Introduction
Interculturalism has developed as a reaction to the problems of integration models based on multiculturalism (UNESCO, 2007; EC, 2020). Cultural and education policies in Ireland mirror this paradigm shift (NCCA, 2005; Jewesbury et al., Reference JEWESBURY, SINGH and TUCK2009; DfES & OMI, 2010; GOI, 2016). The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has sought to provide a definition of intercultural education as one which ‘respects, celebrates and recognises the normality of diversity in all areas of human life’ (NCCA, 2005, p. 3). Writing on interculturalism in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland, Charlotte McIvor explains that such an approach ‘imagines creating a series of dynamic interactions between minority and majority ethnic communities that can transform paradigms of Irish belonging without requiring assimilation, marginalising minority ethnic groups or dismantling “Irishness” as currently understood’ (Reference MCIVOR2011, p. 319). Music within schools represents one form of ‘dynamic interactions’ to explore within a broader intercultural education in this regard.
This article provides insight into children’s school musical life as observed and reflected in their accounts of their unique experiences within Irish schools. Investigating their musical participation in primary school endeavours to expand research developments in the field and respond to an international call for a greater understanding and recognition of musical experiences from child immigrant perspectives (Karlsen & Westerlund, Reference KARLSEN and WESTERLUND2010; Marsh, Reference MARSH2012; Karlsen, Reference KARLSEN2013). The research findings explored in this article allow for focused discussions rooted in a national context where children’s direct experiences of their musical lives at school address macro themes of participation and nonparticipation. Turino (Reference TURINO2008), discussing ‘participatory’ musicking, argues that it enables participants to experiment with their actual roles and imagined ones. In schools, we can see this as a framework that facilitates learners’ active and agentive engagements within their musical learning experience. In this article, we consider children and teachers/music facilitators and the dynamics of their interrelationships as key factors mobilising diverse expressions of (non)participation.
The research builds on previous studies by the authors where socio-musical participation can help build connections, facilitate senses of belonging and reduce isolation – particularly for those who have experienced displacement (Kyratsou, Reference KYRATSOU2022, Reference KYRATSOU2023; Kenny, Reference KENNY, Barrett and Welch2023, Reference KENNY2025; de Quadros & Kenny, Reference DE QUADROS, KENNY, Aróstegui, Christophersen, Nichols and Matsunobu2024; Kenny & Lukianchenko, Reference KENNY and LUKIANCHENKO2025). The discussion also moves forward the need to uncover tacit everyday school musical (non)participation where the realities of ethnicity, culture and beliefs intersect with school structures, peer interaction, pedagogy and teacher/learner practices. This article is, therefore, concerned with examining where musical participation happens in the intercultural school, what motivates children to participate or not, how children access such participation and what prevents others from accessing it, as well as the role of both in-school and extra-curricular musical activities in children’s lives. Furthermore, the discussion is particularly concerned with musical participation that is collective and occurs relationally, with and through music.
A review of the literature
Forced migration and Irish schools
Schools and educational infrastructures are often ill-prepared for newly-arrived migrants, reacting often only to ‘crisis’ situations (Crul et al., Reference CRUL, LELIE, BINER, BUNAR, KESKINER, KOKKALI, SCHNEIDER and SHUAYB2019). Due to this, migrant children and young people are typically viewed as a ‘problem’ within the new schools they find themselves within. We note here that ‘crisis’ discourses resonate with those assumed to describe immigration, reinforcing logics of legitimate spatial (non-)belonging (Khosravi, Reference KHOSRAVI2010; Favell, Reference FAVELL2014). Scholars have critically engaged with these logics, foregrounding their exclusionary nature (Nyers, Reference NYERS2006), the association of legitimate spatial belonging with certain privileges (e.g., social welfare) (Favell, Reference FAVELL2014), as well as other factors usually associated with social inequalities (e.g., gender, race, class, etc.) (Yuval-Davis, Reference YUVAL-DAVIS2011; Balibar, Reference BALIBAR2015). Focusing on school settings, if entering a country through a refugee or asylum-seeking route, the problems are further exacerbated due to bureaucratic decisions and temporary accommodation set-ups requiring a change of location often (and therefore, a change of school). Recent scholarship
has revealed both explicit and subtle barriers within schools that forced migrant children encounter, such as how they are racialised, ‘othered’, segregated and/or discriminated against (Scourfield et al., Reference SCOURFIELD, EVANS, SHAH and BEYNON2005; Arar et al., Reference ARAR, BROOKS and BOGOTCH2019). This is not just amongst their peers, but teachers too have been found to view migrant children in deficit ways and to further reproduce stereotypes (Kitching, Reference KITCHING2014; Lewis & Diamond, Reference LEWIS and DIAMOND2015; Chapman & Bhopal, Reference CHAPMAN and BHOPAL2019; Kenny, Reference KENNY2022b).
Within Ireland, immigrant children (including children of International Protection applicants), refugees and unaccompanied minors have free access to pre-school, primary and secondary education. This is the same as it is for Irish nationals until they are 18 years of age. The most recent Irish census indicated that 18–19% of children of school-going age identify as being from a non-Irish background (CSO, 2024). The most current statistics, however, reveal an almost 20% increase in child applicants for International Protection, representing a ten-year high (Eurostat, 2025). Within these figures, Ireland had one of the highest percentages of Ukrainian children enrolled in schools across the European Union (EC, 2024).
A systems-wide response is repeatedly advocated for to cater to the diverse needs of migrants entering new schools. Focussing on Ireland, a recent study found that schools act as a key site of integration and support for these children and that ‘schools need to actively support children’s opportunities to develop peer relations to combat social exclusion and isolation and to support teachers’ acquisition of intercultural competencies’ (Martin et al., Reference MARTIN, HORGAN, O’RIORDAN and MAIER2023, p. 3229). This research reported that schools need welcome programmes that are robust and flexible, as well as supportive teachers and positive peer relations to enhance feelings of belonging. In another Irish-based study, Sprong & Skopek (Reference SPRONG and SKOPEK2022) examined the achievement gap in education between migrant and non-migrant students using a nationally representative sample of young children. They found less of a gap when non-verbal skills are being utilised, as a focus on language can result in an overt separation between two groups of children in schools – the migrants and the non-migrants. Making music within such diverse classrooms, then is one approach to such complexities in order to facilitate agency, foster inclusion and a sense of belonging in school.
Musical responses and responsiveness
Scholars have called for culturally responsive pedagogies to be engaged with, particularly when dealing with significant levels of diversity in schools, where teachers design classes to respond to their learners’ needs and the context they work within (Ladson-Billings, Reference LADSON-BILLINGS1995, Reference LADSON-BILLINGS2014; Gay, Reference GAY2010). Aislinn O’Donnell et al. suggests:
Schools might use the quasi-public nature of education to offer interstices, or spaces, between the world of the home (or the temporary shelter) and the school. This can happen through different kinds of exchange and sharing, activating the spaces within school walls in order to open up different kinds of conversations (Reference O’DONNELL, BERGDAHL, KIERAN, CHEROUVIS and LANGMANN2019, p. 14).
Such an approach holds strong connections to the work of bell hooks on ‘engaged pedagogy’, where she views the classroom ‘always as a communal space’ (Hooks, Reference HOOKS1994, p. 8). She continues, ‘To hear each other (the sound of different voices), to listen to one another, is an exercise in recognition. It also ensures that no student remains invisible in the classroom’ (Hooks, Reference HOOKS1994, p. 41).
Turning to the field of music education, Westerlund & Karlsen (Reference WESTERLUND and KARLSEN2017) fit well with the concepts discussed here, where they propose that diversity requires cross-cultural dialogue, intermingling and interaction, rather than a focus on narrow cultural categorisations. This reflects an overarching intercultural standpoint where music education, too, has mirrored such a paradigm shift. Increasingly, researchers are stressing the need for stimulation and facilitation in classrooms to avoid transferring the cultural (and artistic) values of the majority society (Hess, Reference HESS2013; Kallio & Westerlund, Reference KALLIO, WESTERLUND, Westerlund, Karlsen and Partti2020, Rinde & Kenny, Reference RINDE and KENNY2021; Kenny, Reference KENNY2022a). In particular, the role of socio-musical spaces in classrooms gains new importance as schools become increasingly more diverse (Rinde & Kenny, Reference RINDE and KENNY2021; Rinde, Reference RINDE2023).
Socio-musical spaces and group music-making have been well-researched as providing a means to build ‘communities of musical practice’ (Kenny, Reference KENNY2016), musical agency (Karlsen, Reference KARLSEN2013), a sense of belonging (Phelan, Reference PHELAN2017) and collective identity (Bowman, Reference BOWMAN2007). In a study with newly-arrived migrant girls in Australia, Kathy Marsh found that a music and dance school programme created a crucial space for social inclusion and communication as well as a means to fuse cultural traditions and cross linguistic backgrounds (Reference MARSH2012). In a Norwegian study with newly-arrived migrant children, it was found that an intercultural music education needed to go beyond content, in particular highlighting the key role of relational group music activities (Rinde & Kenny, Reference RINDE and KENNY2021). Reference CRAWFORDCrawford (2020), too, has found that creative and collaborative music activities reaped the greatest benefit for social inclusion in intercultural schools. She argues (Reference CRAWFORD2020, p. 549):
The opportunity to engage in activities that are not English-language dependent offers a chance for expressing competencies through a different medium, while still developing communication and literacy skills. This is critically important for young people with a refugee background who are navigating their way through a new social and cultural environment.
In the first study in Ireland to explore Ukrainian children’s experience of music at school, Kenny & Lukianchenko (Reference KENNY and LUKIANCHENKO2025) found that targeted participatory music activities within the group allowed the children to communicate, bond and find a place ‘to be’ – being most effective through improvisation and collective composition. They explain (Kenny & Lukianchenko, Reference KENNY and LUKIANCHENKO2025, p. 61):
Creating socio-musical spaces in school through highly participatory music-making activities… appeared to provide a temporary place for these children to be in their new cultural and social context, as well as mitigating feelings of homesickness and sadness.
Methodology
The research takes an ethnographic multiple case study approach to illuminate existing structures, practices and problems, but also to encourage critical reflection. The findings discussed in this article form part of a larger four-year Irish research project titled ‘Music in the Intercultural School: Uncovering Spaces for Agency and Belonging’ (MUSPACE – see https://muspace.hypotheses.org). The two primary schools discussed in this study were selected for being significantly diverse in the cities of Dublin and Limerick, with a high percentage of children from an asylum-seeking or refugee background. They are publicly-funded primary schools. The school in Limerick city is a Catholic schoolFootnote 1 founded in 1963 with an enrolment of 418 children, with the second school located in Dublin suburbia, which is classified as a community national school.Footnote 2 The Dublin school was founded in 2012 and has an enrolment of 447 children. Both schools are co-educational, have classes from junior infants (average age is 5 years old) to sixth class (average age is 12 years old) and are ethnically very diverse. There are over 50 countries represented in the Dublin school and over 46 countries represented in the Limerick school.
For the purposes of this article, the relevant qualitative data extracted includes observations from research carried out with two primary schools over nine months, which involved observing music classes and extra-curricular music activities between October 2023 and June 2024. 30 class observations took place in total in four classrooms for in-depth study and included a senior infant class (aged 5–6 years), two fifth classes (aged 10–11 years) and one sixth class (aged 12–13 years). 24 semi-structured focus group interviews with children from across the two schools took place. These occurred three times over the course of the fieldwork period and involved 96 children in total. Each focus group included children of mixed ethnic and migration backgrounds, was gender-balanced and audio-recorded.
The data underwent a thematic analysis using the software NVivo. The two authors of this paper both coded all data from the two schools, running two rounds of coding for each. The first round of coding was completed ‘blind’ (both researchers could not view each other’s coding), with the second round completed by the two researchers together, which merged themes due to the relevance of the code material and respective description (e.g., overlapping categories) and/or the number of references (e.g., codes initially seen as necessary but did not end up with many references). For the purposes of this article, we drew data from codes/themes that explicitly dealt with participation (such as in-group, belonging, togetherness) and nonparticipation (such as out-group, collective, religion). All data have been anonymised. Institutional ethical approval was granted, with information sheets provided for the participating schools and parents. Consent and assent forms were provided to the parents, children and teachers in the participating classes. The possibility to translate any document for the parents and children was extended to all schools.
Discussion of findings
The spaces where musical participation occurred across the two schools were varied and multiple. There were, of course, the music classes as timetabled and part of the overarching primary curriculum. These classes were delivered by the generalist primary teachers in all four classes explored. However, there was also much musical activity outside of this formal curriculum time. For instance, in the Dublin school, there was a school choir and a Peace PromsFootnote 3 choir led by the primary teachers in the school during lunchtimes and after school, as well as instrumental lessons delivered by Music GenerationFootnote 4 tutors. Within the Limerick school, there was a yearly school musical for the senior classes directed by the primary teachers themselves, with rehearsals also during lunchtimes and after school, as well as some music classes and projects delivered by outside partner organisations, including Music Generation and surrounding third-level institutions. Musical ‘events’ in each school were typically organised around seasonal or religious times of celebration. For instance, in the Limerick Catholic school, there were Christmas song videos made for sharing with parents, while the Dublin Community school put together a live winter performance of secular songs and dances. In the following discussion, the data are grouped into two major themes of participation and nonparticipation. These are not presented as two binary themes but rather as means to focus the discussion while simultaneously acknowledging the interrelated and overlapping nature of participation/nonparticipation.
Participation
All musical activities offered a means for children to participate, though in differing ways. The choral activities in the Dublin school were open to all children from 3rd – 6th class with no audition process. In Limerick, the school musical required auditions for particular roles. When questioned about participation, the teacher/musical director explained:
We keep repeating to the children not to get their hopes up and there are plenty of other parts to be done besides the main roles, but even still, children end up disappointed. And as the show goes on, children who did not get main parts, we look to see can we give them some extra things to do, like a line or two or something like that. That always helps, just that they have something apart from being in the chorus.
During one of the focus group interviews, one girl in sixth class who did not get a part shared:
Ailbhe: Charlotte, you’re not involved this year?
Charlotte: I dunno, you know, they told us that our class will have an advantage. But then other people ended up getting, like, parts, even, like, people from fourth class.
Ailbhe: So it was a competition. Are you disappointed?
Charlotte: No, I’m not disappointed. Like, I probably still will go and dance and stuff.
Charlotte’s response here complements the teacher’s account discussed previously, confirming that what matters is participation in the collective work, to be part of the musical, no matter what mode of participation (whether singing, dancing or other). Charlotte’s account further reinforces the teachers’ responsibility to balance individual students’ interests and desires with choosing forms of participation appropriate to the students’ competence.
Anne, also involved in the chorus, spoke of both the comfort and enjoyment of being part of the collective and not actually wanting to play a major character role. She shares:
Anne: With the musical…there’s lots of other people singing with me.
Ailbhe: Do you like the school musical?
Anne: It’s really fun. You’re learning new songs and you get to do songs from shows that are your favourite Disney movies.
Ailbhe: Yeah
Anne: We did The Lion King. Now we’re doing Aladdin this year.
Anne’s responses foreground the importance of choosing repertoire that resonate with children’s’ preferences. Learning becomes ‘fun’ as the activity revolves around themes and aesthetic references that are familiar and relevant to child experiences. Of course, this statement further shows the weight of entertainment corporations in shaping such aesthetic experiences.
The responses from the two girls demonstrate the value the children placed on being a part of the school musical chorus, which boasted a total of 51 children involved, all from ethnically diverse backgrounds, with rehearsals outside of school hours. The importance of extra-curricular activities for children from diverse backgrounds has been highlighted in previous Irish school research (Darmody & Smyth, Reference DARMODY and SMYTH2017; Martin et al., Reference MARTIN, HORGAN, O’RIORDAN and MAIER2023), where it has been suggested that both sport and cultural activities are a vital part of children’s social worlds and encourage high levels of peer-to-peer contact. The two students’ accounts, Charlotte’s and Anne’s, further illustrate modes through which their participation in the ‘community of musical practice’ (Kenny, Reference KENNY2016), as outlined in the context of these music rehearsals is fostered, regarding the pillars of ‘joint enterprise’ (musical theatre production) and ‘shared repertoire’ (music learning informed by their aesthetic (p)references).
With the Peace Proms, we saw similar levels of commitment and enjoyment from the teachers and children to the school musical, with again, rehearsals taking place outside of formal curriculum time. All the children interviewed commented on the twice-a-week commitment, how they liked the repertoire, enjoyed rehearsing with a mix of classes beyond their own cohort, as well as experiencing leadership from a teacher outside of their normal class. Some of the comments included:
It makes me feel like a part of something. Included and joyful (Jason).
It’s exciting and happy because singing is a way more fun than being in lessons. And you get to see your friends and other teachers that you don’t have (Juliette).
It was really fun because we practised, like loads of songs, and they were like, nice songs (Sylvie).
The children’s reflections foreground the importance of preparing a performance to be staged in front of an audience, and the high value that ‘being part of it’ entails. They suggest a contrast in the pleasurable experience of music rehearsals (‘more fun than being in the lessons’) compared to the formal music curriculum. The pleasurable character of this activity intertwines with fulfilling their social lives, alongside active engagement (rather than merely ‘being in the lessons’). The children indicate the ameliorating effect that learning repertoire of interest can have on maintaining their interest in the process, and by extension their ‘mutual engagement’ (to draw again on the processes that bring to life a community of musical practice).
The fact that both extracurricular musical activities, the Peace Proms and school musical, resulted in staged performances was a major motivation for the children’s involvement and significantly impacted their enjoyment of their participation. Sylvie, commenting on the performance at a large venue for the Peace Proms, explained, ‘then you’d go there and sing with loads of different schools…It was really fun. It made me feel nice because it was like, a happy place’. Sylvie here shows the amplified effect that participating in an event of such scale has. This goes beyond the musical project per se, and intertwines with the social experience of different schools coming together. Sylvie’s reflection projects the positive emotions that the musical and social experience of this endeavour involves, where the venue and musicking become a ‘happy place’.
Arslan, in an interview, pointed to the feeling of togetherness created at the performance, ‘I like singing in Peace Proms because it’s nice to hear everybody’s voices singing together and, like, harmonising. I feel happy to know that other people might like the same songs I do’. Arslan here highlights the social dimensions of coming together that choral singing involves in the collective ‘harmonising sound’ that it produces. The diverse social trajectories embodied in each participant’s voice resonate in the space ‘harmonising’, as Arslan argues, suggesting the prioritisation of this shared musical experience over other (non-)musical, personal ones. Participating in this fulfilling musical experience, Arslan expands his socio-musical worlds beyond his own school community of musical practice.
The children’s sense of belonging to a particular collective, class and school through music was also highlighted when discussing the sounds of their classroom and school. At the interview, this sometimes manifested as being vocal sounds such as laughing or chatter, but also was classified in terms of certain songs. The interview excerpt below illuminates further:
Ailbhe: Is there a certain sound or piece of music that you feel sounds like your class or school?
Rumailah: Being with your friends.
Charlotte: Laughing.
Ailbhe: You think laughing?
Senzo: In our class, we have funny laughs.
Ailbhe: Go on…
Rumailah: Well, if someone makes you laugh, I feel very included. I feel like I belong there.
Ailbhe: Cool. Is there a piece of music that helps you to feel like you belong?
Rumailah: We always listen to Viva La Vida during class. So that kind of reminds me of class.
Ailbhe: So you like listening together to that song?
Rumailah: Yeah.
Ailbhe: What kind of feeling do you get when you listen to that together as a class?
Rumailah: Like we’re a class…As in we’re together.
Azzam: We are singing together.
Rumailah: Yeah.
Senzo: We sing together.
Charlotte: As in teamwork.
It is clear in this interview that both the laughing and the song Viva la Vida discussed conjure up feelings of togetherness, enjoyment and belonging for the 6th class children. In particular, in identifying a class song, they indicate a shared moment of musical participation, or group musicking (Small, Reference SMALL1998), in their singing together. Interestingly, the senior infant class spoke of their collective enjoyment of music and dancing, as well as shared action songs and shared musical games when questioned about a ‘school sound’. This indicated an embodied form of musical participation for this age-group that was associated with valued relationships, collective activity and enjoyment, reminiscent of the work from Kathy Marsh with refugee children in Australia (Marsh, Reference MARSH2012). This also resonated with Martin et al.’s study in an Irish school, where they argue that ‘A key finding from this research linked to the development of friendships was that younger children in this study identified opportunities for play and fun as important for both their sense of belonging in school and to support their friendships and socialisation opportunities’ (Reference MARTIN, HORGAN, O’RIORDAN and MAIER2023, p. 3225). Amongst the 5th class in the Dublin school, they made specific comments about the benefit of a shared school song that everyone knows. For them, a designated ‘school song’ fostered participatory singing, or what Helen Phelan might describe as ‘sung belonging’ (Phelan, Reference PHELAN2017), ‘At assembly, everyone’s singing it…the whole school knows it’ (Syshi).
Nonparticipation
It was a mid-December morning rehearsal at the Limerick school, in preparation for the Christmas students’ performance. Large paper snowflakes, lights, a Christmas tree, red and green balloons set a Christmasy tone. Children had helped decorating the room. Some children wore festive jumpers, other children wore headscarves. As they were waiting to get bells to accompany their performance, they started practicing the song ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ with their regular teacher strumming the chords on his guitar.
‘Does anyone need to sit out of this?’, asked the teacher, looking around. Nobody moved. ‘I’m leaving it up to you to decide, you are old enough’, he added. Azzam, a 12-year-old boy from Pakistan, stood up and carried his chair over to the other side of the room. He sat separately from the group, yet he remained in the same space. He did not sing or join in. Yet, he watched, seemingly interested in what was happening. By the third time the students practiced the song, Azzam joined them, singing and moving along (fieldnotes).
Counterpointing the discussion illustrating modes of participation previously, this section discusses modes of nonparticipation. In this opening fieldnote extract, we see a diverse group of 6th class children preparing for their Christmas performance. In the focus group discussions, this video-recorded performance was chosen among cherished moments by the children. Its value intertwined the collective class preparation with the presentation of their work to their parents. The religious expressions cannot be disregarded, however, more or less visible in the materialities of Christmas decorations and clothing (jumpers/headscarves) and audible in the songs. While one could argue the prevalence of the seasonal element of Christmas (snowflakes, decorated tree, etc.) rather than explicitly Christian symbols, the religious associations remain solid, at least in the western part of the world, and this was amplified by the songs’ lyrics that set the tone for the celebration. Yet, this did not seem to hamper the participation of students, who appeared to comply with Muslim attire practices in the videos (headscarves). The teacher appears to be conscious of children’s possible discomfort, further indicating the Christian character of the event, suggesting that they are welcome to opt out. He appears to accommodate differences. Azzam personifies the actual feasibility of this optional (non)participation. He can remove himself from the group, yet stay within the room, in close proximity to the others. He can opt out of singing, yet he listens to the songs. He appears engaged, observing the rehearsal, yet not joining in, until later on, demonstrating that he actually knows the songs, and that he wants to be included in the video. Azzam, in other discussions, highlighted the importance of singing along with his friends and his classmates, of participating in collective musicking. Therefore, his initial ambivalent behaviour can be seen as demonstrating his agentive navigations of modes of (non)participation, so that his will to be part of the collective musicking balances with his will to moderate his participation within the specific (Christmas) context.
The teacher explained, when asked later, that ‘There is usually a problem with the more devout at Christmas. Regarding the school musical we wouldn’t know if there is a problem because it is after school, [therefore] those children would just not come’. The teacher’s statement further elaborated his personal and institutional awareness of the antagonism between religious and cultural backgrounds and (non)participation in musicking. His accommodating stance to children illustrated his professional (and institutional) approach to the matter, by allowing children ‘to choose’. The teacher thus facilitated student’s (non)participation. This paradigm conforms to the spatial limitations of the class/school that force exposure and proximity despite individual or family preferences, palpably illustrating the entanglements between religion and music education, and the respective tensions underpinning individual and collective identities as imagined and enacted in the intercultural school setting (see also Kallio et al., Reference KALLIO, WESTERLUND, ALPERSON, Kallio, Alperson and Westerlund2019).
Azzam’s ambivalence contrasts with other students’ stances, who consistently abstained from participating in the music class. These children, while remaining in class throughout music lessons, engaged with other activities, such as reading, drawing and sitting at the computers in the back of the classroom and so on. These children did not participate in school concerts or assemblies either. While they were a minority, they demonstrated an example of stark nonparticipation, chosen by themselves and/or their families for religious reasons. This choice was accepted by teachers, yet students’ in-class presence was mandatory, which raises questions regarding the feasibility and/or genuine eagerness to accommodate essentially these childrens’ nonparticipation. To complicate matters further, students who abstained from music lessons and performances appeared to know all the lyrics, were often observed singing to themselves while doing another activity or at times joined the group and actively engaged in music making and singing in class.
Children’s nonparticipation was quite often reinforced by the class teachers. That was usually the case for students from a migrant background, or children with special needs, or both. Often, they were taken out of music lessons to attend language support or learning support. Although this practice is providing for children’s particular needs, it also displays a hierarchical valuation of school subjects. While the time limitations set by school curricula and resources are not underestimated, equally, we should not ignore the assumptions expressed regarding music’s value in school. Such assumptions, after all, serve as barriers, discouraging access to music learning (Simones Reference SIMONES2022, p. 90) as our research findings attest.
In what follows, we focus on the modes of nonparticipation as entangled with musical practice. These fieldnotes are taken from a music class in Dublin with a Music Generation ukulele tutor:
Students seemed to have forgotten the song and chords, being their first class after a two-week break. The facilitator went around the room to remind them of the chords, so that the practice of the song could go ahead and get to the ‘games’ part of the lesson that aimed to engage students in a more playful manner. They practiced the song using call and response, students practicing their part and then listening to their peers playing their own. Then, they practiced it altogether. Upon the facilitator’s encouragement to play solo if they wanted to, one of them did, counting the tempo in Irish, again upon the facilitator’s encouragement to count in a different (other than English) language…their regular teacher was called out of class…children were not comfortable with the speed struggling to keep up…The facilitator points out that they need to improve their listening skills, so that ‘everyone looks alive next week’. They finished the class by playing the ‘Doggy Song’, which they already knew, and they seemed to enjoy (fieldnotes).
Here, we see that practicing together and learning in a group did not erase the room for individual expression and practising of skills. The facilitator held a key role in facilitating these modes of participation. The fieldnotes also illustrate nonparticipation as a process happening gradually. Although the children are physically present and engage with the activities, their difficulty to keep up with the instrumental skill requirements hampers their capacity to engage musically and socially, as well as preventing ‘flow’ (Csikszentmihalyi, Reference CSIKSZENTMIHALYI1990). The children get distracted, their attention wanes and class discipline struggles once their regular teacher leaves, a reaction indicative of teacher-child-facilitator interrelationships. The facilitator highlights the need to ‘listen better’ as a remedy for participation. Nonparticipation is ultimately resolved by practicing a familiar piece in which they all can participate.
‘Listening’ is also required by teachers. As the following fieldnotes from the senior infants’ class in Limerick reveal, listening was a means to attune to children’s needs and effectively facilitate learning experiences (see also Kyratsou, Reference KYRATSOU2023). Where this was lacking, nonparticipation ensued:
Children were shuffling in their chairs, as their teacher was connecting her laptop to the interactive white board (IWB). Once connected, every activity involved watching videos of songs. Children along with their teacher followed what they saw. Children sang along to songs that they already knew, such as ‘Che Che Kule’ (from Ghana) or ‘Jingle Bell Rock’. One child (with a Special Needs Assistant (SNA) by his side) sat with his hands over his ears during ‘Che Che Kule’, explicitly expressing his dislike of this song. ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ turned out to challenge the children, who struggled to sing at the same pitch, and started singing at random pitches. The teacher handed out some untuned percussion instruments. Four boys started to fight over a tambourine, causing the SNA’s intervention. Gradually the children lost interest and started walking away from their seats and tables…Others put the tambourines on the table…the teacher exclaims, ‘No tambourines on the table, that’s not the right sound we want!’ (fieldnotes).
From this extract, we see a child covering his ears, disconnecting him from his surroundings, separating himself from the group and their musicking. The children’s musical engagement was hampered by the teacher’s persistence to ‘listen to’ the videos and the overuse of the IWB. The dissonance occurring from singing in ‘random pitches’ echoed the mismatch between what children were asked to do and what they could do. Their struggle to sing along to a video is intertwined with their musical nonparticipation. We also see the escalation of musical nonparticipation, not unlike the previous fieldnotes discussed. Instead of listening to their peers or waiting their turn, a fight breaks out, triggered by the inadequate facilitation of children’s musical and social participation. Their musical nonparticipation was expressed physically and socially by removing themselves from the musicking.
In the following interview, musical repertoire also emerges as facilitating nonparticipation:
Ailbhe: What songs make you feel like you are part of a group? Or make you happy to play or sing?
Andrzej: I don’t have one, but if I would have to pick, then I would just pick a song that everybody likes from the group, maybe.
Ailbhe: Is there any singing or playing of music that makes you not feel part of the group?
Ali: Romantic.
Ailbhe: Okay. And why don’t you like those ones? Why does that not make you feel part of the group?
Ali: It’s not my type.
Ailbhe: It’s just not your-
Andrzej: Yeah, similar.
Abeer: It’s cheesy.
Andrzej: Yeah.
This excerpt outlines the dynamics of nonparticipation as traced in the fine balance between the aesthetic preferences of the individual and the group. In the previous section, collective singing was seen as intrinsically participatory and fostering a sense of belonging; students here foreground the aesthetic mediations of such senses and relationships. Andrzej’s initial argument that choosing the group’s preferred song should suffice so that he feels part of the group, contrasts the unanimous responses, endorsed by Andrzej too, that ‘romantic’ songs would make them feel non-part of the group, as such, these songs were seen as ‘cheesy’. The children set aesthetic limitations of participation here – it is not enough to sing along to the group’s preferred song, but that song also needs to reflect their musical preferences.
Conclusion
This research addresses a call to ‘wholeheartedly seize the hidden potential of diversity and education… to systematically take stock of existing participation, provision, processes and resource levels, and consider new ways of responding to diversity in culturally relevant and meaningful ways’ (Deegan, Reference DEEGAN2003, p. 64). It is clear from the findings that musical participation in school is important, that it occurs in multiple ways, and levels of (non)participation vary. Within the schools examined, the children appeared to gain more pleasure, fun and pride in extra-curricular musical activities such as choirs and school musicals than through in-class music lessons that follow the formal curriculum. What is important to note in this regard is that access to extra-curricular musical activity in these schools was free, occurred on-site and with the mainstream teachers (for the most part). These factors all ensured high levels of participation amongst significantly diverse child cohorts, which can be typically limited for children from migrant backgrounds (Darmody et al., Reference DARMODY, MCGINNITY and RUSSELL2022). Such a finding warrants attention in the drawing up of policies and curricula that aspire to inclusive practices in schools.
Access to music-making is, of course, only half the story. The findings from this research also indicate that music activities, which privileged relational and collaborative dimensions, facilitated meaningful peer-to-peer interaction at school. Martin et al. have previously stated, ‘Schools can play an important role in supporting the development of children’s friendships and providing opportunities and spaces for positive socialisation with peers’ (Martin et al. Reference MARTIN, HORGAN, O’RIORDAN and MAIER2023, p. 3226). Within intercultural schools, providing socio-musical spaces that facilitate dialogical and group musicking approaches, then, are all important, particularly where ethnic, cultural and religious differences exist. Hence, resources are required to encourage long-term initiatives that promote musical participation and collaborations in-school and across schools. Teachers and schools need to provide multiple opportunities for social interaction within such music initiatives to build a sense of community. This builds on previous research that espouses an intercultural approach to music education where socio-musical interactions and creative collaboration reveal the greatest gains for inclusion in diverse schools, particularly for those children who are newly-arrived (Marsh, Reference MARSH2012; Marsh & Diekman, Reference MARSH and DIECKMANN2017; Crawford, Reference CRAWFORD2020; Rinde & Kenny, Reference RINDE and KENNY2021; de Quadros & Kenny, Reference DE QUADROS, KENNY, Aróstegui, Christophersen, Nichols and Matsunobu2024; Kenny & Lukianchenko, Reference KENNY and LUKIANCHENKO2025).
The role of the teacher (and visiting music facilitator) also emerged as significant in the research findings. Where participation levels were high, the teachers were observed stimulating and facilitating collaborative, creative, agentic and active music making. Essentially, what Turino would refer to as ‘participatory musicking’ (Reference TURINO2008). Where nonparticipation was observed, it was usually due to lack of relevant or interesting repertoire, overuse of internet-sourced music videos and/or sole use of teacher-led tasks. Relating specifically to diversity in schools, we, as researchers, continually experienced the ‘discomfort’ of teachers (Britzman, Reference BRITZMAN1998) trying to navigate inclusion and choice within a designated Catholic school that holds a minority school population of Catholics. While the teachers outwardly demonstrated freedom of choice for children to opt out of religious musical activity, the school structures and systems do not facilitate this in any meaningful way, leaving much for the children themselves to navigate. Interestingly, in the Community primary school, which is designated as ‘multi-denominational’, it was also found that these teachers too struggled to negotiate the boundaries and school systems to accommodate those opting out of musical participation. Therefore, the problems of transferring majority culture norms, cultures and traditions remain until appropriate resources, professional development and leadership are put in place. This is a task ultimately about ‘learning to live with others’ (Britzman, Reference BRITZMAN2007, p. 3). Singing and making music in schools are one means to address such a worthy task.
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Funding
This research was funded through a Research Ireland Laureate Award 2022–26.
Ailbhe Kenny is an Associate Professor of Music Education at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick, Ireland. She is the author of Music Refuge: Living Asylum Through Music (2025) Communities of Musical Practice (2016), and co-editor of Sonic Signatures: Music, Migration and the City at Night (2023) and Musician-Teacher Collaborations: Altering the Chord (2018). She is a Fulbright Scholar, EURIAS fellow and Research Ireland Laureate. Ailbhe is the Chair of the International Society for the Sociology of Music Education (ISSME).
Chrysi Kyratsou is an Anthropologist with expertise in migration, (socio-)cultural encounters, inclusion, and (non-)belonging. Her background is in Music Education and Musicology, while she has served as a mentor to professional music educators pursuing the Certificate for Music Educators (validated by ABRSM and Trinity College London). Currently, she employs her academic expertise and research experience, serving as a Postdoctoral Researcher Fellow at the Research Ireland funded MUSPACE project at Mary Immaculate College, Ireland.
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