Research Shorts: Moving Beyond ‘Formal’ and ‘Informal’ Music Learning

Katy Ieong Cheng Ho Weatherly

This week I’m exploring informal musical learning with Prof Katy Ieong Cheng Ho Weatherly, based at the University of Macau. Katy spoke to me about her new article, co-written with Christopher Alan Weatherly, Yun Chen and PuiKei Lau, that’s just been published in ‌the British Journal of Music Education.

Katy’s article is a ‘scoping review’, that is to say it considers the whole field to see where the area is currently heading. So I don’t think it’s much of a coincidence that we have already touched on informal learning a couple of times before in Research Shorts: playful musical learning in primary settings, and more specifically bringing informal learning into music education training.

As Katy and her co-writers note in the article ‘many scholars in music education have been called to implement informal music learning and have advocated for the inclusion of music from various cultures and genres in the classroom.’ They explain that ‘The inclusion of informal music approaches in school curricula is often employed as a means to enhance motivation and address the global declining interest in studying music.’

Katy’s paper was a PRISMA review paper, an established method through which other studies can be reviewed – in order to create a kind of study of studies. I enjoyed reading how this work found themes of ‘joy’ in studies around informal primary music education. The article also drew out questions of musical identity, and the spaces and places of informal music making. They also note that ‘many teacher preparation programmes in higher education are not adequately equipping future teachers to employ informal music pedagogy in their classrooms’.

I asked Katy who this work would be most useful for, and how it might impact them:

It is essential to move beyond viewing music learning solely as either ‘informal’ or ‘formal.’ We suggest recognizing a complex and nuanced nature of music learning. We should focus on expanding the use of informal music learning approaches in elementary education. We recommend researchers and educators to rethink and redefine what informal music learning truly encompasses.

Katy’s research interests are diverse and she explained that she has ‘a primary focus on creative music pedagogy, including student-centred teaching, game-based learning, and informal music learning.’ She is also involved in music advocacy for supporting underserved communities. I asked her how she became involved in music, and she explained ‘I began my journey as a violist at The Juilliard School in the USA, completed my doctorate in music education at Columbia University, and served as a district music supervisor in Washington, D.C., before taking on my current role as an assistant professor.’

Read the article in full. It is currently paywalled but some libraries may have access.

Read other recently published work by Katy here.

Interview by Dr Sarah K. Whitfield – Research Manager for Music Mark