Teachers' views on the musical creativity development of children age 5-6 within formal education contexts in the UK
Abstract
This study is a qualitative research project focused on teachers' views of their influences on children's (aged 5-6) musical creativity within the context of formal education in the United Kingdom. This study offers insight into teachers' emphases to develop creativity directly and indirectly and explores other factors which connect to creativity such as institutional context, teacher training, musical and pedagogical skills.
Participants (seven music teachers working in state and private schools in York, UK with children aged 5-6) were recruited through snowball sampling and took part in one-to-one semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest that teachers implemented age-appropriate short improvisational and compositional tasks.
However, free access to musical instruments was supported in nurseries rather than in Year 1. Interviewees considered themselves as creative, musical and musically creative teachers although only some of them confirmed that their teacher training helped them in developing children's musical creativity.