Music enables the holistic development and discovery of self: A phenomenological study of two Christian musicians

Abstract

Music draws on body, space, time and relationships to offer a sacred experience. Musicking makes personal, social, emotional and spiritual connections with people. Cultural identity is formed through the arts, and the spirituality in music is a medium through which people explore their identities. This study examines how music facilitates the holistic development of two Melbourne-born Chinese-Australian Christian musicians. The Confucian Evolving Self Model, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs, and music education aims offer conceptualising scaffolds to illuminate their self-discovery. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to report on multiple semi-structured interviews undertaken over three years. This study considered the interaction of various value systems – the fusion of Confucianism, Christian and psychological cultures in the process of musical development and identity formation. It fills a research gap and complements existing approaches to understanding the social contexts influencing the acquisition of musical skills and musicians’ occupational choices. The permissive parenting that both participants experienced might account for them being able to follow a career in music without familial resistance. The current findings can advocate for music education because the spiritual aspects of musical experiences were perceived as a mirror in fostering the holistic development of both participants.

Confucian Heritage Culture, parental differential treatment of siblings and music learning: A hermeneutic analysis of a musical family

“…IPA, a qualitative method devised by Smith (1999), has been extensively employed in health psychology and increasingly in music psychology/education (Bainger, 2011;Fung, 2016aFung, , 2016bFung, , 2016cJoseph, 2014;McPherson, Davidson, & Faulkner, 2012;Southcott & Joseph, 2013;Taylor, 2015). IPA is phenomenological (interrogating/understanding experience), hermeneutic (inductive reasoning/interpretation) and idiographic in nature (in-depth case study; Brocki, & Wearden, 2006;Shinebourne, 2011;Smith, 2011).…”

Music Technology as a Means for Fostering Young Children’s Social Interactions in an Inclusive Class

“…Children with autism are more sensitive to auditory stimuli, and music can promote the ordering of auditory stimuli and organizational input perception [28,29]. With the sensitivity to music and aural reception, integrating music into the field of interest can increase the frequency of participation in activities [30]. Due to the poor social skills of some children with special needs, teachers should work to put children in the mainstream and children with special needs together to play group games.…”

A espiritualidade na educação musical e o processo de aprendizagem: uma revisão integrativa

“…Nesse contexto, espiritualidade significa "possuir crenças coerentes sobre o propósito superior e o significado do universo; saber onde alguém se encaixa no esquema maior; possuir crenças sobre o sentido da vida que moldam a conduta e proporcionam conforto" 2 (Park;Peterson;Seligman, 2004, p. 606, tradução nossa). Pesquisadores admitem as experiências transcendentes em música relacionadas à espiritualidade, chegando a considerar a dimensão do sagrado (Fung, 2017), ou ainda a interação de música e religião (Demmrich, 2020).…”