Checkers 'n' rainbows : an arts-based narrative inquiry of children's musicking, belonging, and the science of 'occupation'

Abstract

My doctoral research was an arts-based narrative inquiry of musicking and belonging for children and youth, and families of immigrant backgrounds, through the disciplinary lens of occupational science. Conducted at an afterschool music program during the gradual lifting of COVID-19 social distancing measures, the study unfolded against the backdrop of a growing neurodiversity movement. Participants included 17 school-aged (immigrant and non-immigrant) children and youth who participated in a small group choral and orchestral music program. It also included a subset of 12 parents from six families, among which at least one parent immigrated to Canada. Children and youth participated in group art-making workshops and/or individualized/adapted art-making. Artworks were generated through photography, drawing/painting including mixed media, mask-making, body-mapping, and collage. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with parents/families in their homes. Self-reflexive fieldnotes documented art-making, interviews, and observations of relational dynamics. I use the concept of ‘musicking’ and critical narrative inquiry to examine the relationality of music-making among children and youth, and to illuminate intergenerational and (inter)cultural dimensions of musicking. I adopt a ‘making with’ approach to inquiry to tell the research story in a way that foregrounds my shift-toward onto-epistemological ways of viewing research. I bring artworks generated in the study together with conversations with children, youth and parents to illustrate the diversity and complexity of their experiences, and to paint a vivid picture that includes differences, ambiguity, and paradox. Querying the cultural framing of parents’ ambiguous relationships with musicking, I argue that common sense notions of music learning betray deeper cultural views about learning itself. Tensions between freedom and discipline in parent views of learning appeared differently for parents of neurodivergent children and youth. Using song title references and found poetry to convey the findings, I share methodological and pedagogical insights for occupational scientists interested in the role of narrative in human learning and meaning-making. I also suggest a paradigmatic shift in thinking about occupation as ‘doing, being, becoming, and belonging’ based on my self-reflexive contemplations of musicking and conducting this research. As such, the study contributes to knowledge about transformational pedagogy and invites new directions for the science of ‘occupation’.