Content area
Full Text
Abstract: This article reports on a research-practice collaborative work that combined informal music learning practices and youth-led participatory action research with Grade 7 beginning band students at Southridge School in British Columbia. Using real-world music learning experiences, inquiry and reflection, we expanded the scope of a Musical Futures project and helped students develop listening and performing skills, increase their engagement in music learning, and develop leadership skills as they acted as initiators of the music making, learning, and reflective processes.
What is Musical Futures?
Musical Futures originated in the UK and is growing into an international music education initiative (O'Flynn, 2010). It is an approach that brings informal music learning practices identified in Lucy Green's (2001) book How Popular Musicians Learn: A Way Ahead for Music Education into the more formal context of school music programs (see also Green 2008a and 2008b where she dispels the idea that informal music learning approaches eliminate the need for a music teacher). Musical Futures engage young people in the 11-18 age range in music learning that is relevant to their everyday lives and that helps them connect in-school and out-of-school interests and experiences. It makes use of aural learning that fully integrates listening with practical music making, improvising and composing. It also helps to develop leadership skills as students act as peer leaders and initiators of the music making and learning process. Specific projects are tailored to meet the needs of participating schools and students. In our project, we combined the informal music learning practices of Musical Futures with real-world inquiry and reflection involving youth-led participatory action research.
Informal and Real-World Music Learning
Musical activities are a significant part of young people's everyday lives and their music engagement largely occurs outside of formalized music education contexts (O'Neill, 2005). Informal music learning has been defined in a variety of ways that are often considered in contrast to what takes place in formal education (Frierson-Campbell, 2008; Jaffurs, 2004). However, this need not be the case. Mans (2009) describes informal learning as a form of enculturation that enables learners to make informed choices about what they learn based on their understanding of a particular social context. Green's (2001) definition of informal music learning includes four main criteria: (1) encountering...