Using children’s music to apply theory and incorporate diversity and social justice in early childhood education settings

This exploratory pilot project used a mixed methods approach to investigate the effectiveness of a daily classroom activity using children’s music in an undergraduate child development course. The focus of the activity was: a) to enhance students’ learning of how to apply family science theories to support intentional decision-making about how to integrate children’s music into the curriculum in early childhood education settings, and b) to enhance students’ learning of how to use children’s music in early childhood education settings to integrate diversity and social justice into the curriculum in developmentally appropriate ways. Results revealed little direct evidence of differences in effectiveness between the activity and existing course pedagogy, but strong indirect evidence for the value of the activity. Students perceived significant added value from the activity beyond project goals including promoting student engagement, promoting critical thinking, seeing connections between different course topics, and having repeated opportunities to practice family science translational skills.