Starting out – learning to think like an MA student!

Doing an MA is not just about acquiring new knowledge - You WILL learn more, but it’s also about learning to think in certain kinds of ways – to question, to think reflexively, critically, analytically, precisely and imaginatively

How can we question, think analytically etc? By unpicking our own practices, ideas and assumptions and challenging the ‘status quo’ – thinking ‘outside the box’ By using theory as a lens to help us understand and interpret By doing research to explore and find out, so that our ideas are based on realities and not opinion

On what principles? To think of alternatives and make changes for the better – so that our work serves all children better: more effectively and more fairly – [having a commitment to social justice]

Critical reflection rooted in shift from modernism to post-modernism Modernism – the emphasis is placed on rationality and scientific method – the belief that you can ‘know’ for certain Post modernism (PM) refers to an important change in the way that we think about how we create and understand knowledge – that what we know is not fixed and certain but determined by who we are and when and where

Post-modernism Philosophical origins French thinkers – Lyotard, Foucault, Boudrillard Foucault in particular was interested in how power operates in societies to privilege some people over others

ECME theory + policy Much theory – and policy - for ECME is modernist – based on the idea that we can reach a rational understanding of children, society, music, culture etc. and that there is a kind of certainty on which we act See EYFS documents – or Youth Music! Impacts, outcomes, indicators, measures, evidence-based –

Post-modernism there is an alternative way of thinking about knowledge and understanding – sees knowledge as always socially constructed and how knowledge is not neutral and fair but serves some people better than others Language helps the process of construction and is part of the politics of discourse If you think this way - ECME becomes ambiguous, contested and determined by cultural and social context

Here’s an example of discourse - What do you call yourself? Music practitioner? Music leader? Community musician? Music teacher? Early years educator? ? ? [discuss the different meanings inherent in each term]

What does this mean in practice? For example – How do we decide what songs to sing? What assumptions might they carry? How are our decisions about what songs to sing determined by social and cultural assumptions? – or assumptions about children? – or about how they learn? DISCUSSION -

The importance of reading widely ECME theory, research and practice tends to be very narrow – recycling its own ideas The importance of reading general early childhood articles, books Learn to recognise the validity of what you read – is it opinion? (blogs, internet posts, magazine articles, books) or has it been peer reviewed (journal articles)

The value of looking outside of Early childhood music education The general field of early childhood education is very active with lots of contemporary thinking that can be translated back in to music education - Post-modernist thinking – EY research culture from Australia, also Scandinavia e.g. Glenda Mac Naughton – ‘Doing Foucault in Early childhood studies’ e.g. Moss and Dahlberg – editors of a series of books ‘Contesting Early Childhood’