológico do musicar de artistas imigrantes haitianos no estado do Rio Grande do Sul. O trabalho etnográfico contemplou a observação-participante de eventos do grupo diaspórico haitiano, apresentações musicais, sessões de gravação, entrevistas e apresentações de programas de rádio feitas por e/ou com diversos artistas haitianos. A pesquisa foi fundamentada em trabalho colaborativo e participativo, no qual exerci uma função de mediação e tornei-me ator social dentro do próprio fenômeno, e incluiu trabalho netnográfico em redes sociais e de comunicação. Através de um olhar voltado à autonomia da migração, o objetivo do trabalho foi analisar na produção e atuação musical de artistas imigrantes haitianos as dimensões e fluxos transnacionais, as questões de cosmopolitismo inerentes à condição diaspórica de haitianos enquanto imigrantes negros no Brasil, a manutenção e reposicionamento de identidades socioculturais assim como tensões ligadas à religião e a processos de construção de alteridade racial. / The present thesis constitutes an ethnomusicological study of the musicking of Haitian immigrant artists in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The ethnographic work consisted in participant-observation conducted in events of the Haitian diasporic group, musical performances, recording sessions, interviews and radio broadcasting, done with/by various Haitian artists. The research was based in a collaborative and participative work ethos, in which I exercised the role of mediator and social actor within the actual phenomenon studied, and included virtual fieldwork in social and communication networks. By means of an autonomy of migration gaze, the purpose of this work was to analyze, through the music of Haitian immigrant artists: transnational flows and dimensions, issues of cosmopolitanism inherent to the Haitian condition as black migrants in Brazil, the maintenance and repositioning of sociocultural identities, as well as anxieties regarding religion and processes of racial othering.

A presente dissertação constitui um estudo etnomusicológico do musicar de artistas imigrantes haitianos no estado do Rio Grande do Sul. O trabalho etnográfico contemplou a observação-participante de eventos do grupo diaspórico haitiano, apresentações musicais, sessões de gravação, entrevistas e apresentações de programas de rádio feitas por e/ou com diversos artistas haitianos. A pesquisa foi fundamentada em trabalho colaborativo e participativo, no qual exerci uma função de mediação e tornei-me ator social dentro do próprio fenômeno, e incluiu trabalho netnográfico em redes sociais e de comunicação. Através de um olhar voltado à autonomia da migração, o objetivo do trabalho foi analisar na produção e atuação musical de artistas imigrantes haitianos as dimensões e fluxos transnacionais, as questões de cosmopolitismo inerentes à condição diaspórica de haitianos enquanto imigrantes negros no Brasil, a manutenção e reposicionamento de identidades socioculturais assim como tensões ligadas à religião e a processos de construção de alteridade racial. / The present thesis constitutes an ethnomusicological study of the musicking of Haitian immigrant artists in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The ethnographic work consisted in participant-observation conducted in events of the Haitian diasporic group, musical performances, recording sessions, interviews and radio broadcasting, done with/by various Haitian artists. The research was based in a collaborative and participative work ethos, in which I exercised the role of mediator and social actor within the actual phenomenon studied, and included virtual fieldwork in social and communication networks. By means of an autonomy of migration gaze, the purpose of this work was to analyze, through the music of Haitian immigrant artists: transnational flows and dimensions, issues of cosmopolitanism inherent to the Haitian condition as black migrants in Brazil, the maintenance and repositioning of sociocultural identities, as well as anxieties regarding religion and processes of racial othering.