Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

Lastly, there is the possibility that teachers, consciously or unconsciously, could have
been envious of any successful outcomes of such a study. The students’ ongoing
willingness to engage in music therapy could be deflating for staff who have to
constantly deal with pupils’ resistance to learning due to their dislike of the subject.
The openness of my approach not only with students but also with staff, helped to
share the positive effects of music therapy. I used my role both as therapist and
researcher to enable staff to see pupils in a different light. Once the project began,
some staff wanted to know more about music therapy and I noticed that attitudes
changed as they became more open to the influence of music therapy, especially for
some of the most difficult students.
9.4 Reflections on the mixed methods study
The task of assessing the efficacy of music therapy faces the challenge of needing to
produce objective data whilst holding on to the nature of therapy, which will always
take a unique course for every student. Although it seems there were many limitations
to this method, many of these were to do with the population rather than the study’s
design. The students’ difficulties make them a hard-to-reach client group and this was
the first study of its kind.
The systematic collection of quantitative and qualitative data were viewed separately
and subsequently in conjunction with one another. This led the researcher to examine
what the findings meant independently and collectively. When the data were brought
together through case studies it provided a comprehensive view and highlighted how
one complemented the other with regard to their meaning overall. These data,
including observations of the clinical work on video, have thus provided evidence to
support the hypothesis that music therapy can effectively address students’ emotional
needs and consequently improve their schooling (1.1).
The quantitative data showed that music therapy made a difference and the student’s
starting-point was the most crucial indicator of the positive change that could be
made in the block of twenty weeks. Improvements which students made cannot all be
accredited to music therapy but the convincing data from the CVC students highlight
the impact of music therapy very clearly. Unlike at The Centre School, where the
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