COLLABORATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE ‘MUSICALITY’ IN AN EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION, THROUGH THE PROCESS OF COMMUNITY-BASED PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH

Conneth Poland
Mr., Queens University Belfast, NORTHERN IRELAND, cpoland04@qub.ac.uk

Abstract

Many studies exist within the literature that examines music education programmes and their described benefits for participants. But few seek to measure musical learning of young children from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Additionally, operationalisation of a musical outcome that is co-designed through collaboration with relevant stakeholders is uncommon. The current study is a design and implementation of a music programme within post-conflict Northern Ireland. Measurement of a musical outcome, one of three, is an essential metric to determine and guide the advancement of this pilot education programme. This paper describes such a process and development of an instrument, in which the base concepts of musical understanding are agreed, defined and then measured; rubric, instrument and procedure are created through collaborative design. The participants within this study are year one primary pupils in two socio-economically disadvantaged communities in Northern Ireland. The Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation (CESI) at Queens University Belfast, the Ulster Orchestra, four primary schools and two community leadership groups are involved in community-based participatory research (CBPR), in collaborating to create the ‘Crescendo’ curriculum, based on the El Sistema programme made famous in Venezuela. Two schools from each of the traditionally separate cultural and religious communities participated in the pilot year from January to June 2018, in a cross-community collaboration. The CBPR process has been guided by an evolving logic model focusing the development, to effect change in three mutually agreed outcomes: (1) Musicality (music appreciation), (2) Self-regulation (social and emotional learning; SEL) and (3) Community (parental engagement & changing parental perceptions of community). The logic model is key to driving the CBPR and the implementation of the emerging programme. This paper will focus on the co-development of an instrument for measuring 'musicality' administered pre and post-test, that emerged from the CBPR process, combined with purposeful integration of the Northern Ireland curricular requirements for foundational music. Discussion will also examine existing measures, their inappropriateness and a rationale for the inception of this bespoke instrument with continuing evolution informed by continued CBPR, with statistical testing for validation at a later stage. Discussion will explore the CBPR process in this instance and progression towards definition of the agreed outcome, the constituent key musical skills, the assessment procedure and the difficulties arising from the assessment.

Keywords: community-based participatory research, collaboration, implementation, measurement, musicality.