Community Choral Singing with Young Learners: Challenges and Educational Potential for Human Development

Type: Short Paper · Article nº 1281

Authors: Renée Rebelo Cicarelli

Presenter: Renée Rebelo Cicarelli

Institution: UNESPAR/EMBAP

Abstract

Community choral practice has been consolidated as a musical activity capable of fostering social inclusion, community integration, and the development of cognitive, emotional, and social skills (Amato, 2007; Campbell, 2018). This study presents reflections on the work of a youth choir offered as one of the arts education workshops of the PIEW Program (Program for Initiation and Encouragement to Work) of the Itaipu Binational Hydroelectric Plant in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. The group is composed of adolescents between sixteen and eighteen years old, as well as company interns, approximately twenty-one years old, who participate mainly during the period of their contracts.

Working with these young apprentices brings specific challenges, such as the ethnic and cultural diversity of the tri-border region, the short participation period, and the social vulnerability experienced by many members. These factors directly affect the group’s emotional, relational, and performative aspects, making the process of building collective singing more complex. Pedagogical work involves developing individual and ensemble tuning, organizing voice divisions, ensuring regular attendance, and selecting a repertoire that is contextualized and motivating.

This paper aims to present pedagogical tools and initiatives designed to enhance the performance of this amateur choir, focusing both on musical growth and on personal and community empowerment. Understanding musical practice in social projects as a social practice, music education here intersects with inclusive education, social education, special education, and music therapy (Souza, 2014; França, 2005). Nevertheless, music retains its independence and vitality as a phenomenon of artistic expression (Wickel, 1998).

Grounded in a humanizing approach to music education, the choral activity within the PIEW Program becomes a collective musical practice with potential for intervention in contexts of vulnerability. It serves as a space of diversity and inclusion, where educational purposes emerge from the relationships among students and their engagement with music. The choir fosters collective learning, collaboration, autonomy, problem-solving, and the sense of accomplishment. Based on three years of teaching experience, this study demonstrates that, even in adverse conditions, choral singing can be consolidated as a tool of artistic expression, social inclusion, and community development.

References

Amato, R. C. F. (2007). O canto coral como prática sócio-cultural e educativo-musical. Opus, 13(1).

Campbell, P. S. (2018). Music, Education, and Diversity. Teachers College Press.

Wickel, H. H. (1998). Musik in der Sozialen Arbeit. Waxmann.