Music and Matrescence: A Developmental Exploration of the Facilitator’s Role, Working with Groups of Mothers and their Babies and Young Children
by Aimee Gardner
The story of my research
This is a study situated within the context of music and matrescence - becoming and being a mother (Athan, 2024; Raphael, 1975). Although undertaken for the purpose of my MA dissertation, this research seeks to reflect the lived experience of all participants through the inclusion of all our voices using data gathered via reflective conversations and professional journaling.
Research took place during a three-month period which spanned the initial preparation for, and early facilitation of, our early years and families programme at the newly opened home of our music education hub in an inner-city shopping centre. The study sought to explore the role of the facilitator in groups where the mother’s experience was either at the centre of practice or more centrally positioned than usual.
The research tells the story of how, in my role as early years lead at the music hub, I supported two practitioners to explore the intentions for their sessions and reflect on the nature of their role in this context. It tells of our inquiries into the support offered by me to the practitioners as we navigated this new approach, as well as the impact of working in this way on practitioner mental health.
A Spacious and Attuned Practice
As facilitators (of the groups, in the case of the practitioners, and of professional learning and development, in my case) we discovered that the act of attunement was at the heart of our practice (Ainsworth et al., 1974; Malloch and Trevarthen, 2018; Porges, 2022), and with it the need for spaciousness in both our facilitation and our mindsets (Clark, 2023; Oliveira-Formosinho and Formosinho, 2016).
A spacious practice enabled the sensitivity and responsivity of attuned facilitation, a flexible practice which, although rooted in experience and careful planning, existed in the liminal space of possibility (Turner, 1969; van Gennep, 1909/1960) and possessed an openness and agility for perceptive adaptation.
We found that, in this way, a spacious and attuned practice could gently honour the liminality of matrescence (a developmental stage within which a woman stands at the threshold of a new identity and way of being in the world) whilst offering the potential for self-expression, connection, compassion and flourishing.
Transformation and Flourishing
The story ended, albeit only in terms of this piece of research, with a sense of both tangible and potential transformation. Set against the backdrop of the transformative potential of matrescence for the mothers supported and connected through our groups, and colliding, as it has done, with the liminality of our own experiences of midlife, itself an adult developmental stage, the research found our participation in this work to be transformational.
By engaging in personally and professionally meaningful work, aligned with our values and purpose, and in attuned relationship with each other (De Haan, 2008) through a transformational professional learning model grounded in listening and dialogic reflection (Lyndon, 2020; Mezirow, 2018) data showed clear evidence of practice transformation and of personal flourishing (Keyes, 2002; Pascal and Bertram, 2023).
Impact and Implications
This study contributes to the growing body of research in the field of the arts and health by addressing an under-explored area; the experiences of the practitioner in this context (Perkins et al., 2018; Perkins, 2024).
Framed within the context of supporting mothers experiencing the normative challenges of matrescence, this study is significant not only at the local level, for the music hub and our community of practitioners and mothers, but also at regional, national, and international levels. Its relevance is reinforced by the growing focus on maternal mental health (NICE, 2021; WHO, 2022) and the increasing recognition of arts-in-health interventions.
A Call to Action
At its heart, this study is a call to action for the field of early childhood music: as a sector we are powerfully positioned to have a significant impact on perinatal flourishing. We already do have an impact, but, as we become more conscious, as a society, to the normative challenges of matrescence, I suggest that we have a greater role to play in support of mothers and that our practice needs to develop to accommodate this. In which case, it is important to consider how we, as a workforce, need to support ourselves in this mission.
Let’s continue this conversation…
Connect with Aimee on LinkedIn
Having studied music at university and music college, Aimee trained to be a teacher and worked for over 20 years Newham, London where, as an Advanced Skills Teacher, she had the privilege of supporting early years generalists across the borough to make music with their children, alongside her role in her own classroom.
She now leads Early Years at Newham Music Education Hub, shaping their EY and families offer and supporting a team of musicians to facilitate this work. Having recently completed an MA in Education (Early Years) at CREC, and qualified as a life coach, she combines her work in education with an emerging coaching practice aimed at supporting mothers at all stages of their matrescence journey.
References:
Athan, A. M. (2024) A critical need for the concept of matrescence in perinatal psychiatry. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1364845. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1364845.
Raphael, D. (1975) Matrescence, becoming a mother, a ‘new/old’ rite de passage. In: D. Raphael, ed. Being Female: Reproduction, Power, and Change. New York: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 65-72. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110813128.65
Ainsworth, M. S., Bell, S. M. and Stayton, D. F. (1974) Infant–mother attachment and social development: Socialization as a product of reciprocal responsiveness to signals. In: M. M. Richards, ed. The Integration of a Child into a Social World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 99–135.
Malloch, S. and Trevarthen, C. (2018) The human nature of music. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1680. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01680.
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Clark, A. (2023) Slow Knowledge and the Unhurried Child: Time for slow pedagogies in early childhood education. Abingdon: Routledge.
Oliveira-Formosinho, J. and Formosinho, J. (2016) Pedagogy-in-Participation: The search for a holistic praxis. In: J. Oliveira-Formosinho and C. Pascal, eds. Assessment and Evaluation for Transformation in Early Childhood. London: Routledge, pp. 26 – 55.
Van Gennep, A. (1909/1960) The Rites of Passage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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Pascal, C. and Bertram, T. (2023) Evidencing practice: re-focusing on children’s flourishing, fulfilment and wellbeing. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 31(3), pp. 305–310. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2023.2214021.
Perkins, R., Yorke, S. and Fancourt, D. (2018). Learning to facilitate arts-in-health programmes: A case study of musicians facilitating creative interventions for mothers with symptoms of postnatal depression. International Journal of Music Education, 36(4), pp. 644-658. https://doi.org/10.1177/0255761418771092.
Perkins, R. and Miele, M. (2024) Music and parental mental wellbeing. In: R. Perkins, ed. Music and Parental Wellbeing. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 3-26.
Perkins R. (2024) A note on the future of music and parental mental wellbeing. In: R. Perkins, ed. Music and Parental Wellbeing. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 307-314.
NICE (2021) Postnatal Care [NICE guideline NG194]. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Available at: https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng194 [Accessed 13 June 2024].
WHO (2022). WHO Guide for Integration of Perinatal Mental Health in Maternal and Child Health Services. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240057142 [Accessed 20 July 2024].