Dr Anna Mlynek-Kalman

Nominated by Dr Fiona Phillips

2024 Award Recipient for Excellence in Australian Kodály-inspired Music Education: Innovation

Over many years, Dr Anna Mlynek-Kalman observed that in Melbourne’s preschools, music sessions revolved around the consumption of pre-recorded adult-synthesised music. Few generalist teachers and music providers model a singing voice in a vocal range that is helpful to musical development. Sounds are emitted without reflection, usually loudly and low, so listening skills, musical audiation and sound thought cannot develop. As mentor, teacher, and researcher, she felt challenged to create cultural change. Teachers and Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) who through no fault of their own, felt unmusical and lacked the experiences or metacognition, found it difficult to share the simplest song repertoire without assisted recordings even following completion of professional learning and development sessions. Through her PHD work she discovered that the focus was on song or product. Teachers lacked experience of process. Process in music had not been defined for ECEs. She reflected that just as private music teachers begin each session with scales or vocalisations, teachers and children need similar initial experiences, unrelated to the song repertoire. Creating long-term change, requires a transformation in approach, counterintuitively, we must STOP SINGING SONGS. We must first learn to vocally play alongside our children. Then we can relearn to sing songs, experiencing vocal play daily to help us use a wider and more tuneful vocal range.

Dr Mlynek-Kalman had the opportunity to work as mentor in a centre with a large group of teachers, internationally. She was invited to their classrooms and observed their set up, based on an Australian Early Years Learning Framework’s play-based learning curriculum. She applied a simple play-based model, together with a reflective Mini Action Research approach, and developed the Contour Vocal Play Framework (CVPF). This CVPF provides the possibility of daily vocal play experiences being introduced in one-on-one or small group interactions in the ELC, allowing vocal confidence to be built through children’s natural play environments. With the daily practice of this approach, long-term change was created. The CVPF created opportunities of musical experiences to everyone. Extensive vocal play and discovery, provides possibilities of developing vocal awareness, reinforced by guided reflection and the growth of vocal trust. ECEs and teachers learn to find their singing voices and can begin to sing to and with their children.

Anna’s hope is to share her findings to musically enable new generations of teachers to musically enable new generations of children. She has recently completed a successful collaboration with an international group of educators. She is currently collaborating in further longitudinal research with Deakin University to introduce this approach to undergraduate teacher trainees in EC and students involved in the master’s program. The goal is that during their three-year training, students will report changes in their vocal and musical self-efficacy and metacognition, through musical interactions with children. Her approach offers the foundational steps to create positive change to enable singing, the cornerstone of Kodály’s philosophy. Kodály lived at a time and place where parents and teachers sang to children. Our digitally focused environment calls for innovative, accessible, and musically encouraging foundational measures.