Does music have healing powers?

Suitable for 14-19-year olds (secondary and high schools, and college), this article and accompanying activity sheet can be used in the classroom, clubs and at home.

This resource links to KS4 and KS5 music, citizenship and sociology.

It can also be used as a careers resource and links to Gatsby Benchmarks:
Gatsby Benchmark 2: Learning from career and labour market information
Gatsby Benchmark 4: Linking curriculum learning to careers

• Social music programmes around the world are encouraging communities to sing and play their way from conflict to peace. The Arts of Inclusion (TAI), a network founded by Professor Oscar Odena at the University of Glasgow, UK, is studying the results to find out if music really does have healing powers.

• This teaching resource contains interviews with members of the TAI network, offering a fascinating insight into social music programmes worldwide, from DRC to Colombia. If your students have questions for the team, they can ask online. All they need to do is to go to the article online (see the Futurum link below), scroll down to the end and type in the question(s). Oscar will reply!

• The activity sheet provides ‘talking points’ (based on Bloom’s Taxonomy) to prompt students to reflect on TAI’s research and challenges them to consider whether music can be a tool for social transformation.

This resource was first published on Futurum Careers, a free online resource and magazine aimed at encouraging 14-19-year-olds worldwide to pursue careers in science, tech, engineering, maths, medicine (STEM) and social sciences, humanities and the arts for people and the economy (SHAPE).

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