Beowulf opera scenes: classroom music pedagogy and knowledge when composing an opera with primary-school children
Composing with children is a complex area that many generalist primary-school teachers in England report finding challenging or intimidating. This article draws on existing literature relating to composing in schools, child-centred learning, cultural capital, and classroom pedagogy, to situate and d...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publications
2024
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| _version_ | 1811141084473982976 |
|---|---|
| author | Axtell, I Anderson, A Fautley, M MacGregor, E Nenadic, E |
| author_facet | Axtell, I Anderson, A Fautley, M MacGregor, E Nenadic, E |
| author_sort | Axtell, I |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Composing with children is a complex area that many generalist primary-school teachers in
England report finding challenging or intimidating. This article draws on existing literature
relating to composing in schools, child-centred learning, cultural capital, and classroom
pedagogy, to situate and discuss a longitudinal research project exploring composing with
primary-aged children. The article focusses on one of eight schools involved in the project, in
which children worked with a professional composer alongside their regular classroom teacher
to compose operatic scenes to accompany the epic poem, Beowulf. The project utilised a
collaborative action research framework, featuring researcher observations of the six composing
sessions, semi-structured interviews and reflections with the teacher and composer, and a focus
group with the children. The findings highlight seven themes relating to children’s
understandings of the composing process, which are theorised into conceptualisations of
musical knowledge. The article concludes by tracing some of the international implications for
children composing in primary-school contexts. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:32:15Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:a7b8abfb-f280-4609-8ac2-cde399bc8938 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:32:15Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | SAGE Publications |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:a7b8abfb-f280-4609-8ac2-cde399bc89382024-09-03T08:56:44ZBeowulf opera scenes: classroom music pedagogy and knowledge when composing an opera with primary-school childrenJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:a7b8abfb-f280-4609-8ac2-cde399bc8938EnglishSymplectic ElementsSAGE Publications2024Axtell, IAnderson, AFautley, MMacGregor, ENenadic, EComposing with children is a complex area that many generalist primary-school teachers in England report finding challenging or intimidating. This article draws on existing literature relating to composing in schools, child-centred learning, cultural capital, and classroom pedagogy, to situate and discuss a longitudinal research project exploring composing with primary-aged children. The article focusses on one of eight schools involved in the project, in which children worked with a professional composer alongside their regular classroom teacher to compose operatic scenes to accompany the epic poem, Beowulf. The project utilised a collaborative action research framework, featuring researcher observations of the six composing sessions, semi-structured interviews and reflections with the teacher and composer, and a focus group with the children. The findings highlight seven themes relating to children’s understandings of the composing process, which are theorised into conceptualisations of musical knowledge. The article concludes by tracing some of the international implications for children composing in primary-school contexts. |
| spellingShingle | Axtell, I Anderson, A Fautley, M MacGregor, E Nenadic, E Beowulf opera scenes: classroom music pedagogy and knowledge when composing an opera with primary-school children |
| title | Beowulf opera scenes: classroom music pedagogy and knowledge when composing an opera with primary-school children |
| title_full | Beowulf opera scenes: classroom music pedagogy and knowledge when composing an opera with primary-school children |
| title_fullStr | Beowulf opera scenes: classroom music pedagogy and knowledge when composing an opera with primary-school children |
| title_full_unstemmed | Beowulf opera scenes: classroom music pedagogy and knowledge when composing an opera with primary-school children |
| title_short | Beowulf opera scenes: classroom music pedagogy and knowledge when composing an opera with primary-school children |
| title_sort | beowulf opera scenes classroom music pedagogy and knowledge when composing an opera with primary school children |
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