Possible Selves dos jovens da periferia de Fortaleza: uma pesquisa de métodos mistos em espaços não escolares com cursos de Música

Abstract

Music teaching in non-school-based settings has been growing and gaining highlight in the realm of academic research. Those spaces often take the form of institutions offering diverse musical possibilities and usually have, as their overall goal, the aim of making music and arts teaching more democratic. Thanks to having experienced musical practice in such spaces since 2010, questionings arose on how music is valued by the students attending such institutions, as well as on the relevance of the practices carried out in the classes for their lives and future goals (“possible selves”). In this context, this research aims at understanding how musical activities undertaken in five non-school scenarios located in the outskirts of Fortaleza come to shape the possible selves of the students attending the music courses delivered at those institutions. Creswell’s “Mixed Methods” research (2010) serves as methodological foundation for this investigation since it makes use of quantitative and qualitative approaches in a combined and complementary manner, which takes place via the usage of questionnaires (both quantitative and qualitative) as data collection instruments. The quantitative results confirm that the spaces surveyed in the outskirts of Fortaleza have changed the students’ future perspectives through musical and social formation. The qualitative data, however, show that such changes in perspective are related to a formation that encourages the students’ intrapersonal and interpersonal development, in addition to offering possibilities and skills for new professional perspectives in many areas of the artistic industry. All that considered, the relevance of such institutions as formative spaces which transcend the musical artistic creation becomes clear, as well as their role as change enablers for the futures of those young people who stem from many neighborhoods situated in the outskirts of Fortaleza.