In March 2020 I started a new job as a music teacher at Het Aventurijncollege in Bergen op Zoom. I had just finished my bachelor's degree in which I had researched how to use trauma-sensitive music lessons as a tool in refugee camps in Lesbos. For this I also had to travel to Greece twice to give music lessons in the refugee camps.
With these experiences in my pocket, I started in good spirits as a music teacher at a secondary special education school in Bergen op Zoom. A school where many students have also had to deal with traumatic experiences in their lives. I really didn't have the illusion that I could apply my research one-on-one at Het Aventurijncollege, but I did encounter problems that I hadn't thought about beforehand. For example, the students of Het Aventurijncollege had to go to music lessons. This was simply part of the students' educational curriculum. As a music teacher, this is a choice that makes me very happy, but for the students it is mainly a lesson that they have to go to and do not always feel like it. In addition, there was a subject plan at Het Aventurijncollege that set musical goals that the students had to achieve at the end of four years of education, but the students lacked a lot of skills to be able to start a music lesson at all.
However, there is one big similarity between the students in the refugee camp and the students at Het Aventurijncollege. Both have not chosen the situation they are in and that is the core for the target group that I want to work for. Surely it should not be the case that due to circumstances where you have no influence you have fewer opportunities than someone else?
In recent years, I have wondered a lot about what I can actually do for these target groups as a music teacher. The elective course Socially Engagaed Artistic Practice has inspired me enormously and has also given me inspiration to give direction to this research.
Het Aventurijncollege is already trying to combat this inequality of opportunity by connecting as well as possible with the educational curriculum of regular education in order to increase the transition to regular education and successful participation in society. With this research we hope to make a small contribution to minimizing this switch. In the coming years I will continue to focus on optimizing music lessons for target groups such as secondary education.
For this research I have had a lot of support from teachers and experts from the field. First of all, I would like to thank my research supervisor Marijke Smedema for her inspiration, help, feedback, listening ear. I would also like to thank Adri de Vugt for all the inspiration during the lectures and conversations about my research. In addition, I would like to thank all respondents. They have always responded enthusiastically to the research and have made time to inspire me and give me feedback. I would also like to thank Het Aventurijncollege. They are working hard to increase the equality of opportunity of the students and have helped to give direction to this research. In addition, they have given me every opportunity to do this study in addition to my work at the school. I would especially like to thank the students of Het Aventurijncollege. They put a smile on my face every day.I would like to thank Renee Jonker for all the inspiration during the courses Leading & Guiding and Socially Engaged Artistic Practice. Finally, I would like to thank my parents and Wiebe Lindijer. For the unconditional love and supoort in all my dreams and plans.
