Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4hhp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-28T22:49:48.742Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Can't sing? Won't sing? Aotearoa/New Zealand ‘tone-deaf’ early childhood teachers’ musical beliefs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2014

Nicola Swain  and
Sally Bodkin-Allen
Nicola Swain
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Otago, New Zealandnicola.swain@otago.ac.nz
Sally Bodkin-Allen
Affiliation:
School of Music, Southern Institute of Technology, Freepost SIT2LRN, Private Bag 90114, 133 Tay Street, Invercargill, 9840, New Zealandsally.bodkin-allen@sit.ac.nz
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Singing is an important part of teaching for early childhood teachers. However, some teachers find this difficult and may even identify themselves as ‘tone-deaf’. We invited a group of early childhood teachers who self-identified as ‘tone-deaf’ to participate in a study to investigate their beliefs and behaviours about singing and musicality. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 40 participants via a questionnaire. Results indicate that these teachers considered themselves to be unmusical and revealed negative feelings towards singing. They showed a general self-consciousness about their singing. These beliefs had been formed through various interactions with friends, family and in schools. While the teachers still participated in singing activities in the centres in which they worked, their participation was marred by feeling self-conscious when singing and they often altered their singing behaviour.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Music Education , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , November 2014 , pp. 245 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

ABRIL, C. R. (2007) I have a voice, but I just can't sing: a narrative investigation of singing and social anxiety. Music Education Research, 9, 1–15.Google Scholar
AYOTTE, J., PERETZ, I. & HYDE, K. (2002) Congenital amusia. A group study of adults afflicted with a music-specific disorder. Brain, 125, 238–251.Google Scholar
BODKIN-ALLEN, S. (2009) Being Musical: Early Childhood Teachers, Music and Identity in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Saarbrucken: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing.Google Scholar
BODKIN-ALLEN, S. (2013) The interweaving threads of music in the whariki of early childhood music education in Aotearoa/New Zealand. In Campbell, P. S. & Wiggins, T. (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Children's Musical Cultures (pp. 387–401). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
BOYACK, J. (1999) Singing self-efficacy: the critical years. In Barrett, M., MacPherson, G. & Launceston, R. Smith (Eds), Children and Music: Developmental Perspectives (pp. 88–92). Proceedings of the 2nd Asia-Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research, University of Tasmania.Google Scholar
BOYACK, J. (2000) ‘Sing? Not me!’ A Study of Student Teachers’ Singing Self-efficacy. Unpublished Master's thesis, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.Google Scholar
CAMPBELL, P. S. (1998) Songs in their Heads. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
CAMPBELL, P. S. & SCOTT-KASSNER, C. (2008) Music in Childhood. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.Google Scholar
CHEN-HAFTECK, L. & MANG, E. (2012) Music and language in early childhood development and learning. In McPherson, G. E., McPherson, G. & Welch, G. F. (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Music (pp. 261–274). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
CHONG, H. (2010) Do we all enjoy singing? A content analysis of non-vocalists’ attitudes towards singing. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 37, 120–124, doi:10.1016/j.aip.2010.01.001 Google Scholar
CUDDY, L., BALKWILL, L., PERETZ, I. & HOLDEN, R. (2005) Musical difficulties are rare: a study of ‘tone deafness’ among university students. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1060, 311–324.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DOUGLAS, K. M. & BILKEY, D. K. (2007) Amusia is associated with deficits in spatial processing. Nature Neuroscience, 10, 915–921.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
ELO, S. & KYNGÄS, H. (2007) The qualitative content analysis process. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 62, 107–115.Google Scholar
GREEN, L. (1997) Music, Gender, Education. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
HYDE, K. L. & PERETZ, I. (2004) Brains that are out of tune but in time. Psychological Science, 15, 356–360.Google Scholar
KAZEZ, D. (1985) The myth of tone-deafness. Music Educators Journal, 71, 46–47.Google Scholar
KINGSBURY, H. (1988) Music, Talent and Performance: A Conservatory Cultural System. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
LAMONT, A. (2009) Music in the school years. In Hallam, S., Cross, I. & Thaut, M. (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology (pp. 235–243). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
LEE NARDO, R., CUSTODERO, L. A., PERSELLIN, D. C. & BRINK FOX, D. (2006) Looking back, looking forward: a report on early childhood music education in accredited American preschools. Journal of Research in Music Education, 54, 278–292.Google Scholar
MANDELL, J., SCHULZE, K. & SCHLAUG, G. (2007) Congenital amusia: an auditory-motor feedback disorder? Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 25, 323–334.Google Scholar
MIHAKA, R. (2008) Te reo Māori can easily be learned from waiata tamariki. Retrieved from http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/download/ng/file/group-3300/te-reo-mori-can-be-easily-learned-through-waiata-tamariki.pdf.Google Scholar
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (1996) Te Whariki: He whariki matauranga mo nga mokopuna o Aotearoa: Early Childhood Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.Google Scholar
MINISTRY OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT (2010) Participation in Early Childhood Education. Retrieved from http://socialreport.msd.govt.nz/knowledge-skills/participation-early-childhood-education.html.Google Scholar
NAUGHTON, C. & LINES, D. (2011) Changing Places: Exploring Different Conceptions of Early Childhood Teacher Preparation in Music Education. Retrieved from https://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/download/ng/file/group-5/changing-places-exploring-different-conceptions-of-early-childhood-teacher-preparation-in-music-education.pdf Google Scholar
PERETZ, I., AYOTTE, J., ZATORRE, R. J., MEHLER, J., AHAD, P., PENHUNE, V. B. & JUTRAS, B. (2002) Congenital amusia: a disorder of fine-grained pitch discrimination. Neuron, 33, 185–191.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
PERETZ, I., CHAMPOD, A. S. & HYDE, K. (2003) Varieties of musical disorders: the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 999, 58–75.Google Scholar
ROY, D., BAKER, W. J. & HAMILTON, A. (2012) Teaching the Arts: Early Childhood and Primary Education. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
RUDDOCK, E. (2007) Ballad of the Never-picked: A Qualitative Study of Self-perceived Non-musicians’ Perceptions of their Musicality. Unpublished Master's thesis, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.Google Scholar
RUDDOCK, E. (2010) Societal judgement silences singers. The University of Melbourne Refereed E-Journal, 2 (1), 1–15. Retrieved from http://web.education.unimelb.edu.au/UNESCO/pdfs/ejournals/ruddock-paper.pdf.Google Scholar
RUDDOCK, E. & LEONG, S. (2005) ‘I am unmusical!’: The verdict of self-judgement. International Journal of Music Education, 23, 9–22.Google Scholar
RUSSELL-BOWIE, D. (2009) What me? Teach music to my primary class? Challenges to teaching music in primary schools in five countries. Music Education Research, 11, 23–26.Google Scholar
SLOBODA, J. A., WISE, K. J. & PERETZ, I. (2005) Quantifying tone deafness in the general population. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1060, 255–261.Google Scholar
SMALL, C. (1977) Music, Society, Education. London: John Calder.Google Scholar
SMALL, C. (1998) Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
THOMAS, D. R. (2006) A general inductive approach for analyzing qualitative evaluation data. American Journal of Evaluation, 27, 237–246.Google Scholar
WEST, S. (2009) Selective mutism for singing (SMS) and its treatment: conceptualising musical disengagement as mass social dysfunction. In Baker, W. (Ed.), Musical Understanding: Proceedings of the XVII National Conference (pp. 212–219). Launceston, Australia: Australian Society for Music Education (Tasmanian Chapter).Google Scholar
WHIDDEN, C. (2008) The injustice of singer/non-singer labels by music educators. GEMS – Gender, Education, Music & Society, 4. Retrieved from www.queensu.ca/music/links/gems/whidden5.pdf.Google Scholar
WHIDDEN, C. (2010) Understanding social-cultural influences affecting non-participation in singing. UNESCO Observatory Multidisciplinary Research in the Arts, 2 (1). Retrieved from http://www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/eldi/elc/unesco/pdfs/ejournals/whidden-paper.pdf.Google Scholar
WILLBERG, H. (2001) Music for Fun: Hiding the Music Curriculum. Unpublished Master's thesis, University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand.Google Scholar
WISE, K. J. & SLOBODA, J. A. (2008) Establishing an empirical profile of self-defined ‘tone-deafness’: perception, singing performance and self-assessment. Musicae Scientiae, 12, 3–23.Google Scholar