In Crescendo: educational actions for a community music project with children at risk of social exclusion

Abstract

The ability of music has a great capacity for personal and social transformation, and collective musical practice can change forms of learning towards more democratic, inclusive, holistic and intercultural models. In recent years, studies on the use of music for social transformation have boomed, covering geographic areas as diverse as Germany (de Banffy-Hall, 2016); Norway (Rinde & Schei, 2017); Australia (Morell & Shoemark, 2018); Japan (Matsunobu, 2018); or Spain (Higuera-Bilbao, 2015). Undoubtedly, one of the projects that has had the greatest impact worldwide is El Sistema de Orquestas de Venezuela. This article proposes a case study on In Crescendo, a Spanish project inspired by El Sistema and embedded during school hours in a state-funded school for children at risk of social exclusion. Through systematic observations, interviews, document analysis and press reports, we study how this project has been developed over more than 12 years in a school participating in a 2030 program. For this purpose, organisational, pedagogical and community actions are analysed. The organisational plan is marked by the need to make the curriculum more flexible; the requirement of a strong involvement of its teaching staff; the need to include musical activities in the school timetable; the increase in the number of music teachers; as well as the intense inter-institutional relations. The pedagogical plan is focused on promoting “authentic”, “situated” learning in students and involving the “learning to learn” competence. Although several actions have been carried out within the community plan aimed at involving families, students, teachers and the community, there is still resistance in terms of certain prejudices and low expectations regarding students at risk of social exclusion.