Listening to children's music perspectives: in- and out-of-school thoughts

Findings are presented from a three-month, two-phase study inquiring into the music experiences of 20 Grade 2/3 children (seven to eight year olds), both in- and out-of-school. The article highlights the music experiences of three children who were drawn from the group of 20. Situated within the theoretical underpinnings of social constructionism, experience and attentive listening, a framework of ethnography and narrative inquiry was utilized to create and interpret fictionalized narratives crafted in the form of ongoing dialogues between the researcher and participants. The children's tales offered insightful understandings relating to the influences that shape children's music experiences. Conversations indicated a recognizable lack of interplay of music experiences between in- and out-of-school. These tales reveal possibilities for how music educators may re/conceptualize ways in which children's voices may be centrally embedded within elementary music curricula.