Diverse parenting goals and community music in early childhood

Abstract

Abstract My aim in this article is to look at how one aspect of English policy converts into practice in a community music project designed for under-3-year-olds with their mothers. The study that informs the discussion in this article takes a case study approach, focusing on one musician and the once-weekly music sessions that he provided for a group of Somali-born mothers and their children. The article explores how neoliberal policies have resulted in early childhood music work in the community framed by an interventionist agenda; however, in the case that is the focus of this article, we will see how the use of music as parenting intervention failed. I suggest why this might be so, explaining how diverse parenting goals result in varying parenting practices. Finally, I suggest a return to a ‘critical’ community music aligned more with the original aims of the community music movement in the United Kingdom.