The musical interactions at the Nursery: contents and pedagogical strategies

Background: My Phd concerns the comparative study of musical interactions at the nursery in France and Italy through a multidisciplinary approach based on the following disciplines: the « musicality of the behaviour», a new stream of studies developed in the field of « psychology of music » (Imberty 2000); the study of «social representation of music knowledge» (Addessi 2007); the «intercultural pedagogy» studies (Genovese 2003); the «competent institution - teaching and context» as relevant aspects of « general didactic » (Manini 2001). Aims: Identify and describe the use of the voice together with other musical behaviour aspects in relation with possible interactions between adults and children. Analyse in which way these interactions are connected to education practices, institutional context, music knowledge, personal musical backgrounds and intercultural exchanges between children, parents and nursery staff. The research is aimed also to indentify contents and strategies which promote musicality in an important educative context as the nursery. Methodology: The survey is based on a dual research approach, experimental and partecipant-research, whose samples are as follows: 8 nurseries of wich 4 identified as control groups and 4 as experimental groups (in that case the staff and families are involved actively by the research). 4 nurseries are situated in France and 4 in Italy. All in multicultural neighbourhoods. The following tools are used for investigation: descriptive observations in situation, check-list to detect the categories of "musical behaviour" of children and adults, interviews, focus group, and a submission of an open questionnaire to parents and nursery staff. Results: The analysis of data show interesting correlations between musicality, musical interactions, music education and social representation of music knowledge at one side, and at the other side the "musical history" of each person, cultural belonging, professional roles, music training, professional training, nursery organisation, educative styles, social-cultural context. Conclusion: The investigation puts in evidence that musical interactions and musical behaviour are not only identified during the specific music activities, but they appear even more intense in moments dedicated to the care and during free activities in which it was possible to observe also intercultural musical interactions.