A case study in developing person-centred approaches to evaluating participation in Community Music

Abstract

Disciplinary background A. Music Psychology informed mixed methods and a person-centred approach as the most suitable means to capture and understand the multiple and varied aspects of a complex intervention. Disciplinary background B. Community Music’s principles of facilitating creative and musical potential of all participants provided the area of interest for investigation. Abstract Aims of this research were exploratory, seeking to identify and understand key psychological and communicative processes taking place during Community Music workshops. Community music (CM) can have powerful impacts on the lives and musicality of people with additional support needs (ASN). A previous study found that music workshops for a group of young adults with diverse ASN led to an ongoing enthusiasm to engage in music; wider recognition of musicality; increased self-confidence; being happier and/or more relaxed; and better ability to interact with unfamiliar situations and people (Wilson & MacDonald 2019). A second study with the same CM organisation demonstrated improvements in individuals’ self-expression, confidence, mood, and social skills across three groups of varied ages and abilities in different areas (MacGlone et al., 2020). Therefore, further investigation is required to identify which aspects of the interventions were effective in achieving these outcomes, from both practitioners’ and participants’ perspectives. For this reason, this paper’s focus explores communicative processes between workshop participants and practitioners during the workshops. In keeping with person-centred research, capturing and understanding participants’ experience may present particular practical challenges, for example, when researching a group comprised of people with different ASN. Both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered from the second study mentioned previously (MacGlone et al., 2020) to address the aims. Interviews were held with 5 community musicians which investigated their approaches to and experiences of delivering the workshops. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Thematic analysis, which seeks to identify, analyse, and report patterns (themes) within data (Braun & Clarke, 2014) was applied. Quantitative 360-degree video data were gathered and analysed from 1st, and 10th workshops of a 10-week programme from one resource centre. Twelve (4m