Musical Play and Playworlds Create Meaning in Swedish School-Age Educare Centres: A Matter of Engagement, Empathy, Exploration and Embodiment

Abstract

One of the tasks of Swedish school-age educare centres is to offer children the possibility of different aesthetic forms of expression, such as music and drama. Based on theories of play, music and improvisation, musical play is introduced in which the process itself and the desire to participate are in focus, with the intention of investigating children’s and teachers’ joint meaning-making during the sound exploration and creation of playworlds. From a staged action-focused method, joint play with different voice sounds, both in song and speech, is introduced along with sounds and rhythms from everyday things, such as plastic bags and chopsticks. During the musical play, a fictional character is introduced to create possible openings for voluntary participation and engagement. The results are presented in four scenes and focus on engagement, empathy, exploration, and embodiment. In the results, the participants’ meaning-making is described as action during the musical play and the creation of the playworld. This study is expected to generate a basis for the discussion on joint musical play and play pedagogy as a form of extended education pedagogy capable of creating an experience of emancipation and participation in encounters between children and teachers.

Keywords

• emancipation
• dissensus
• extended education pedagogy
• staged action-oriented method
• meaning-making