Music and Belonging—Stories of the Lived Experience of Music in an Early Childhood Setting

This chapter presents and discusses stories from a phenomenological study of the potential of music for facilitating interactions and relationships between children who do and do not experience disability in one early-years setting. The study was underpinned by three core theoretical ideas: that inclusion is a right of all children, that disability is socially constructed, and that music is an essential part of childhood. The study’s methodology combined narrative inquiry with phenomenology to explore the lived experience of music of educators and children in an inclusive early childhood setting in Australia. The stories shared in this chapter address the research question: How does music shape the inclusive pedagogy of one early childhood educator? Exploring the lived experience of one educator provided key insights that shaped the study’s findings. Her stories exemplify the many ways music can support all children’s self- and social identities and inform principles of inclusive early-years pedagogy. They also show the deep understandings of music pedagogy and practice that can be gained through employing narrative and phenomenological approaches to research.