Perversity of enjoyment? Preschool music activities go neoliberal

Abstract

There is a lack of empirical studies that examine the influence of neoliberal ideas in preschool music and teaching. Neoliberal ideas have primarily been studied in a broader educational perspective and related to preschool policy reforms. The aim of this paper is to study preschool teachers’ rhetoric concerning music contents and music activities related to neoliberal ideas. Data consist of group conversations with preschool teachers and of video observations of daily music activities, at one preschool in Sweden. Discursive psychology has been used as a micro-sociological methodological approach. The findings show that music in this preschool is characterized by popular music, and varied consequences for knowledge content and early childhood learning are highlighted and analyzed. Also, it is argued that neoliberal ideas, in varied ways, determine the establishment of music content. For many reasons, rhetoric concerning the choice of musical content is of great importance to the field of preschool education. For example, it is essential to music education research and to preschool teachers’ everyday work, as it can improve teaching and learning qualities and become a knowledge contribution in society at large.

Keywords:

• Neoliberal ideas
• education
• preschool
• music
• popular music
• discursive psychology

Notes

1. Original title is ’En riktig jävla schlager’. The song is available on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0b5lQgQJ7g.

2. Original title is ‘Ge mig en spanjor’. The song is available on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2Giio0aTvg.

3. Original title is ‘Älgarna demonstrerar’. The song is available on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPn_fcrhZ40.

4. Sean Banan is a Swedish artist. Here is an example from 2012 when he participated in the Swedish song contest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5fceiuy6Po.