Musical Expressions in Kindergarten: An Inter-Cultural Study?

Abstract

In a study conducted in kindergartens in Israel, three ‘cultures' converge: the kindergarten, the community, and the home. The differences among the two kindergartens in this study do not reside solely in the urban vs. non-urban and Jewish vs. Arab. They also reside in the contexts created by the adults as a result of their beliefs about childhood, music, play, and education, and how these beliefs are expressed in their behaviours. This account draws on a larger ethnographic study conducted in a number of kindergarten settings. The aim of this larger study was to describe and understand the self-initiated musical expressions of children aged four to five years, who bring various cultural identities to the early years setting. The sites under scrutiny in this article were two kindergartens in Israel: a non-urban state-sponsored Jewish kindergarten, and an urban Arab kindergarten in a church-operated school. The evidence showed that the musical expressions of the children in the study shared many characteristics. It also showed that differences reside, not only in the culture of the community they belong to, but also in the culture of the kindergarten. This included the physical environment, the degree of structure in the timetable, and the attitudes and rationale of the staff. This article suggests that each kindergarten develops a particular style of musical play, and that inter-cultural issues can include those that are idiosyncratic to specific peer cultures.