Popular music in the educational space of Polish preschools – the teacher’s perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate the presence of popular music within the area of preschool education. To this end, an online survey was conducted with a sample of 115 Polish preschool teachers. This allowed for an analysis of teachers’ opinions on using popular music in various didactic activities, and on the educational value of such music. The results reveal that popular music – marginalized or even excluded from curricula for years – is present in preschools and offers, in the opinions of the teachers, educational value. Genres of this kind of music appear in different educational situations, sometimes as the ‘background’ for teaching and educational activities, among which two forms of musical activity are predominant, namely, motor activities with music, and singing. Analysis of the outcomes leads to a reflection on the necessity of expanding and diversifying educational offers in preschools and points to the fact that further studies on the application of popular music in the early stages of education and on the reception of popular music by children are needed.