Music and Understanding the World in the Early Years: People, Cultures and Communities

This area of the early years curriculum involves children describing their environment using stories, non-fiction books and maps. Most religious and cultural celebrations can be introduced and shared at the appropriate time of year, like Chinese New Year in January/February, Passover in March/April and Diwali in October/November. This article considers the ways that children are viewed in different countries, the importance of people, culture and community, and how this can be shared through music!

Childcare has always existed, but government requirements to measure achievement is fairly new. Measured achievement has resulted in professionals arguing the benefits of early preschool experience, however studies have shown that out-of-home learning benefits children’s future economic potential, women’s employment, and the national economy. As a result, many governments have legislated a national curriculum, with some requiring it to be measured in order to justify the allocation of public funds.

Different countries have used a wide variety of approaches to measure education outcomes. Papatheodorou (2010) argues that this is based on the way that policymakers have viewed the child within society: either for the value they hold as a person in their community or for the future (economic) value they will bring to the nation. She considered four different national approaches using Italy, New Zealand, UK and Greece. While all countries focussed on a play-based, developmentally-appropriate and culturally-appropriate approach, she found that some practitioners felt caught between the policymakers’ view of the child as economically viable in the future and the academics and researchers view of the child as well-rounded.

The Italian Reggio Emilia approach developed from the people to combat fascism through co-operative activities, relationships and co-responsibility. With no prescribed content, the way that children are taught reflects values of the community and its historical roots, while investing in creativity and imagination. There is no individual child assessment as projects are long term, promoting curiosity and problem-solving skills. Early years practitioners develop work based on the principles of the child already belonging to their local community, and where their future value develops through community participation.

Te Whãriki is the Aotearoa/New Zealand bicultural early years curriculum, also developed from the people. The focus is on empowerment, holistic development, family and community and relationships, linked to wellbeing, belonging, contribution and exploration. Using personal Learning Stories, practitioners capture individual learning progress, developing autonomy within community and indicating that children are valued for what they are, as well as what they will become within their local community.

The Early Years Foundation Stage from the UK government includes the original four guiding principles: the unique child, positive relationships; enabling environments; and recognition that development and learning are different for each child and takes place at different rates (DfE, 2020; DfES, 2007). However, the original 69 early learning goals have been reduced to 17, focusing on communication and language, physical development, and personal, social and emotional development. These are all situated within the areas of literacy, mathematics, understanding the world and expressive arts and design. Papatheodorou sees the government’s primary focus of the child as economically productive in the future as opposed to ensuring their current well-being.

The Greek education system was originally set up by the government around five areas of development – with no plan for assessment: psycho-kinaesthetic; socio-emotional, moral and religious; aesthetic; cognitive; and motor skills and intellectual development. Recent curricula updates recognise the English and Italian early years guidance documents, yet still hold no requirement for external assessment, maintaining autonomy of the profession. Academic and intellectual goals were also adopted in the update, with a focus on the future educational value of the child as a result of the historical importance of education in Greek culture.