The art of the early childhood researcher: Rediscovering music and movement in language

Abstract

The initial research undertaken was an attempt to understand what it is like for young children to be in the world. The study was a search to reclaim a sense of place for the teacher/researcher and the children, and to capture young children’s profound wondering. This article is a reflective look back at that study and attempts through methods of reflection and disruption to gain further clarity, to extend yet complicate what was known. The reflection also explores three of the central challenges that were encountered when evoking and ultimately re-visioning the lived experiences. Taking the time to look back on the research with testimonial readings, provided greater perspective and clarity to the role of emKeybodied teacher.

Cultivating 21st century Learning Skills: The Effect of Song-based Music and Movement on Elementary-age Children’s Kinesthetic Skills

“…Many researchers have investigated the effectiveness of music-based intervention on different abilities and intelligences such as mathematic skills (Bakar & Samsudin, 2012;Samsudin et al, 2019), linguistic skills (Palupi et al, 2019;Latham, 2018), and social skills (Ozturk & Can, 2020;Yanko & Yap, 2020). Although many studies have explored the effectiveness of music and movement intervention on kinesthetic skills (Kolodziejski et al, 2014;Mueller, 2003), there is limited data on the effectiveness of singing activities on kinesthetic skills.…”

Exploring the place of arts-based approaches in early childhood education research

“…Aesthetic attending to something is not a special or a marginal case peculiar to (self-conscious) artists, but one which can be systematically developed… only because it is the very foundation of intelligence. (p. 85) As current examples of developing arts-based approaches in research (Blaisdell et al, 2019;Henderson, 2019;Latham, 2019;Niland et al, 2019) show, text itself can be art, and other approaches using the artistic medium may be usefully drawn into research practices and methods to create a richer portrayal of human experience. For Henderson (2018), the emotional labour of early childhood educators is laid bare through the use of fictional devices to tell otherwise untellable stories.…”

“…They set out their struggle to balance an adult-researcher agenda with the open-ended methods they used, and in doing so show how an intergenerational approach to ‘eliciting voice’ with young children can promote a more inclusive experience for children and researchers. In a similar vein, Latham (2019) reports her attempt to ‘understand what it is like for young children to be in the world’ while simultaneously searching for a way to ‘reclaim a sense of place for the teacher/researcher and the children and to capture young children’s profound wondering’. Latham argues that looking back at a study can provide enhanced perspective and clarity to adults’ roles in research practices.…”