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) For most of us, there is only the unattendedMoment, the moment in and out of time,The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightningOr the waterfall, or music heard so deeplyThat it is not heard at all, but you are the musicWhile the music lasts. T.S. Eliot (from: The Dry Salvages, 1941) Research Group Lifelong Learning in Music
While the Music Lasts Rineke Smilde Kate Page Peter Alheit Research Group Lifelong Learning in Music Hanze University Groningen Georg August University Goettingen
“The combination of processes throughout a lifetime whereby the whole person – body (genetic, physical and biological) and mind (knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, emotions, beliefs and senses) – experiences social situations, the perceived content of which is then transformed cognitively, emotively or practically (or through any combination) and integrated into the individual person’s biography resulting in a continually changing (or more experienced) person.” (Jarvis 2006: 134)
What happens in this practice and what learning and development takes place? Emanuel Zeffert House Matthew, workshopleader Annaliese, supporting musician Fiona, supporting musician Brian, care staff development practitioner
Field notes: ‘objective’ description, no interpretation • Group interviews and expert interviews (narrative) • Reflective journals
‘Grounded Theory’: discovery of theory Coding: categorise ideas and patterns arising Identity; Communication; Participation; Development
I Identity Threatened identity; Integrity; Responsibility; Recognition; Learning benefits II Communication Leadership; Reading the group; Expectations/aspirations/understanding; Default mode; Applied improvisation; Sensitivity within communication; Support; Opening situation III Participation Inclusion; Break down of participation; Shared leadership; Risk taking/safety net; Membership (including residents); Logistical conditions and recurring elements; Peripheral participation IV Development Ratification; Improved quality of team; ‘Sustainability’; Transitional learning; Community of Practice
Reflective practitioners: reflection ‘on’ and ‘in’ action D. Schön (1983) ‘The Reflective Practitioner’ “When a practitioner becomes a researcher into his own practice, he engages into a continuing process of self-education (1983: 290).” ‘Learning in transition’: understanding can change both the learner and the social context in which the learning takes place.
“I think we created a place of belonging that did enable the residents to feel safe and I believe these moments of well being have helped to create change, even for a few moments or perhaps long term. It has been tough and challenging and I have felt very affected by being part of the project and by spending time and connecting with the group. I also feel like I have been left with something unquantifiable in terms of a human/spiritual experience. I feel like it has left a mark in the tapestry of my life and I like to think whether it is ‘remembered’ or not by the residents, that it has had a similar impact on them.” (Fiona)
E. Wenger (1998) ‘Communities of Practice’ Meaning: learning as experience Practice: learning as doing Community: learning as belonging Identity: learning as becoming Peripheral participation
“During this project I think I have learned even more deeply the importance of allowing space for each person, and of valuing each person in the group; and that group consists of the musicians, the staff, the residents, the managers. Then beyond those people who have direct contact are the receptionists, staff who bring the residents to the group and transfer them from wheelchair to arm chair, relatives, cleaners… and so the list continues. And then, once the session is over and I have left the care home, something of that awareness seems to remain as I get on the tube and share that time with other strangers, as I go into a busy department store, and gradually I have to let it slip away, and adjust to being in the ‘normal’ world again, with its sharp edges, deadlines, and exacting demands for perfection. But I can carry what I have experienced with me, and try to remember to connect with it when I can, to value this life I have for what it is.” (Matthew)
Integrity in Interpretation
“There’s an urgency about things. (...) I just think that the reality is that she moves very quickly from one way of feeling to another (…) My sense of Rebecca feels very lost, and that’s what she’s expressing all the time. And that’s her challenge really, how we can help her not feel so lost. I mean, the loss obviously comes from her dementia, things she can't remember, situations she can't make head nor tail of.” (Brian)
“When she had the baton, she didn’t move very much. But what she did, she did this real shaking of the baton, which was like when she grabs your hand and shakes it very hard. It seemed like an expression of her, not frustration, cause I didn’t feel she was frustrated at that point. I think that what she wanted was connection and kind of excitement almost, a desire to connect, and it came out as this shaking.”(Matthew)
“There’s almost a cruelty in reflecting back to her this kind of movement which would be ridiculing her. You know, you don’t want to mirror back somebody’s dementia at them.” (Matthew)
“Support is getting a greater sense of who the person is and then being able to understand what they’re telling you and respond in the right way. I think it’s about discovering: what does that person want? And I think we all have a sense of puzzlement, all of us, like what does Rebecca want from us, how do we respond? I don’t think we know how to respond, therefore we don’t know how to support. And I think Music for Life can help us just to understand maybe a little bit more.” (Brian)
“You feel really unsure... there’s always a risk even in a supportive role, there’s very few times when you get: I really know what I need to do now, this is what I need to do. It’s almost like, well, I need to do something, I’m not sure, I’m gonna try this. And you’re never sure.” (Fiona)
Reflection ‘on’ action Reflection ‘in’ action Shared leadership
Matthew: “And so, just to have that session where, we talked, we had kind of planned that [Rebecca] was going to have her moment in that session, hadn’t we? And we’d begun to talk about how to take her seriously, like, ‘I can acknowledge this power’.” Annaliese: “If she has some bad feelings or aggression or whatever, lets...” Fiona: “Reflect it back...” Matthew: “...Let it out.” Annaliese: “Yes, find a way that she can play something where she can show that.” Fiona: “Brian was very strong on that. I think he’d said, ‘what’s so wrong about reflecting that back, you know, doing something that really goes with that and see where that takes you’, and I think you just took that moment.” Matthew: “Well we did. I think as a team we just kind of all felt it, ‘this is the moment’.” Fiona: “I think it was like, ‘lets jump off the cliff’.” Matthew: “Yeah, it really did feel like that.”
Risk taking • Reflexivity • Recognition • Learning as Becoming
“We began by playing instruments for her and she appeared to be, I don’t know if confused was the word, or what, but that kind of tight mouth and the staring eyes was there while we were playing. So instead I sang, I sang to her and that seems to be the key, is to sing, for her, to her whatever it is. And there’s just this softness that just suddenly comes. And she was smiling whilst that happened, and not the forced smile either, the real genuine smile of, you know, she really was happy.” (Matthew)
“The Snark went into overdrive, ‘you aren’t a singer! It’s an easy trick to sing Jewish sounding music for Jewish old ladies - you aren’t even Jewish yourself, you have no right!’ But as the responses came from Rebecca, and I focused more and more on my singing, trying to make it as beautiful as I could, the Snark got quieter and quieter, silenced eventually.” (Matthew)
Matthew: (…) “And so we identify ourselves with our playing.” Annaliese: “I played well, I feel good.” Matthew: “I played well, I am a good musician, I am a good person.” Fiona: “I’m ok.” Matthew: “I’m ok.” Fiona: “I play badly, I’m a disaster.” Matthew: “Yeah, with our identity, it’s so...” Fiona: “...It’s all tied up, isn’t it?” Matthew: “And we judge people and people judge us on that. Like, he’s a rubbish player, he doesn’t play in tune, dadada, and that really lowers your status as a human being.”
“The very first time I did this big bash on the bar and I sang back at [Rebecca] really strong and gave a quick glance at Annaliese and she was looking at me and nodding like, ‘Yes, yes yes! That’s it, let’s go for it!’ And I knew I wasn’t going to be high and dry (...) Sometimes when I can be brave, ignore the Snark, and manage to forge that connection, I’m sure that’s when the best music happens. Having a great team who recognise what is happening, and are there with solid, affirming playing really makes this possible – almost as though they are the safety net, or the people ‘watching your back’. They feel the moment, and aren’t afraid of the intimacy. ‘Yes’, their playing says, ‘go on, go on’.” (Matthew)
Learning as Becoming “It’s an amazing privilege to be able to communicate with people without words (...) I’m again thinking about Rebecca and singing with Rebecca, I can't think of anything that I’ve ever done in my life that’s anything like it. You know, of kind of losing myself so much in the essence of another person. (...) The musical support is different from the physical reassurance of handholding, it’s a real connection with their spirit, I think.” (Matthew)
Learning as Experience Matthew: “Rebecca’s been my big moment, definitively. (…) And I think we also spoke about this in the beginning of the project, being nervous of her actually. She seemed impossible; to read her, what she was feeling, what she thought. And she could hit you, you know?”Annaliese: “A bit scary.” Fiona: “(…) maybe this is really subjective, but I feel she’s been different since that moment almost.” Matthew: “I think so. And maybe that’s to do with how we feel.” Fiona: “...Towards her maybe.” Matthew: “Whether it’s changed how we feel towards her, and then her response back to that, it’s totally...” Fiona: “Cyclical.”
“I think that she is generally more settled in the home but that also the Music for Life project has come at a key time for her and has helped to integrate her into the community. This week, she was no longer an isolated figure wandering alone but part of the circle. I feel that her piece last week was a key moment in her feeling acknowledged and empowered.” (Fiona)
Belonging Learning as doing
“That was the big theme, that was going on regarding staff. You know, what is their ownership and what is the musician’s ownership of what’s happening in the space? How do I work in this place, what do I do? Do I have power or do I not have power? When do I take initiative and when is it somebody else’s responsibility to take initiative? And how do I negotiate that? What happens if I try to negotiate it and I get it wrong? And is it ok to get it wrong?” (Brian)
“My habitual and reflex mode of working is to take control. To truly lead means allowing EVERY person to give of their best, to take risks, express themselves (...) And as an idea it goes beyond the musician team; you want everybody in the group to feel that, the care staff, everybody. (...) I’m really becoming more and more aware of, it’s not about telling people what to do. Really not; if you really are truly leading it’s about everybody fulfilling what is possible for them to do.” (Matthew)
“Staff sense of belonging and taking part and ownership and feeling they could take charge in a sense, was strong. I think that helped and that created a sense of group and I think the residents were able to pick up on that, because there were more people beside them playing, so they got a greater sense of what was happening.” (Brian)
Participation • Acceptance • Membership
“When we were passing the instruments round, she wouldn’t, she didn’t take part in that, she would absolutely not engage with that. She wouldn’t even say ‘no’, she just totally absented herself from that process. I’m very keen that she doesn’t feel coerced or pressured, or, because I think when we push her she will get uncomfortable, she will be angry about that. So there is a challenge there.” (Matthew)
“I think we’ve journeyed that journey in the past couple of weeks to come to an understanding about who Rosamund is, and what she wants to do and what she can do, and to live with her and to accept that. And maybe it is the acceptance of who she is and what she can do is more important than expectations of a different kind of participation. So it is more about presence than what somebody does.” (Brian)
“As Annaliese played to her, I was holding her hand and suddenly felt that I needed to sing to her, to help her really know that the music was ‘for her’. I was amazed as she really seemed to ‘receive’ the music for the first time in eight weeks. At one point I was singing a tune with the words ‘la, di, daa...’ or words to that effect at which point she looked at me and said ‘la di daaa back to you’. There was a real sense of sharing in the music with her and I felt that we had broken through her isolation for the first time in the group context. This was really validated by the conversation that we had directly after the music. I said to her, still holding her hand, ‘It’s for you’ at which point she said to me ‘It’s for you’.
I really wanted to validate this sense of shared experience and so simply said ‘It’s for both of us- thank you for letting me share it with you’, to which she replied, ‘That’s alright’. I then asked her if she enjoyed the music and she replied with a real clarity that I hadn’t seen during the eight weeks, ‘I loved it, it makes me want to cry’ at which point I think I did!! I was so moved by this experience. Just sensing the sense of connection that I had with her, and her openness to the group. In this moment she had chosen to receive the music and be open to both me, and the group as a whole; to see how the music had broken into her isolation was just so moving.” (Fiona)
Why ‘qualitative’ approach? • Some people say: this is ‘soft’ science – not exact enough. • Some say: the outcomes are not representative. • Some ask: can we take the results seriously? • However, these judgements are full of prejudices. • Qualitative approaches are as scientificas quantitative are. • But their scientific objectives are quite different.
What’s the difference? • The quality criteria of quantitative research– ‘objectivity’, ‘reliability’ and ‘validity’ – are only linked to measurement. However, is (social) research solely interested in things that could be measured? • The quality criteria of qualitative research are looking to ‘natural’ settings, documenting ‘real’ processes and finding a communicative validation. Thus, it is aiming at understanding reality, not just to measure it.
What is the benefit of qualitative research? • We discover the (subjective) perspective of people • in ‘normal’ situations. • We understand processes. • We observe how people communicate and cooperate. • We get an impression of learning and transformation. • We gain a vague intuition how complex human life • actually is.
What has this to do with music and dementia? • The observed processes could have never been measured (in a quantitative sense). • To understand the complexity, different approaches were needed to save the perspectives of musicians, the views of the nursing staff, the angle of the organisers, the ways people living with dementia react and the reflections of the researchers. • In short: a qualitative triangulation was required – i.e. getting data through interviews, taking field notes, using reflective journals etc.
The richness of the outcomes • As you‘veheard: the ‘stories’ (being told by Rineke and Kate) sound impressive and gave an insight into the enormous learning processes during the Music and Dementia meetings. • However, there are also important theoretical results. • We could identify three dimensions: a concept of social learning, an innovative idea of professional learning and some suggestions for a convincing structure of a curriculum of higher music education.
Dimensions of social learning personal autonomy social sensitivity Identity Develop- ment social activity self assurance Partici- pation Communi- cation
Dimensions of professional learning (as a musician) reflecting competence (through musical improvisation) Identity Develop- ment realising learning processes feeling of being musically skilled Communi- cation Partici- pation reflecting competence (through social interaction)
Desiderata for curricula within higher music education musical skills: such as instrumental skills, improvisation skills etc learning skills: such as reframing positions, re-writing biographical experiences etc. personal skills: such as openness, interest, curiosity, friendliness etc. Identity Develop- ment Communi- cation Partici- pation social skills: such as cooperation, ‘reading’ a situation, changing perspectives etc.
