Design

This was a qualitative study (^{Denzin & Lincoln, 2012}) applied to the arts (^{Luque & Cruz, 2016}) that adopted an exploratory-descriptive design through an approach of self-reflective narrative construction (^{Cornejo et al., 2008}; ^{Verd & Lozares, 2016}).

Instruments

Two instruments were used to collect data. The first, autobiographical stories, related to the first research objective, allowed us to inquire into the musical experiences of future teachers. The second, the discussion groups, were related to the second research objective of describing participants' opinions on the meanings ascribed to music.

Participants

A group of 34 students (28 women and 6 men) took part, all of whom were on the Primary Education program at Universidad de Cantabria (Spain) and were aged between 18 and 20 years-old.

Procedure

The exploratory study took place over 8 weeks, during normal class time. The study was split into two stages (Figure 1). In the first stage, students were asked to write stories narrating meaningful personal experiences where music played an important role. They were asked to use as much detail as possible in the descriptions. The information included in the students' stories was subjected to an inductive content analysis (^{Lorenzo, 2011}; ^{Andréu, 2001}) and then built into an interpretive discourse. Using themed coding (^{Angrosino, 2012}), we prioritized discourse elements that would allow for the extraction of common ideas or recurrent narratives from the different students’ stories. The same topic comprised groups of sentences with common elements. Each category contained several topics and served as a large conceptual group.

In the second stage, the results obtained in each category were presented as catalysts, in question form, to start group conversations lasting 60 minutes. There were three mixed groups in all, two with 12 members and one with 10. The main points of debate centered on: 1) the meaning of music in the students’ prior experiences, 2) its link with their future teaching work, 3) different teaching strategies.

Following ^{Callejo (2001}), the specifics that characterize discussion groups were respected, and participants' contributions were allowed to flow freely to help foster personal interaction. The physical space was set up to maximize visual contact and natural conversation between participants. Before we analyze the data collected, it is worth making a brief note of how it was collected and transcribed. The decision was made to take audio recordings of the conversations, with no video so as to preserve a greater degree of participant anonymity. Transcriptions were taken according to the artisan transcribing method described by ^{Farías y Montero (2005}), wherein prior to transcription the researchers familiarize themselves with the data and take stock of how its levels of complexity and nuance may be affected when moving to written format. The information gathered was then analyzed in a similar way to the information from stage 1.

Source: Created by the research group.

FIGURE 1 STAGES OF THE STUDY 

Results of story analysis

When recounting their experiences, the students for the most part associated music with moods like relaxed (13.2%), happy or carefree (10.5%), and enjoyment (7.9%), and to a lesser extent with safety, euphoria, surprise, and wellbeing. Similarly, emotions such as happiness, sadness, energy and joy, enthusiasm, and reminiscence were present in the stories (5.3%).

Participants related music with activities such as listening (30%), dancing (18.3%), singing and playing instruments (16.7%), rhythmic development and creation (5%), as well as body movements, exploration, and imagination.

The students identified a variety of styles of music in their significant experiences, among which classical (11.5%) was most prevalent, followed by rock, pop, traditional, musicals, and soundtracks (7.7%). Other genres named included electro-Latino, reggaeton, bachata, rap, and trap.

Following the textual analysis of the stories, other topics regarding the contexts in which these experiences took place emerged: in formal education (38.7%), with family (16.1%), with friends, socially, or through different media (12.9%), and in informal education (6.5%). It seems that in formal education, music was beneficial as a part of the students’ professional development and also culturally enriching (29.4%), but especially as a classroom tool (70.6%) in education for values, interpersonal relationships, teamwork, interdisciplinary learning, or even as a mnemonic resource.

Of the stories analyzed, 54.8% took place between the ages of 6 and 12 years, during primary school. The second most frequent age range, at 32.3%, was from 13 to 17 years, whereas the ranges of 3 to 5 years (9.7%) and over 18 years (3.2%) were less frequently cited.

Group discussion results analysis

Objective 2 was to describe the meanings and links that participants, as future teachers, place on music. The following story touches on the main points debated in the three groups:

The majority of students agreed that music led to personal introspection. For example, Marta said: “Music gets you in touch with yourself and connects you with your interior” and Paula said: “Music helps you escape and helps you relax when you get home. You just forget the stress of the day. This is more positive than negative”. Lydia told the group that silence, as well as music, worked as a tool for introspection: “Silence is interesting for relaxing and meditating... It’s a moment for you to know yourself”.

There was some general agreement regarding the link between music and emotions. Ana stated: “It’s what I look for when I listen to music with a good beat. An adrenaline rush when I need an energy boost, and when I’m sad, something a bit slower”. In Juan’s opinion: “I have felt all kinds of emotions through music”. And Pedro and Álvaro both said that music was good for “identifying and managing emotions, understanding how you work, and why you like a particular genre of music”, “the vehicle for coming to terms with how we feel is dialogue. It helps us understand how we feel in a given moment and recognize the range of emotions that one music genre can produce”.

The participants also placed value on music as a classroom tool. In their opinion, emotional education is a fundamental part of their future work, and to that end music can be “a vehicle, not the only one, but a vital one” (Jesús). Likewise, “the teacher can use music to better understand their students’ personal profiles” (Carla).

It was broadly recognized that this kind of work has to begin with young students, and that these future teachers valued the Primary stage of education as “an important moment for building one’s personality, where the teacher is a meaningful figurehead for the children” (Rebeca). Each group agreed on the importance of encouraging musical activities at this stage of education. María believed that “Primary stage education is a great time for discovering oneself. Music can help us teach kids to be creative and express, through music, any feelings they may have”. Inés shared the same opinion, arguing that “it’s vital to encourage an interest in music in primary school. There isn’t much to teach, but just let the children and discover and explore music” highlighting, like Jesús, the introspective process, as he says, “it’s fundamental to allow children to explore music, and bring out what’s inside of them”.

The memories of several participants regarding their own musical education reveal the absence of a practical approach. Some statements claimed: “we had a classroom full of instruments but almost never played them” (Celia), “the classes were very repetitive and theoretical instead of playing the instruments” (Sole), “everything was so theoretical. We didn’t do activities or dance” (Nuria); and there was even one opinion that, besides the overly theoretical approach, touched on the lack of professional calling on the part of the teachers: “Our music teachers seemed to hate teaching, they wanted to cover only theory and never play instruments” (Ana).

In contrast, the most enjoyable music-related experiences were related to big events or school celebrations. Juan said that “at primary school, our recitals were quite creative, and we were very motivated to get in touch with music”. Sonia pointed out that her “musical experiences weren't in music class, but in extracurricular musical activities” and, likewise, Aitor said that “it was during the celebrations for Christmas and Easter that we all got to play instruments”.

All the participants agreed that age was a factor in determining the type of musical experience, with adolescence emerging as a stage where the influence of friends, perhaps having one’s own phone, or beginning to go out were things that would decide the type of musical experiences lived. Some statements to this effect included: “when you are young, you don’t have your own phone, but from 12 and up you can start to listen to whatever you like” (Javier) “because you listen to what your friends listen to” (Aitor) “you listen to music when you go out to parties” (Elsa).

Students also valued their family contexts as environments where they could begin to listen to music, learn to love it, and cultivate their own musical tastes. Rosa said: “my brother used to listen to what I listened to, but after he was about 8, he began to seek out his own stuff”. Lucía pointed out that in family gatherings “you listen to what your cousins are into, but then you get a feel for your own tastes”. Other students named their parents as musical influences. As Carmen said: “I always listened to music from my parents’ era. Now I go to bars and listen to other stuff”.

As future teachers, the participants energetically debated music’s potential in education, proposing ideas that covered the diversity that exists nowadays in the typical classroom, as well as the active participation of their future students. In this regard, Luisa said “the students can propose what music to use in class, as a means to discovering other musical styles and getting to know other cultures: It’s good because you aren’t always willing to listen to new things on your own. And the more you know, the more you know yourself. It gives you more opportunities”. For Maite: “Now that there is such a diversity of cultures, of other countries, I think it’s good that they bring music from home, so that their classmates can listen to something that they normally might not. From Africa, or traditional music from Spain” and in Gema’s opinion: “Them bringing in music that their families listen to is good, because some students will come from different countries… it's interesting and it helps you understand the environment”.

Some students were interested in using music to collaborate with other teachers (general education teachers and specialists from different subjects): “it’s about getting together, talking, and using your imagination to work together. Coordinating like that with other teachers would help us explore other possibilities” (Berta). Strengthening interdisciplinary work was something that several participants agreed was important, as they pointed out that all content and all subjects can be approached through music (mathematics, languages, science, technology...), to work through emotions and global themes such as education in values and morals. Music could also be used as a mnemonic device. María said: “You can use music to teach other subjects, with a song, for example. That way you learn without even realizing. What’s more, if you like the song, you might even just sing it because you enjoy it, regardless of the lyrics”.

There was a consensus across the three groups regarding the convenience of using a wide variety of musical styles in the Primary classroom, such as pop, rock, reggae, or classical music, among others, with the exception of reggaeton. All the participants considered the use of this genre inappropriate. “Not reggaeton. I think I would even ban it” (Emilia), “the lyrics aren't age appropriate. I don't think you can use it to the benefit of anything” (Fátima). Although there was a person who pointed out that, sometimes, and due to it being a widely popular musical genre among young people, you might be able to change the lyrics to make them more appropriate: “I think you could change the words. What [the students] like is the rhythm” (Claudia).

The students also said that there needed to be more creativity when it came to proposing musical activities in the classroom. Sofía said that “you can use all kinds of objects to make sounds, alongside traditional instruments, even things that the students themselves create, so that they can have fun making music and experimenting with sound”.

Finally, it was pointed out that music is not widely present, currently, in their university education. Miriam asked: “why are all the other subjects covered every year, totaling more than 40 credits each, whereas music only has 6 credits? It should have more space on the curriculum”.