Routledge International Handbook of Music Psychology in Education and the Community

Andrea Creech, Donald A. Hodges, Susan Hallam, Andrea Creech, Donald A. Hodges, Susan Hallam

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000383089
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Educational Psychology

This handbook provides an evidence-based account of psychological perspectives on issues in music education and music in the community through the life course, exploring our understanding of music learning and participation across contexts.

The contributors draw on multidisciplinary research from different cultures and contexts in order to set out the implications of music psychology for music education and music in the community. Highlighting the intersecting issues across education and community contexts, the book proposes new theories as well as offering important refinements to existing conceptual models. Split into six parts, it considers the role of music in society as well as for groups and individuals, and explores topics such as processing and responding to music; pedagogical and musical practices that support or pose challenges to the emotional, cognitive, social or physical wellbeing of learners and participants in a range of contexts; and 'music in identity' or 'identity in music'. With the final part on future directions and the implications for professional practice in music education and music in the community, the book concludes by exploring how the two sectors might work more closely together within a post-COVID-19 world.

Based on cutting-edge research from an international team, this is essential reading for anyone interested in music psychology, education and community, and it will be particularly helpful for undergraduate and graduate students in music psychology, music education and community music.

Part I

Introduction and context

Introduction

Andrea Creech and Donald A. Hodges

Part I of this volume, comprising Chapters 1–5, provides a broad context. Here, authors explore perspectives from music psychology concerned with the function of music in society, the wider benefits associated with musical engagement at group and individual levels, and approaches to research.

Part I begins by exploring two overarching questions: What is the function of music, and what is music psychology? With regard to the former question, Raymond MacDonald (Chapter 1) highlights the overarching communicative role of music in society. As he explains, communication through music can be enhanced or constrained by structural features of the music itself as well as by multiple facets of the social contexts within which musicking takes place. Furthermore, our communicative intention and response may be shaped by culturally specific associations. MacDonald argues that these three mechanisms (structure, social/cultural factors, association) are interdependent and intersect in specific ways within five domains, each associated with a distinct function of music in society: Wellbeing, Art, Ritual, Identity and Social networks. This chapter synthesises music psychology evidence concerned with how we use music in each one of these domains and discusses the implications that cut across music education and community music. Chapter 2 follows with Donald Hodges’ discussion of the intentions, principles, approaches and implications associated with music psychology research. Major themes of this chapter are interdisciplinarity and collaboration, the principal idea (in accordance with the ethos of the volume overall) being that ‘silos’ are not helpful in pushing the boundaries of our theoretical and practical knowledge; rather, there is great potential in truly collaborative exploration that would reflect the interdisciplinary nature of music psychology (e.g., neuroscientific and sociocultural perspectives in collaboration; making explicit the philosophical foundations of psychological perspectives) and, in so doing, bring together theory, research and practice. Together, these first two chapters set the scene for subsequent chapters that explore the intersections of music psychology with musical practices in education and community contexts.

Chapters 3, 4 and 5 collectively highlight the ways in which music listening, learning and participation can contribute to a range of positive – or sometimes negative – social, emotional, cognitive and physical health outcomes. Each of these chapters demonstrates the potential for lifelong impact of musical engagement, whether the context is conceptualised as education or community music. That said, it is clear that contexts differ with regard to intention, practices, resources and more; accordingly, the chapters in this part demonstrate some of the ways that context may have an influence on outcomes. In a similar vein, these chapters also highlight the complexities involved in research that aims to establish any kind of cause and effect; notwithstanding increasing evidence and innovative approaches to investigation, as noted in Chapter 5, the relationships of listening, singing and playing music with health and wellbeing remain meaningful areas for investigation.

The wider cognitive benefits of engagement with music are discussed in Chapter 3. Here, Sylwia Holmes unpacks issues concerned with (a) musicians as compared with ‘non-musicians’ and (b) listening as compared with active music-making, in relation to cognition. Critical issues concerning the possible causality of this association are highlighted and discussed. Holmes reviews recent empirical studies from a range of national and cultural contexts, critically evaluating arguments on the possibility that musical engagement can be associated with cognitive gains in the areas of executive functioning; auditory skills, reading, and literacy; spatial-temporal reasoning; and mathematics. Taking a life course approach, Holmes considers evidence concerned with school-age children, disadvantaged young people, adults and older people.

The idea of ‘wider benefits’ of music education and music in the community is further explored in Chapter 4. Here, Albi Odendaal and Donald Hodges consider music psychology research focused on the social and personal benefits of musicking across the lifespan and in various cultures. These authors bring a critical perspective to the idea that affordances of music are always positive, reminding us that there is no evidence that supports a direct relationship between specific benefits and musical engagement; furthermore, they highlight some of the harmful, as well as helpful, uses and outcomes of musical engagement. Like Holmes in Chapter 3, the authors of Chapter 4 structure their discussion around different phases of the life course, ranging from early years, through schools, higher education and adult lifelong learning contexts. Overall, while Odendaal and Hodges do certainly conclude that musicking offers the possibility of personal and social benefits, they highlight the complexity of researching such benefits, which (as MacDonald suggests in Chapter 1) are influenced by multiple factors apart from the structural features of the music itself.

Finally, Chapter 5 draws on the existing literature concerned with the implications for health that can be related to music-making and listening to music across the life course. Gunter Kreutz and Urs Nater frame their chapter with models from the fields of health and positive psychology, focusing on the health benefits of singing and playing instruments in non-clinical educational or community contexts. The overarching message of this chapter concurs with Chapters 3 and 4, namely that robust research frameworks are needed to further investigate both contributing factors and underlying processes that can explain the wider, extramusical (sometimes unexpected) effects of music learning and participation. Such research has important implications for policy concerned with education and social systems.

1

The social functions of music

Communication, Wellbeing, Art, Ritual, Identity and Social networks (C-WARIS)

Raymond MacDonald

We are the same. There is no difference anywhere in the world. People are people. They laugh, cry, feel, and love, and music seems to be the common denomination that brings us all together. Music cuts through all boundaries and goes right to the soul.

(Willie Nelson, quoted in Nelson & McMurtry, 2003, p. 119)

We are all musical and music is universal; these are not glib assertions, but well-evidenced conclusions drawn by researchers from across the academic spectrum. Music is universally accessible and universally available. Everyone can communicate using music and everyone can be moved by experiencing music, regardless of environmental or health factors (MacDonald et al., 2012). These observations lead us to ask a very basic question: What are the functions of music? While the quote above from Willie Nelson may seem just another glib generalisation, there are several points of interest for us in terms of the aims of this chapter. Willie Nelson signals music’s universal presence and its distinction as a unique and separate channel of communication, quite separate from other channels (e.g., language, visual communication). In saying music “goes right to the soul”, he draws on the observation that music can invoke powerful emotions and deep memories; it can help bring people together and unite us in a collective activity. These are not anodyne blandishments, but suggest that underlying music’s power to communicate are significant social, psychological and musical processes that combine in unique and important ways to help give music its meaning.

If music is universal, what type of role does it have in society? Music is woven into the fabric of our lives, inextricably linked to a host of social and psychological functions that help define what it means to be human (MacDonald & Wilson, 2020). This chapter focuses on the functions of music in society. These include medical and health functions, everyday functions such as mood maintenance, the artistic and aesthetic role of music, and its spiritual and ceremonial functions.

C-WARIS

In this chapter, I propose five broad categories and one overarching caveat that summarise the social function of music. These are represented by the acronym C-WARIS (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1C-WARIS: The social functions of music

Communication

The one overarching caveat is that the primary social function of music is communication – C. Its communicative prowess is utilised across the following domains: W – Wellbeing; A – Art; R – Ritual; I – Identity; and S – Social networks. Music’s...