Perceptions of future teachers of Therapeutic Pedagogy on an intercultural music workshop

Abstract

ABSTRACT Pupils who are late entrants to the Spanish education system may require a response from Therapeutic Pedagogy. They, as children of immigrants, may have educational needs such as socio-cultural adaptation and the need for respect and non-discrimination of their culture and religion. From an intercultural approach, the music classroom could provide a scenario of coexistence based on social inclusion and cultural exchange. Based on these assumptions, the ‘Caribbean Music Workshop’ was developed within the framework of the subject ‘Physical, plastic and music education and its didactics in special educational needs’. It is a subject of the Therapeutic Pedagogy Major of the Primary Education Teacher Training Degree at the University of Valencia. With the aim of assessing the perceptions of the future Therapeutic Pedagogy teachers about the workshop, at the end of the activity the students filled in a questionnaire with their considerations about the relevance of the intervention and other benefits it could bring to the pedagogical and therapeutic work. After a mixed analysis, the results revealed that the workshop represents a valid intercultural proposal to promote the social inclusion of students who are children of immigrants, as well as to address other educational needs.