Designing Inclusive Pathways: Community-Connected Project Approaches in Early Childhood Music EducationAbstractInclusive and culturally responsive approaches in early childhood music education remain under-explored, despite increasing recognition that young children’s learning is enriched by engagement with their communities and cultural heritage. This study investigates how a structured project framework can bridge developmental goals, artistic exploration, and community participation in early education. It focuses on the design and implementation of a multi-phase programme in which pre-service educators co-create music activities with children, families, and local practitioners to cultivate creativity, belonging, and cultural awareness.The research adopted a participatory design methodology, positioning educators as co-learners who planned, facilitated, and reflected on sessions in dialogue with children and caregivers. The programme unfolded through successive stages: identifying learning intentions, developing musical resources, organising interactive events, and consolidating outcomes in a final collaborative project. Activities included sound walks, call-and-response games, improvisation with simple instruments, movement composition, and shared performances. Family members were invited to contribute stories, artefacts, or songs that resonated with everyday experiences, extending learning beyond the classroom.Findings indicate that integrating project-based structures with informal, culturally attuned music experiences enhanced children’s motivation, social interaction, and imaginative capacities. Participants demonstrated increased sensitivity to rhythm, timbre, and melodic contour, while also developing confidence in group settings. Pre-service educators reported stronger pedagogical awareness, particularly regarding strategies for embedding diversity and fostering inclusive dialogue through music. However, the study also identifies persistent challenges: sustaining collaboration across home, school, and community settings requires deliberate planning; and many educators lack methodological guidance for adapting project-based learning (PBL) to early childhood music, a gap also highlighted in recent scholarship (Boyne et al., 2025; Bačlija et al., 2025).These results support calls for PBL models that are explicitly tailored to young children’s musical growth and that provide educators with clear scaffolds for balancing structure and creativity. They suggest that when projects are framed as open, participatory journeys—rather than as fixed curricula—children can connect everyday listening with artistic production and develop a sense of belonging within a wider cultural ecology. Future work should refine tools for documenting learning in music-centred projects and explore professional development pathways that equip educators to sustain inclusive, community-linked practices.