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to say “the strings vibrate and that makes the air vibrate and then it goes into your
eardrum and then it goes into your cochlear and into your brain.” Layla described this
moment as memorable, bringing tears to her eyes because she “could see the learning
happening.” The children had become “passionate” about the topic and Layla felt that her
passion had been their inspiration.
I love my guitar like a child. I can’t play it very well (yet) but I’m getting
better. When I play for the children, I share a little bit of music with them,
but more so, a little bit of myself. I play for them, and I play for me.
Perhaps one child takes what I give, and gives me back a drum roll.
Another child adds the violin, and so on. The children all share the music
that is in them. Some just noodle along, some are accomplished musicians
already.
Emerging directions.
During the focus group session, Layla told the others that, “Sometimes I feel that
maintaining control is at the expense of a freer forum.” The issues of power and control
are central issues in her teaching, and Layla claims she is “not well versed in philosophy”
and “not much of a reader.” She does state, however, that the children are “not empty
vessels.”
They come to us with a whole wealth of knowledge that we have to listen
to. Some people can quote verses from books that I don’t understand. I
wish I could rhyme off quotes from Malaguzzi but I can’t.
Layla is building her own theories, continually asking meaningful questions and
evaluating professional competence. Using the emergent curriculum practice of
documentation, she collects data as a teacher researcher engaged in a process of research
in action. She has grown from a position of feeling “insecure and inferior” where she did
not value her own ideas to a new level of confidence. In describing her reaction to being
involved in a research study she explained that: