Alexander Crooke

University of Melbourne | MSD · Melbourne Conservatorium of Music

Increasing pressures to justify the value of music in schools over recent decades has led to the construction of three distinct areas of benefits: intrinsic (or musical) benefits, extrinsic benefits related to academic and/or cognitive development, and extrinsic benefits related to psychosocial wellbeing. While some argue these categories have been...

While policy-based advocacy for music in schools has previously focused on arguments for cognitive and academic benefits, scholars have increasingly critiqued this rationale. Such critique is now reflected in Australian policy documentation, which now emphasises psychosocial benefits as the most notable non-musical advantage of student music partic...

While music therapy courses rarely cover the finer points of social policy, a basic knowledge of how this system of governance works can be highly beneficial for those wanting to maximise their presence and impact in a given field. Taking an ecological approach, this article presents how music therapy as a discipline and practice can be seen as loc...

The potential for music programs to promote psychosocial wellbeing in mainstream schools is recognised in both policy and research literature. Despite this recognition, there is a dearth of consistent research evidence supporting this link. Authors attribute this lack of consistent evidence to limitations in the areas of research design and method,...

Aims: To explore and identify the barriers and enablers of music provision in Australian schools, as seen through the eyes of four Melbourne-based school principals, to inform policymakers and other school leadership teams. Study Design: The study used an exploratory design. Place and Duration of Study: Interviews were undertaken across multiple s...

As our societies become increasingly multicultural, our collective ability to understand and tolerate differences is critical for social cohesion. Music has been used by many organisations to help foster connection across cultural divides, yet research suggests it is not always a simple exchange. This paper tests the feasibility of a framework form...

The chapters that make up this book recognise through examples from research, practice, and evaluation of quality with lived experiences that diverse contemporary popular musics can provide useful tools not just for entertainment and fun, but for learning, growth, and healing/wellness. Hip hop, techno, grime, drill, and suchlike are contemporary ge...

The chapters that make up this book recognise through examples from research, practice, and evaluation of quality with lived experiences that diverse contemporary popular musics can provide useful tools not just for entertainment and fun, but for learning, growth, and healing/wellness. Hip hop, techno, grime, drill, and suchlike are contemporary ge...

Regional conflict, growing technological developments, and climate change have seen high migration rates, which are likely to rise. Discrimination and violence at the hands of host societies continue to threaten the well-being of immigrant communities, as well as wider social cohesion in migration destinations. The urgency of the situation has been...

School engagement is a global crisis predicted to intensify in the context of COVID-19. As a consequence, education agendas have increasingly adopted whole-child and inclusive approaches, leading to new mandates and curriculums designed to curb the associated individual and social outcomes of school dropout. Yet, teachers are often left to implemen...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.905418.].

This paper presents a new approach for music therapists in schools wishing to support the work of teachers. This music therapy approach is underpinned by theoretical resources drawn from community music therapy and a critical inclusive approach to education. Illustrative examples of the first authors’ music therapy practice as part of a teacher pro...

A number of popular theories about trauma have suggested rhythm has potential as a mechanism for regulating arousal levels. However, there is very little literature examining this proposal from the perspective of the young people who might benefit. This action research project addresses this gap by collaborating with four groups of children in the...

In the current education climate, Australian schools are encouraged to provide arts programs, yet there is little dedicated funding for provision and leadership must balance resource allocation with other curriculum and policy priorities. To determine how best to support school leaders in this area, we undertook a three-year project with local indu...

As COVID-19-driven lockdowns and social distancing became the new normal in 2020, musicians experienced a reshuffling of their social networks. This article uses in-depth interviews with nine community arts practitioners in Australia, Norway and the United States to explore the impact of COVID-19 on their ability to practise, collaborate and connec...

Arts programs are increasingly recognized for their role in promoting student development and cohesive school communities. Yet, most Australian schools are left to navigate a landscape characterized by shifting policy goals and external providers of diverse quality and intent. Drawing on interviews with 27 stakeholders from 19 Catholic primary scho...

This exploratory study engages with eight case studies of music performances broadcast online to investigate the role of music in facilitating social cohesion, intercultural understanding and community resilience during a time of social distancing and concomitant heightened racial tensions. Using an online ethnographic approach and thematic analysi...

Mental health remains a significant issue among young people in the US and elsewhere. Evidence of the beneficial role Hip Hop-based approaches can play in this space is growing. The value of such approaches centers on links to community, culture, and the therapeutic potential of practicing certain Hip Hop elements. Yet, while there has been a stead...

Recent theorizing about the connection between the brain and trauma (Perry, 2009; Porges, 2011; van der Kolk, 2015) has led to a burgeoning of interest in the provision of music-based programs with people who have had adverse experiences. Although there has been critique of the lack of scientific basis of these theories and their implications for p...

Hip Hop culture has shown an increasing presence in mainstream schooling over the last 15 years. This presence has taken many forms, including extracurricular programs, pedagogical tools, and whole-school approaches to student learning and development. Yet, discourse explicitly exploring the use of Hip Hop to facilitate wellbeing outcomes in school...

This article presents findings from a critical interpretive synthesis of the literature pertaining to music therapist teacher support. Descriptions of music therapists providing support to teachers were identified in 40 publications and subject to a process of critical interrogation. Through this process, three tensions were identified that had the...

A challenge faced by many students is the loss of academic skills during the summer months. However, less attention is given to social and emotional needs during the summer. Thirty-five middle school students from low-SES homes participated in a summer program designed to improve verbal, academic, and youth development competencies. Three students...

This article offers insights into using various music technologies associated with beat making culture in music therapy improvisation groups. Discussion regarding the use of music technology in music therapy practice dates back several decades, yet practical resources to help therapists implement this technology in everyday practice remains relativ...

This article contextualises music technology within the Hip Hop tradition of beat making. While literature exploring music technology in music therapy has proliferated in recent years, much of this has focused on the “assistive” function of technology, where it is used to facilitate music making for clients who have limited access to playing acoust...

This article explores the extent to which recent policy-based advocacy for music in Australian schools has been guided by economic arguments. This exploration was driven by emerging commentary on the rise of neo-social education policy, which is said to have reframed equality and social justice in education as tools for economic agendas. To explore...

Although the notion of sustainability is popular in rhetoric associated with arts programmes in Australian schools, shared meanings are lacking. References to sustainability may be rooted in any combination of pragmatic, economic and/or health bases. We chose to investigate what stakeholders involved in the provision of school-based arts practices...

This paper explores how Indigenous Hip-Hop in Australia has become a powerful force for both advocating for Indigenous issues, and expressing contemporary Indigenous identity. We argue that Australian Indigenous Hip-Hop cannot merely be understood as either an adoption or reinterpretation of a Hip-Hop culture from the USA, nor as an attempt to hark...

Background Music forms an important part of the lives and identities of adolescents and may have positive or negative mental health implications. Music therapy can be effective for mental disorders such as depression, but its preventive potential is unknown. Objective The aim of this study was to examine whether group music therapy (GMT) is an eff...

Music and arts programs have increasingly been utilized to promote school engagement. Despite the fact that school engagement and music programs can be understood in myriad ways, little attention has been paid to potential distinctions between the types of music programs that underpin engagement. This article describes an investigation of how and w...

This article reports on the student benefits of a school-based Hip Hop and beat making program. While a significant amount of literature has reported the benefits of Hip Hop programs in North American schools, comparatively little is known about the benefits of such programs in the Australian context. Using an ethnographic approach, this study expl...

This project explores the challenges of investigating the psychosocial wellbeing benefits of musical participation in mainstream schools. For a decade, Australian policy literature has claimed these benefits are to be expected outcomes of all students’ participation in school music programs (Australian Government, 2005). Despite these claims, there...

Participation in meaningful school music programs is the right of all children. Although music education is widely supported by policy, significant gaps exist in practice in most developed Western countries. These gaps mean the extrinsic and intrinsic benefits associated with participation in tailored programs are not equally available to all learn...

Background GPs detect at best 50c of mental health problems in young people. Barriers to detecting mental health problems include lack of screening tools, limited appointment times and young people's reluctance to report mental health symptoms to GPs. The mobiletype program is a mobile phone mental health assessment and management application which...

Introduction and aims: Alcohol use during adolescence is associated with the onset of alcohol use disorders, mental health disorders, substance abuse as well as socially and physically damaging behaviours, the effects of which last well into adulthood. Nevertheless, alcohol use remains prevalent in this population. Understanding motivations behind...

The stepped-care approach, where people with early symptoms of depression are stepped up from low-intensity interventions to higher-level interventions as needed, has the potential to assist many people with mild depressive symptoms. Self-monitoring techniques assist people to understand their mental health symptoms by increasing their emotional se...

Over 75% of mental health problems begin in adolescence and primary care has been identified as the target setting for mental health intervention by the World Health Organisation. The mobiletype program is a mental health assessment and management mobile phone application which monitors mood, stress, coping strategies, activities, eating, sleeping,...

center (15% and 17% respectively). The three preferred sources of information about parenting and adolescent preventive health were providers, the internet and monthly newsletters. Parents' actual sources of information varied by socio-demo-graphics. Parents who were less educated were more likely to obtain information via the TV while those who we...

Small scale cultural production has been largely ignored in academic debates regarding the production of popular culture. Despite this, there have been a select number of theorists who have suggested that the study of cultural production on this scale may provide valuable insight for larger debates, including those concerning cultural diversity. Un...