Music education in public nurseries of Greece

Abstract

The present study aimed to examine the content and goals of music education in Greek public nurseries and highlight the experiences of early childhood teachers when teaching music in their classrooms. A secondary purpose was to design and implement a professional development programme for teachers in one nursery school and explore their music skill development as part of this programme. The project was conducted over nine months in two phases in 23 public nurseries in the municipality of Ioannina. In Phase 1, data were collected via interviews with nursery teachers. In Phase 2, a professional development programme was developed, based on interview responses, and implemented with teachers from one nursery school. Data from both phases were considered in framing the results. Based on the data analysis, the content and goals of music education provided to preschool children were identified, described and evaluated, as well as the early childhood teachers’ music practices and approaches, their music skills and their training needs. Although nursery school teachers recognized the importance of music in preschool education, they defined themselves as ‘non-specialists’ in this particular teaching subject and faced challenges in implementing music education activities. Therefore, planning music education professional development programmes that meet the ‘real’ needs of early childhood teachers appears to be essential.