Mediterranean Forum of Musical Childhoods, Education and Culture 

Springboard for the establishment of the Forum has been the distinguished Erasmus+ Key Action 2 Strategic Partnership Project MusiChild Early Childhood Music Education in the Mediterranean; raising children’s musicality, evaluating music learning and enabling teachers’ preparation (2014-2017) designed and coordinated by C.C.R.S.M. with academics and professionals’ participation from around the Mediterranean region. The project has been selected as a best practice Erasmus+ project for the school sector and was presented at the 30-Year Erasmus Celebration Conference in Bonn, Germany in May 2017. The Mediterranean Forum for Musical Childhoods, Education and Culture constitutes an initiative of the non-profit independent academic organization C.C.R.S.M. Cyprus Centre for the Research and Study of Music.

The Cyprus Centre for the Research and Study of Music (C.C.R.S.M.) in collaboration with the Cyprus Association of Private Preschool Education (C.A.P.P.E.), with the support of the Department of Arts of the European University of Cyprus and with the contribution of the Pancyprian Organisation of Private Music Teachers (P.O.I.KA.M.), organised its first Conference dedicated in Early Childhood Music Education and Musical Childhoods, in Nicosia, 20-22 April 2018, followed by Academic Conferences in Spain.

(Gap of work 2020-2022 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and restriction measures)

Aims

The Forum aims to build inclusivity, sustainability, value and excellence in music and child learning and teaching, musical communication among different sections of society and music education connected to children’s music learning and development and the training of educators and music educators. It aims to support music learning and teaching in different regions of the Mediterranean basin and beyond and create wider access to more relevant, high-quality music education and musical enculturation. It stresses the importance of inclusive music education and teacher music training around the region, high-quality music learning and teaching material and products and invites international research and informed practice dialogue, exchange, comparative thinking and collaboration.   

The Forum aims to:

• share and promote current ideas in music education that are based on research and best pedagogical practices internationally;
• discuss comparatively the various ways in which children participate in their own musical cultures and practices;
• support music education in different regions/nations/communities of the Mediterranean and beyond;
• update Mediterranean musical traditions, heritage, worlds, styles and practices with more relevant, effective, child-centred and human agency-focused music education practices and research findings;
• reveal the multidimensional Mediterranean worlds of young children and their musical enculturation; compare and discuss similarities and differences in music transmission across cultures;
• improve informed music education practices, music instruction and pre-service and in-service teacher training;
• establish and cultivate extensions and synergies beyond the Mediterranean region, in Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Australia.
• intensify the international dimension and conceptualisation of values, principles and beliefs associated with the Mediterranean, music, childhood, education and culture. 
• expand the development of research in the fields of music, young child and learning and teaching in the region by promoting discussion, reflection, project development and collaboration;    
• create wider access to better quality music education;  
• create a platform for creating and developing high-quality music learning and teaching material and products.
• contribute to the musical well-being and development of the whole child
• contribute to more joyful musical lives for the child, the teacher, the adult and all stakeholders involved.