Quality in Norwegian Early Childhood Music Education - An Ecological Perspective on Structural and Processual Aspects of Music Practice

Abstract: This article discusses the quality criteria of musical practice in Norwegian early childhood education and care (ECEC). Much of the current discussion on quality has been shaped by the increased policy demand for evidence-based quality measurements. Demand has led to multiple large-scale quantitative studies on quality that include music as an area of study. Using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised, the research project Better Provision for Norway’s Children found that many children have limited access to music materials in ECEC. According to the ECERS-R, this indicates low-quality musical practice. Using an ecological framework, including the theory of affordances and of musical and teacher agency, we analyse findings from ECERS-R and discuss the complex relations between teachers, children, and the environment and the materials they share. Our findings indicate how facilitating high-quality environments for musical practice in Norwegian ECEC are shaped not only by structural aspects, such as access to music materials, but also processual aspects for quality, such as interactions between children and adults and facilitating playful activities that foster musicality. This study has implications for how high-quality musical environments for children can be understood.