Name
625 - Developing Psychological Safety in Music-Making Activities
Date & Time
Wednesday, July 29, 2026, 10:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Description
The concept of psychological safety was proposed by Schein and Bennis (1965), who defined it as “a climate where people feel safe enough to take interpersonal risks by speaking up and sharing concerns, questions, or ideas” (Edmondson, 2018). Clark (2020) identifies four stages to achieving psychological safety in all organizations and social units. In the field of education in Japan, psychological safety is defined as “a psychological state within a group where individuals can speak and act without fear of interpersonal consequences” (Omae, 2023). This state is also necessary for music-making, defined as “the process of creating sounds and music that are valuable to oneself while expressing creativity” (MEXT, 2017). To express sounds and music that hold personal values, children require an environment in which they feel secure. Because music-making is “an activity for sharing with children a musical world without ‘mistakes’”(Tsubono,2010), children can engage in the activity without fear, which suggests a role of music-making activities may within fostering psychological safety. Therefore, this study focuses on music-making activities to clarify how teacher' interventions and interactions among children foster psychological safety. The subjects were 17 fourth-grade elementary school students, and the study focuses on their music-making activities as part of concert preparation. The analysis method involved creating field notes based on video recordings of activities. We closely observed the reactions and musical expressions of both the teacher and students captured in the video recordings, analyzing how the four stages of psychological safety manifested and transitioned. Preliminary analysis revealed two components for achieving psychological safety during children' music-making activities. First, teachers need to positively accept children's musical expressions, comments, and actions, clearly communicating their values. Second, children need to empathize with and acknowledge one another. When music-making activities meet these conditions, opportunities have emerged both for increased motivation to participate and for more advanced musical expressions, such as creating new timbres and rhythms. In conclusion, music-making among peers, by fostering psychological safety, can provide opportunities for children to enhance each other' musicality. This suggests that providing a safe space for children to freely experiment and learn through trial and error during music-making activities is crucial. This finding may offer new perspectives on music-making instruction.
Location Name
210A - Poster Gallery
Session Type
Poster Presentation
Presenter(s)
Midori Sakano, Ikue Medo
Poster Board
69