1. Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand
Aesthetic expression in "An open room for interpretation".
Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand

2. An ‘open room’ for Significance.
The word "room" has both a concrete and a figurative meaning. Working in an ‘open room’ for significance is about allowing creative and aesthetic activities to start based on the possibilities and diversity of the participants and the expressions.
In an ‘open room’ filled with interpretations, the teacher is surrounded by children offering many different modes of expressions
Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand

3. Inspiration and Background.
A Danish/Scandinavian approach to students or children build on playfulness in a horizontal relationship.
Maurice Merleau Pontys’ understanding of body and phenomenology talking about a meaning-making body in which the senses are interlinked.
Colwyn Trevarthen research about fundamental forms of expression, a concept called ‘Communicative Musicality’ which expresses the way in which a child seeks emotional connection and hereby a vital issue for cultural learning.
Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand

4. Danish tradition for music activities and teaching
New reforms thoughts about teaching in the 1930-ties introduced reformatory pedagogical ideas
Here began a long tradition in Denmark, for taking children's own musical development and creative ability as the starting point for working with children and music.
Observation of children and the various ways in which they express their musicality is used as a springboard for teaching music.
Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand

5. Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand
Maurice Merleau Ponty
Merleau Ponty speaks of a meaning-making body in which the senses are interlinked and various senses can make up the base for each other.
The body is seen as something that exists "in cooperation" with awareness and thought, complementing and communicating with each other.
Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand

6. Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand
Decartes:
Merleau Ponty:
Bodily actions make up a starting point for existence:
"I can, therefore I am"
"I think, therefore I am", expressed by Descartes during the 17th century
Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand

7. Where does musicality come from?
The Scottish psychologist Colwyn Trevarthen is talking about aesthetic expression linked to the human need to create and convey meaning in cooperation with others.
Musical expression is an aesthetic activity that can be considered as a mode of communication.
Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand

8. Communicative Musicality
Colwyn Trevarthen defines Communicative Musicality:
Turn-taking with a shared impulse.
Regulation of voice and movements.
Experience of a shared meaningfulness through interaction.
The child seeks meaning in a communication process that can develop through musical expression.
Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand

9. Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand
The teacher’s initiative can start with an "impulse" that "tunes" the children into the activity. It allows each child - as well as the group - to create meanings when encountering the aesthetic interactions.
The inventiveness of the children is awakened by an impulse, which is the starting point for the activity.
This need to be framed and controlled. The activity becomes an interplay between control and openness.
Impuls Framework
Openness Control
Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand

10. Creative and aesthetic activities contain many elements.
Teaching and interacting with children through activities requires the ability to play, to encounter and support the child's imagination and sensory presence, and to identify the learning and developmental potential of the activity.
The experiences of the children are expressed in an articulation through music, body, colours, dancing and several other elements.
Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand

11. Teaching adult students
When you invite adults not only to talk about aesthetic activity in pedagogical work but also to participate in musical and dramatic processes it often implies problems because no adult wants to be childish!
In this connection it is important to acknowledge that the creative process is build up from several levels which is going on parallel:
a temporary regression to early childhood filled with free associations, dreams, daydreams and fantasy
a simultaneous process on a cognitive & critical level
Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand

12. What does the pedagogical work require?
Knowledge of a variety of modes of expression.
Abilities in the areas of singing, dancing, drama, painting etc.
A certain repertoire in terms of various modes of expression.
Awareness of own strengths, weakness and limits.
Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand

13. To organize, inspire and initiate.
Creative activity contains organization, inspiration and initiating combined with an awareness of the resources and potential of expression of the group as a whole.
The pedagogue must initiate the activity but also be ready to intervene and support the children on their own terms.
This requires a conscious selection of modes of expressions and awareness in terms of the children's bodily and sensory presence within the creative community.
Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand

14. Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand

15. “To jump a song and sing a Role”
Drawing lines from improvisation and free dance in a music-context, body and movement are two vital elements in the life of a child.
The child does not separate language, body or activity but works in a bodily manner during the play and tell stories.
Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand

16. Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand
Sources:
Løkken, Gunvor. Using Merleau-Pontyan phenomenology to understand the toddler i Nordisk Pedagogik, vol. 20, no.1, 2000, p.13.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by Donald A. Landes. New York: Routledge, 2012.
Tofte-Hansen, Inge. (2015) An open room for interpretation. European Journal of Social Education / Journal Européen d’Éducation Sociale no. 12/27 – 2015 p
Trevarthen, C. Musicality and the intrinsic motive pulse: Evidence from human psychology and infant communication in rhythms, musical narrative and the origins of human communication. Musicae Scientiae, Special issue, European society for the cognitive sciences of music, Liège, pp
Inge Tofte-Hansen. UC-Zealand