Journal article

"Music is everything": Using collaborative group songwriting as an arts-based method with children experiencing homelessness and family violence

Rebecca Fairchild, Katrina Skewes McFerran

NORDIC JOURNAL OF MUSIC THERAPY | GRIEG ACADEMY | Published : 2019

Abstract

Children experiencing homelessness and family violence sometimes have reduced opportunities to access appropriate educational, social and recreational supports. However, music often remains as a personal resource in children’s everyday lives. This article explores the use of songwriting as a participatory arts-based research method to give voice to young people’s understandings of how they use music in the context of homelessness and family violence. Fifteen children 8–14 years participated in music-based focus groups that involved writing a song about what music meant to them. The collaborative songwriting research method was designed to engage children in creative and child-centered ways t..

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