Sustainable Becoming-Music of Pre-Service Early Childhood Teachers Through Intra-Action with Materials in Invented Notation Activities

Abstract

The current study examined how pre-service early childhood teachers, through invented notation activities, intra-act with the agency of music and the environment to achieve a process of becoming-music, grounded in Barad’s agential realism, presuming that it is necessary to consider the encounter with music itself rather than perceiving it as a ‘teaching subject’. The collected data included 54 sets of invented notations performed by 22 pre-service teachers, recorded videos of their performances driven by their interpretations, their journals, and observational records and notes by the researcher. Qualitative analysis was conducted based on the intra-actions between the pre-service teachers and music. In the invented notation activity, pre-service teachers initiated their engagement by encountering musical concepts and experimenting with diverse art materials as well as daily-life items. They generated sounds and created three-dimensional invented notations designed to guide the performance of the sounds. Furthermore, they deeply responded to the symbols within the invented notations, connecting their daily lives and music. They continued to realize the becoming-music through the ongoing generation of N-dimensional sounds. Pre-service teachers, through invented notation activities, experienced musical thinking not as an acquisition of pre-established knowledge and skills but rather through a direct encounter with music itself. This suggests that invented notation activities provide a sustainable learning environment by facilitating a dynamic entanglement with music. Furthermore, it indicates that post-humanism, which proposes a relational symbiosis between human and nonhuman entities, serves as a fundamental framework for education for sustainable development.

1. Introduction

A growing body of research on the perceptions and practices of pre-service early childhood teachers in music education has highlighted that despite acknowledging the significance of musical activities for young children, pre-service teachers often tend to refrain from actively engaging in music because of a perceived inadequacy in their musical abilities and the impact of previous negative musical experiences (Stuart & Thurlow, 2000; Valerio & Freeman, 2009; Vannatta-Hall, 2010). In actual early childhood education settings, creative musical activities are frequently overshadowed by the rote learning of new songs and basic movement expressions. As a result, teacher educators strongly recommend that fostering positive musical attitudes in pre-service teachers during teacher education programs requires providing them with creative musical experiences. Positive musical experiences during teacher education can enhance musical self-concepts (Sanders & Browne, 1998), and creative musical experiences motivate teachers to incorporate inventive activities into their teaching practices (Stavrou, 2012; White, 2006). Therefore, it is obvious that, to encourage pre-service teachers to confidently lead musical activities, ‘the experience of encountering music itself’ should precede the learning of ‘music teaching methods’.

Before approaching music as a ‘teaching subject’, pre-service teachers should first experience music as a ‘sensory and enjoyable’ encounter, with a fundamental understanding of the essence of music, because their positive attitudes and experiences toward music are more likely to be connected to the execution of music activities as a teacher. Hence, teacher educators should not start with ‘how to teach music to pre-service teachers for children’ but consider ‘how to introduce pre-service teachers to music’.

The significance of pre-service teachers’ encounters with music itself lies in the post-humanist perspective, which grants music, as a material entity, agency, placing it on equal footing with humans. Barad (2007) posits that authentic learning occurs when humans and nonhumans entangle as equals, co-constructing meaning. Building on Barad’s theory in early childhood education, Taguchi (2010) conceptualized the process of becoming as the emergence of new meanings through affective encounters between humans and materials. In this view, learning is not a fixed entity but an ongoing process of intra-action with materials, continuously evolving into new forms.

The concepts of agency and becoming in post-humanism hold particular significance in interpreting pre-service teachers’ musical learning as a dynamic process. The process of learning music goes beyond acquiring predetermined knowledge and technical skills. Rather, it unfolds as a continuous process of experimentation and inquiry, where pre-service teachers and music engage in relational intra-action, generating new and unforeseen meaning.

Meanwhile, the significance of becoming-music from a post-humanist perspective is further reaffirmed within the framework of education for sustainable development (ESD). Since ESD necessitates transformative changes in educational practices to prepare for the future (Ottoson & Samuelsson, 2008), sustainable music education must go beyond memorizing fixed musical knowledge and acquiring technical skills. Instead, it should be understood as a learning process that emerges through intra-action between pre-service teachers and the musical environments they encounter. In this sense, the post-humanist conception of learning aligns with the fundamental principles of ESD (Sadownik & Gabi, 2021), emphasizing learning as an ongoing process of entanglement and transformation. Thus, pre-service teachers’ intra-action with music can be regarded as a form of sustainable musical learning.

Accordingly, this study proposes invented notation activities (Baek, 2018, 2020) as a means to facilitate pre-service teachers’ sustainable musical experiences. In conjunction with these activities, the purpose of the study is to explore how pre-service teachers become entangled with music and, in doing so, evolve into sustainable musical beings.

1.1. Theoretical Framework

1.1.1. Post-Humanism and Education for Sustainable Development

The necessity for pre-service teachers to encounter music not as a subject to be taught but as an experience in itself can be theoretically grounded in Deleuze and Barad’s post-humanist philosophy, as well as in education for sustainable development. Deleuze (1994) argues that genuine learning occurs when humans respond to the signs embedded in matter and the environment, thereby generating new differences and engaging in a process of becoming. The concept of becoming does not refer to education as a means of achieving a fixed, universal, or ideal state of being; rather, it signifies an ongoing ontological transformation that continuously generates difference (Kim, 2021).

In this sense, human existence is never fixed or predetermined; rather, it holds an inherent potential for infinite transformation, continuously moving toward deterritorialization from any temporary territorialization whenever an escape becomes possible (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004). Thus, becoming concerns the very process of existence itself, in which the self is reconfigured and the subject is continually reconstituted. Consequently, the notion of a fixed and immutable ‘human’ becomes untenable, as becoming is an experiential process that perpetually unsettles and redefines the subject.

In Deleuze’s philosophy of differenciation, the becoming-music of pre-service early childhood teachers is not a process of acquiring fixed and predetermined knowledge within a result-oriented educational environment. Rather, it is a dynamic process in which pre-service teachers become entangled with the signs emitted by various surrounding materials, engaging in new attempts and experiments to shape their musical existence. Moreover, by deterritorializing from the striated space of predetermined musical content and technical skills, pre-service teachers engage with signs that compel thought within their specific contexts and environments. This process of entanglement generates a continuous pre-service teacher-music-becoming, which is neither a reproduction of prior states nor a universal definition of music. Instead, it constitutes a relational becoming between pre-service teachers and music, embodying musical learning as an ongoing process of becoming.

Barad (2007) focuses on relational materialism based on agential realism within the framework of post-humanist philosophy. She defines agency not as predetermined attributes within humans or nonhumans but as an ever-changing dynamic within the entanglement of complicated intra-actions, where specific practices are continually evolving. Moreover, she argues that both humans and matter inherently possess agency, and discourse, concepts, and meanings are generated not by humans but by the intertwined dynamic relationship between humans and materials. This is effectively consistent with Deleuze’s (1994) notion that meaning exists not within objects or the mind but in the ‘in-between’ of these entities, challenging the dichotomy between physical and mental existence.

In Barad’s (2007) agential realism, another crucial concept is intra-action. Intra-action refers to the ongoing process in which entangled agencies mutually influence each other while reciprocally constituting each other through their performances. This denotes that individual entities do not merely interact in a pre-determined ontological state; instead, their agential latent capacities at the stage of ontological indeterminacy emerge from within to the outside at the moment of encounter. It signifies their existence in a state of entanglement, where they are jointly co-constituting and generating one another. The notion of intra-action underscores that agential entities do not exist objectively but are rather co-constituted within the relationship of ‘in-between’ of these agencies, highlighting the relationality and aliveness of the world. In essence, it captures the dynamic relationships where humans and nonhumans blend, and material and meaning coalesce, embodying the characteristics of becoming-new.

Education for sustainable development (ESD) refers to an educational approach that cultivates the attitudes, values, behaviors, and lifestyles necessary for sustainable living and transformative social change toward a sustainable future (UNESCO, 2005). In other words, ESD is a broad concept that offers differentiated directions across various aspects of education, including relevance, accessibility, inclusivity, and balance. It serves as a paradigm shift that transforms the philosophy and goals of education, along with individuals’ values, attitudes, behaviors, and ways of life (UNESCO, 2012). Initially, ESD emerged from environmental education in response to the global crisis brought about by climate change. However, it has since evolved into a comprehensive framework that encompasses environmental, socio-cultural, and economic dimensions. While there is growing recognition of the importance and necessity of ESD across various fields, educational practice has faced sharp criticism for the tendency to hastily implement teaching methods without a clear understanding of the concept, background, and foundational principles of sustainable development (Grindheim et al., 2019).

The core of ESD lies not merely in what is taught but in shifting from a traditional knowledge transmission-based education model to a future-oriented, integrative, and ecologically connected way of thinking, thereby transforming the overall educational paradigm (Elliot, 2010). That is, rather than focusing solely on the question of ‘what’ and ‘how’ to teach, it is essential to emphasize the philosophical dimension of education—‘why’ we teach and the underlying values it seeks to promote. Previous studies have also highlighted the need to examine ESD from a fundamental perspective, such as educational discourse, rather than merely evaluating practical cases or assessing the effectiveness of programs (Ji, 2019). When approaching ESD as a matter of values, it becomes crucial to reconsider the relational dynamics between humans and nature.

The early concept of sustainable development proposed by the United Nations characterizes humans as external and superior to nature, positioning them in opposition to the natural world while overlooking the ecological understanding that humans are an integral part of nature (Malone, 2017). However, given the dual positionality of humans, they are not only citizens of specific nations but also members of a planetary community on Earth. Therefore, a complex and multidimensional understanding of sustainability is essential to realize ‘democracy beyond the human’ (Ellis, 2018), which respects and acknowledges the rights of nonhuman entities.

Sadownik and Gabi (2021) proposed re-theorizing educational phenomena by applying the concept of post-humanism to address the imbalance among the economic, environmental, and social pillars of sustainability discourse and to further the realization of ‘democracy beyond the human’. The traditional humanist perspective has confined learning to inter-human relationships, treating nonhuman elements as secondary. However, they argue that nonhuman elements—such as nature, artifacts, and spaces—should be recognized as significant agents in learning, actively shaping the process through ‘intra-action’ with humans. This theoretical approach allows sustainability research to transcend anthropocentric thinking, moving toward a more holistic and integrative perspective. Ultimately, it fosters a more balanced approach to ESD in both theory and practice.

Therefore, post-humanism can serve as a foundational framework for education for sustainable development (ESD), offering a pathway to symbiosis in which human and nonhuman entities coexist. By acknowledging the agency of nonhumans in post-humanism, a sustainable future can be pursued through ‘intra-action’, in which humans neither dominate nonhumans nor are overwhelmed by them. When the post-humanist perspective forms the philosophical foundation of ESD, its implementation can unfold in a more holistic and integrated manner.

1.1.2. Invented Notation Activities

The current study proposes the invented notation activity as a means to encourage pre-service teachers to experience encountering music itself, engage with music materials, and nurture musical thinking by generating intra-actions with music, rather than focusing solely on fragmented knowledge and skill acquisition. The invented notation activity entails an activity in which children utilize their own symbols to represent music based on a presented musical piece, serving as a device to actively demonstrate children’s music cognition processes (Bamberger, 1982).

Most of the research on invented notation conducted in Europe, North America and South Korea has mainly focused on children’s music notation strategies by analyzing children’s invented notations, such as types of music notation strategies by age (Davidson & Scripp, 1988; Upitis, 1986), musical competence in relation to notation strategies (Baek, 2014b), and examples of creative musical thinking (Pramling, 2009). In the studies applying the invented notation activity to pre-service teachers, Baek (2014a, 2018) demonstrates how pre-service teachers can record music concepts in a creative manner. These studies show that by engaging in invention notation activities, pre-service teachers are able to express their thought processes and daily experiences through music notation. This approach helps future educators internalize and effectively communicate musical ideas. However, previous studies employing invented notation with young children have primarily concentrated on scrutinizing the results of invented notations, overlooking a substantial emphasis on unveiling the relationality and dynamism between children and music during the process of notating music. Furthermore, prior research applying the Invented Notation Activities to pre-service teachers, grounded in constructivism, has predominantly centered on the meaning of music constructed by pre-service teachers. Therefore, few studies have considered the analysis of the intra-actions between pre-service teachers and music, drawing on the post-humanist relational materialism proposed in this study.

In pre-service teacher education, the objectives and content of early childhood music education are often predetermined. They typically emphasize understanding children’s musical development, acquiring teaching methods for various activities, and mastering skills such as singing and piano accompaniment. In the process of acquiring the pre-structured knowledge and technical skills arranged by teacher educators, it seems challenging to uncover the ‘intra-active’ relationality described in Barad’s (2007) agential realism and the ‘vitality’ inherent in Deleuze’s (1994) concept of ‘becoming’. Moreover, this knowledge- and skill-oriented process appears disconnected from the vision of sustainable learning, which is rooted in the symbiotic coexistence of humans and nonhumans in future societies. Consequently, there is a pressing need for a ‘sustainable’ early childhood music education process, in which the relational entanglement and ‘intra-actions’ among pre-service teachers, music, and the diverse materials and environments surrounding them can take place.

This current study aims to examine the process wherein pre-service teachers select sounds to document, notate the sounds using symbols, and then play back the notated symbols as music within the invented notation activity and explore the intra-actions and relational entanglement among the sounds constituting one’s daily life, music, environment, and material, generating the process of becoming-music. By doing so, this study endeavors to highlight the significance of experiences in the intricately entangled process of ‘becoming-music’, in which pre-service teachers directly encounter music itself and actively engage in ‘intra-actions’ with it (Barad, 2007; Deleuze, 1994; Taguchi, 2010). This process, framed as ‘sustainable becoming-music’, represents a crucial aspect of their growth as educators, contrasting with the conventional acquisition of predetermined knowledge and prescribed skills in teacher education programs.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. The Researcher and Participants

The invented notation activity was conducted in the researcher’s course on early childhood music education. The researcher, a professor and specialist in early childhood education at University A in Korea, has been teaching the early childhood music education course at the undergraduate level for over a decade. Initiating research on post-structuralism and post-humanism, the researcher’s focus has shifted toward cultivating ‘competent pre-service teachers’ who can effectively engage with the diverse materials surrounding them. This shift in focus aimed to broaden pre-service teachers’ perspectives beyond mere proficiency in teaching music, encouraging them to become educators who actively ‘intra-act’ with music and foster ‘sustainable’ musical learning. The invented notation activity served as one approach toward achieving these objectives.

The participants in the study were twenty-two pre-service teachers currently enrolled in the researcher’s course on early childhood music education during the Spring semester of 2023. Nineteen sophomore students majored in early childhood education, and three students who majored in general education (two seniors and one sophomore) took this course as part of their double major. These pre-service teachers have completed arts-related courses such as music practice (piano accompaniment) and early childhood art education, as well as fundamental courses in early childhood education, including introduction to early childhood education and philosophical thoughts in early childhood education.

2.2. Description of the Invented Notation Activity

The invented notation activity undertaken by pre-service teachers spanned a four-week duration in the early childhood music education course. In the first week, the participants attended lectures on the definition and concept of invented notation, along with insights and implications drawn from examples of children’s invented notations. The following three weeks were dedicated to hands-on activities associated with invented notation.

The invented notation activity assigned to pre-service teachers was composed of two primary stages: (1) creating their own invented notations and (2) interpreting them for performance. The process of generating invented notations took place over a period of two weeks, followed by the interpretation and performance of these notations in the fourth week. During the creation phase, each participant was instructed to represent three self-selected sounds or brief pieces of music individually. For this purpose, they were directed to select meaningful sounds or music and encouraged to explore diverse art materials surrounding themselves and then contemplate methods for documenting these sounds to complete the task. They were provided with a two-week time frame, during which they could change or modify the theme of their chosen music and experiment with different art materials and recycled or household items. In doing so, they shared ideas with their peers and the researcher, persistently working on finalizing their invented notations.

In the third week, there was a session in class dedicated to sharing three invented notations that each participant had notated. During this session, they discussed the reasons behind their choice of particular sounds and music, shared the challenges they encountered while recording and documenting the music, and explained the strategies they employed to deal with these challenges. Additionally, the session included an opportunity for participants to listen to and appreciate the invented notations, generated by their peers.

In the fourth week, a group activity centered on the interpretation and performance of invented notations was carried out. The twenty-two pre-service teachers were divided into four groups, each composed of five or six members. In order to introduce an invented notation entirely new to each of the four groups, the researcher selected four sets of invented notations, each created by members of a different group. Consequently, each group was presented with a previously unfamiliar invented notation. After collaboratively deciphering the symbols on the given invented notation, the group members proceeded to perform the invented notation, utilizing musical instruments or daily-life items such as a box, towels, erasers, and pencils. In the end, similar to a concert, the four groups concluded with interpretative explanations of the invented notations assigned to their respective groups, followed by group performances.

In addition, the pre-service teachers were individually asked to compose journals on the creation and interpretation of invented notations for performance. These journals captured a comprehensive sketch to document the selected sounds, featuring photographs depicting the exploration of artistic materials, along with accounts of their experiences with detailing both unsuccessful attempts and successful stories in recording the sounds.

2.3. Generating Data

The data collected in this study comprise outcomes generated by diverse agencies including the pre-service teachers, the researcher, and music and art materials over a four-week. Firstly, the data generated by the pre-service teachers include a total of sixty-six individual invented notations and performance videos of reinterpreting invented notations by four groups. Additionally, two journals written by each participant on the creation and interpretation of invented notations for performance, forty-four journals in total, were collected.

Secondly, the data generated by the researcher encompass observational field texts of discussions and interpretation processes among pre-service teachers, accompanied by the researcher’s notes. During the invented notations activities, diverse questions and informal interviews exchanged between the pre-service teachers and the researcher were recorded in the researcher’s notes.

Throughout the activities, the researcher observed, engaged in dialogue, and collaboratively planned with the pre-service teachers, tracing the flow of their practices and the substantial agency of music and materials. Rather than merely ‘collecting’ data, the researcher actively ‘generated’ data, participating in iterative cycles of reflection and reasoning alongside the collected materials.

Thirdly, the data generated through material engagement include photographs illustrating the instruments and everyday items used by the pre-service teachers, along with videos of the pre-service teachers’ performances and discussions. In essence, the data generated in this study were continuously evolving, entwined with the agency of pre-service teachers, the researcher, and the materials, undergoing constant transformation with each encounter.

The total collected dataset included sixty-six invented notations, and approximately 10 min of four performance videos. Additionally, forty-four journals, the researcher’s observational records and notes, including eight interview written records, were part of the compilation, resulting in a total of 98 pages.

2.4. Data Analysis: Thinking Alongside the Data

This study, grounded in post-humanism, explores the entanglement of pre-service teachers and music in invented notation activities, moving beyond fixed entities in order to consider their meaning through relational connections. Thus, rather than isolating the intra-actions of pre-service teachers, music, documentation, and artistic media, this study adopts a holistic approach, focusing on the emergent processes of becoming and offering a new perspective on the relationship between pre-service teachers and music.

To achieve this, post-qualitative research was employed, moving away from categorization or nomadization based on predefined concepts. Instead, the study focuses on events shaped by various agents, their voices, and their entanglements themselves (Jackson & Mazzei, 2012).

MacLure (2013) argues that researchers should acknowledge that data are not autonomously selected or arranged by the researcher but instead possess the capacity to make themselves intelligible. MacLure highlights the role of sensation and defines the moment when a piece of data captures our attention as the moment when the data ‘glows’.

This study draws on MacLure’s concept, engaging with data through sensory attempts in various ways to capture the moments when data ‘glow’. The process of analysis was not separate from data generation but instead intrinsically connected, unfolding repetitively in a nonlinear manner. This analytical process was entangled with post-humanist thought, resembling a bowl of spaghetti where everything is intricately intertwined (Graue & Walsh, 1998). Rather than merely applying philosophical concepts, this study sought to interweave observation, collected data, and philosophical theories into a continuous process, allowing the waves of thought to flow dynamically throughout the research.

In the invented notation activities, the intra-actions between pre-service teachers and music do not seek to establish a definitive stage of musical development, leaving them in a state of uncertainty. While these intra-actions inherently involve uncertainty and thus may appear weak in securing validity, viewing uncertainty from a different perspective reveals its disruptiveness, liveliness, and complexity, fostering the potential for slipping into learning (Kerasovitis, 2020).

In doing so, this study embraced the dynamic and complex nature of the research and its data, engaging with them in an open and multi-dimensional manner to capture and closely examine the diverse encounters and meanings generated by pre-service teachers in the invented notation activities.

3. Results

In the context of the Invented Notation Activities, the procedural intricacies of the ‘sustainable becoming-music’ process—manifested through the ‘intra-actions’ between pre-service teachers and music—will be elucidated and delineated into two distinct components: notating the invented notation and interpreting the invented notation.

3.1. The Intra-Actions in Notating Invented Notations

3.1.1. The Encounter of Sound, Materials, and Pre-Service Teachers: The Indeterminacy of Its Existence

The themes of sounds encountered by pre-service teachers for recording in invented notations were remarkably diverse. Likewise, the materials and methods chosen for recording these sounds exhibited substantial variability. The pre-service teachers judiciously curated sounds and discerned musical elements from a large number of everyday auditory occurrences that elicited affective responses. To visually articulate these selected sounds, they employed artistic materials and everyday items, thereby systematically creating invented notations.

The sounds and music inscribed within the invented notations transcended temporal and spatial boundaries, leaving a profound resonance with the pre-service teachers. For instance, the repeated logo song multiple times a day while working part-time at Subway, the recitation of Buddhist scriptures on ‘Buddha’s Birthday’, the distinct sounds of wooden clappers and singing bowls, the sounds of the journey to and from school, the specific ending melody of a particular washing machine in the laundry process, and traditional folk games like ‘Malttugbaggi’, reminiscent of Red Rover in the U.S., and ‘The Rose of Sharon Has Bloomed’, closely akin to a game of Statues often played in childhood alleyways. These auditory artifacts across their invented notations encapsulated an accumulation of temporal and spatial experiences of the pre-service teachers, preserving the essence of their encounters.

Furthermore, the diverse sounds and music were characterized by musical elements such as tone, pitch, and tempo. These musical constituents were visually regenerated within the invented notations through an amalgamation of diverse materials, including different types of paper, non-woven fabric, stickers, colored pencils, pencils, rubber bands, strings, straws, and other elements, arranged in a new assemblage.

As illustrated in Figure 1, the invented notation of ‘Buddha’s Birthday’, it is evident that Sehyun is encountering sounds that resonate well with her religion, Buddhism. More specifically, she documented sounds such as the recitation of Buddhist scriptures, the clinking of a wooden clapper, and the resonance of a singing bowl. In particular, she illustrated the intonation of the recitation of Buddhist scriptures with lines, highlighting the pitch variations. Additionally, for the depiction of the wooden clapper sound, thick, hardboard paper was used to recreate the sound of wood when tapping the clapper drawing. In Sehyun’s invented notation for ‘Buddha’s Birthday’, one can discover the relational entanglement of themes representing her musical characteristics in daily life, the musical concepts such as pitch and timbre that adaptively express the auditory qualities of these themes, and the artistic materials that visually articulate these musical concepts.

In other words, the agencies of sounds, music, artistic materials, and pre-service teachers encounter one another as “not predetermined beings”, Barad (2007), mutually influencing and becoming entangled in various materials and meaningful ways. Barad (2007) emphasized that when humans observe and identify the characteristics of an object, the difficulty in predicting these properties with certainty arises not from epistemological uncertainty but from the indeterminacy inherent in perception itself. Various agencies meet, arrange, and become intertwined in a state of indeterminacy, collectively and ultimately contributing to the construction of meaning. Thus, music, expressive materials, and pre-service teachers do not combine meanings based on predetermined characteristics. Instead, the experiences of Sehyun’s encounter with Buddha’s Birthday, the sounds of wooden texture, striking a Moktak (a wooden percussion instrument used for chanting by Buddhist clergy), and the dull sounds produced by striking thick, hardboard paper meet, arrange, and intertwine, leading to the material–semiotic formation depicted in Figure 1 of the invented notation, where meanings are materialized and imbued with significance.

3.1.2. The Intra-Actions and Diffractions of the Agency Engaged in the Notating Process

In the context of the invented notation activities, the agency responsible for the recording process is not limited to pre-service teachers alone but extends beyond their realm. The sounds and music to be recorded, along with artistic materials, daily items, and the environment, collaboratively contribute to the creation of invented notations. The auditory traces and impressions embedded in the memories of pre-service teachers, diverse expressive materials, and the environments surrounding them undergo a series of entangled becomings, mutually influencing one another, and sustainably participating in intra-actions.

Hansol comprehensively explored and experimented with various materials to capture the ‘Ambiance of Rural Night’, as depicted in Figure 2. Following a thorough investigation, she recorded the sound of stepping on fallen leaves using paper foil and the sound of rustling reeds using paper stuff in the invented notation.

Based on the examination of both journals and discussions, Hansol conducted an extensive exploration of diverse materials in order to actualize the intended sounds. Expressing discontent with the outcomes of ongoing experiments, she ultimately discovered the joy and delight upon realizing that the sounds of stepping on fallen leaves and rustling reeds could emerge by utilizing paper foil and paper stuff. Her vivid articulation of this experience was expressed in both journals and discussions.

Hansol dedicatedly endeavored to capture the crinkling sounds of stepping on fallen leaves, involving a systematic exploration of diverse materials, including aluminum foil, laminated foil, seasoned seaweed, snack wrappers, leaves, and plastic bags. Finally, her persistent experiments and successive examinations of various materials culminated in the serendipitous discovery of paper foil as the perfect substance for achieving the desired sound effect—‘the authentic rural ambiance of stepping on fallen leaves on that particular night’.

Hansol determined that the sounds of stepping on fallen leaves on a rural night, drawing upon her experimental knowledge and experience, could be most effectively replicated by layering five sheets of paper foil, carefully considering factors such as the quantity of layers and the optimal size for cutting. In essence, the crinkling sounds of five overlapping layers of paper foil, the sounds of stepping on fallen leaves on that day, and the performativity of the pre-service teacher, Hansol—interwoven in the in-between of the three agencies—were newly generated as the sounds of stepping on fallen leaves in the invented notation.

Moreover, Hansol embarked on an exploration to express the sounds of rustling reeds, initially experimenting with cutting paper thinly and shaking it. During this process, she sought a material softer and more flexible than paper, eventually discovering the efficacy of “paper stuff”. Hansol recounted in her journal that when closing her eyes and shaking the paper stuff, she could vividly recall the sounds of rustling reeds from that specific night. She expressed a sense of accomplishment in the newly created rustling sounds, which were an intra-action involving the shaking of paper stuff, the rustling of reeds from that night, and Hasol’s own performativity. These sounds underwent territorial deterritorialization (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004), which fundamentally entails the movement whereby individuals or entities depart from their original territory and essentially embodies the process of ‘a line of flight’. The term ‘deterritorialization’ is used to denote the attempt to transcend existing constraints, as part of processes related to the transformation of existence or material.

In short, the rustling sounds of reeds from that day, lingering in Hansol’s memory, encountered her ongoing experimentation with paper stuff as a ‘line of flight’. This deterritorialization moved beyond the existing state of rustling sounds of weeds, resulting in the creation of an invented notation for the newly created rustling sounds.

Meanwhile, considering that education for sustainable development (ESD) seeks to transcend the conventional fixation on knowledge and skills, pursuing instead wisdom for life that enables individuals to perceive the essence of things (Robinson & Vaealiki, 2010), Hansol can be seen as having created a *sustainable invented notation* by moving beyond fixed knowledge about paper foil and paper stuff to discover the intrinsic qualities of these materials. Hansol focused on the ‘agential capacities’ of paper foil and paper materials—not in their conventional functions, but in their ability to produce sounds reminiscent of stepping on fallen leaves and rustling reeds. Rather than adhering to their predefined symbolic meanings, Hansol responded to the affective signs that facilitated a deterritorialization into the ambiance of a rural night, creatively generating the sounds of fallen leaves and rustling reeds.

In this sense, the ‘agential capacity of materials’ serves as a key resource for fostering ‘sustainable musical experiences’. Hansol’s active engagement with the agency of materials can thus be interpreted as an instance of ‘sustainable musical learning’ emerging through entanglement.

The sounds of rustling leaves are universally recognized sounds, so I wanted to reproduce them flawlessly. I experimented with a variety of materials, including foil, seasoned seaweed, snack wrappers, real leaves, and plastic bags, in an attempt to replicate the sounds. However, despite these attempts, the produced sounds fell short of capturing the authenticity of the actual rustling of leaves. Therefore, contemplating a potential shift in focus, I made a final attempt by crumpling a piece of aluminium foil to generate sounds. Surprisingly, the resulting sounds closely resembled the rustling of stepping on fallen leaves. Encouraged by this discovery, I proceeded to cut multiple pieces of foil and crumpled them simultaneously. The resulting sounds were remarkably similar to the sounds of stepping on fallen leaves. This experience marked a successful endeavour in replicating the genuine sounds of stepping on fallen leaves. In an effort to refine the intricacy of the sounds resembling the rustling of stepping on fallen leaves, I proceeded to cut pieces of aluminium foil into various sizes. Experimenting with combinations of 3, 4, and 5 pieces, I discovered that crumpling five pieces of moderately thick aluminium foil closely replicated the sounds of walking on fallen leaves. This determination was made after carefully considering the thickness of the foil, indicating its remarkable resemblance to the authentic sounds of stepping on fallen leaves. Therefore, I crafted a total of five paper foil leaves and, in an attempt to convey the sounds of stepping on fallen leaves, created footprints to attach beneath each leaf.

I grappled with how to express the sounds of rustling reeds, given their similarity to white noise and the absence of specific focal points, which made it challenging. Consequently, in an attempt to portray this, I initially cut paper into thin strips and, upon touching them, they emitted a rustling sound. This led me to consider using this effect to depict the sounds of rustling reeds. In order to make it even more similar, I wished for paper that was thinner and softer. While searching for materials, I came across paper stuffing and tried shaking it to achieve a reed-like effect. Upon closing my eyes and listening, the sounds closely mirrored those produced by rustling reeds. As a result, I opted for paper stuffing as the medium to depict the rustling reeds.

(adopted from Hasol’s journal of invented notation, 16 May 2023)

Aspiring pre-service teachers crafted three-dimensional invented notations by incorporating various art materials onto paper, complementing the traditional two-dimensional musical notations. The three-dimensional invented notations surpassed the function of merely containing musical information. These notations encompassed functional features that invited readers to engage with and perform the musical composition by tactile interaction, such as pressing or manipulating them, thereby extending beyond the traditional role of solely conveying musical notations. The functionality of these invented notations, designed to ‘facilitate physical-based performance’, is interpreted as a manifestation of the agency of pre-service teachers and the consequent intra-actions of pre-service teachers and art materials.

In Hansol’s invented notation, the paper foil and stuffing corresponding to the sounds of stepping on fallen leaves and rustling reeds exist as materials with agency. They prompt the readers of her notation to crumple the paper foil and shake the paper stuffing, engaging them in a tactile interaction. In particular, Hansol strategically arranges five sheets of crumpled paper foil in the configuration of footprints, effectively implanting a visual cue for the observers. This arrangement serves as an implicit ‘permission’ sign, encouraging the observers to either experience the tactile qualities of the pre-crumpled foil or partake in the act of crumpling.

The inherent material qualities of paper foil, characterized by its sturdy rustling sounds and durable retention of creases, coupled with the responsive intra-actions within Hansol’s creative process, have collectively culminated in the development of a creatively invented notation. This invented notation, distinguished by the distinctive material properties of paper foil and its attuned responsiveness, allows for the production of musically expressive and imaginative performances. The potential to augment the functionality of music notation to enable performance, extending beyond its conventional definition as a systematized notation for reading music, arises from the entanglement of pre-service teachers with the intra-actions of music and materials. This intricate entanglement has manifested as diffraction, leading to the emergence of a new matter, as elucidated by Barad (2007). As a result of the emission of their materiality and symbols by music and materials, Deleuze (1994), pre-service teachers responded with interest to these material qualities and signs. The entangled becomings in-between pre-service teachers, music, and materials gave rise to the formulation of a new matter, specifically termed as the ‘physically performable notation’. In essence, the entanglement among these three agents can be conceptualized as the manifestation of innovative performativity.

3.2. The Intra-Actions in Interpreting Invented Notations

3.2.1. Deeply Engaging with the Symbols Within the Invented Notation and ‘Becoming-Notator-Together’

Group 2 was presented with Jungin’s ‘Invented Notation of the Laundry Process’. As shown in Figure 3, it consists of the ‘Washing Machine Invented Notation’, designed to open and close, and the ‘Hanging Laundry Invented Notation’, depicting the process of hanging laundry on a line. The Washing Machine Invented Notation details various operation buttons of the washing machine and the sounds that can occur when the door is closed and opened.

The five pre-service teachers in Group 2 admirably acknowledged the intuitively recognizable images of washing machines and scattered laundry. Exhibiting dynamic engagement, they initiated the active interpretation of these visuals, contemplating effective ways to represent these visual elements through auditory means. More specifically, they commenced the interpretation of symbols as if initiating the washing process, physically pressing the buttons on the top of the washing machine and stating, “This is the power button!” and “The red arrow here means to press it at the beginning.”

When the washing machine door was opened, water droplets appeared to be systematically arranged. The pre-service teachers, as they touched and vocalized sounds to the water droplets, promptly exclaimed, “It’s the LG washing machine!” They accurately reconstructed the exact melody played at the end of an LG washing machine cycle. The pre-service teachers, likely acquainted with the unique concluding melodies associated with different washing machine brands from advertisements and daily experiences, joyfully engaged in interpreting the hidden sounds encoded in the water droplet patterns. While experimentally singing faintly with pitch variations by touching the water droplet patterns, the five individuals collectively and confidently vocalized ‘that melody’ from the second line onward, celebrating the pride of successful interpretation. This initiation marked the commencement of their enthusiastic and focused concentration on unraveling the auditory enigmas embedded in the invented notations.

(adopted from the researcher’s note, 4 June 2023)

The LG washing machine melody was familiar even to the researcher, so when the members of Group 2 gradually reconstructed the melody and finally completed it clearly, the researcher was also able to sing along. Conversations such as “Professor, do you also use LG? Me too!”, “LG washing machines are the best!”, “We used to have one, but now we have a Samsung!”, and “It feels like we’re sponsored by LG!” were exchanged between the researcher and the group members (Researcher’s Note, 4 June 2023), as we joyfully hummed the LG washing machine’s ending melody.

The notation’s droplet-shaped symbols, created by the notator, became a glow moment (MacLure, 2013) for both the pre-service teachers and the researcher, leading everyone in Room 203 to imagine their own laundry rooms. The singing of the ending melody intertwined the experiences of doing laundry with both the pre-service teachers and the researcher, Barad (2007), ultimately guiding them to become the notators of this invented notation. In other words, the pre-service teachers captured what MacLure (2013) describes as the ‘glowing’ moment of data, and through their singing, the researcher was also affected and resonated with them, generating a becoming-with-the-notator experience.

The pre-service teachers, confronted with symbols that explicitly conveyed the meaning of sounds, such as depictions of detergent or clothes hanging on a line, assumed the roles of critics or detectives when faced with more intricate and challenging symbols. They critically expressed their opinions, engaging in the interpretation of invented notations, which included both overt and more challenging symbols. Commencing from surface-level attributions of meaning and progressing toward responsive engagement with profound symbols, the pre-service teachers approached the hidden intentions of the notator. Positioning themselves within the robust relationship between the notator and the invented notations, they undertook their roles as new agents, navigating the intricate dynamics.

Gamin: (Pointing to the TV drawing in Figure 3) “This invented notation should be related to doing the laundry, but what about this TV drawing?”

Yewon: “Hmm... maybe they left the TV on while doing the laundry?”

Yujin: “It seems like they expressed the sounds of the TV leaking through the slightly open door when hanging the laundry!”

Yewon: “Oh~ It really feels like we’ve become Jungin (the notator of this invented notation)!” (Everyone laughs joyfully)

(adopted from an observation record, 5 June 2023)

Yujin noted in her journal that the TV drawing was particularly impressive, and everyone found it fascinating and intriguing to interpret and understand the hidden intentions of the notator, as represented in drawings like the TV, beyond those that could be easily inferred. In this invented notation shown in Figure 3, the process of hanging laundry constitutes the primary narrative and main flow of the notation. However, it can be inferred that the notator also sought to document the auditory experience of the TV sounds, emanating from the living room—perhaps played while hanging laundry—permeating through the slightly open door. By way of the TV drawing, Yujin intricately engaged with the notator’s intentions, profoundly responding to the invented notation of hanging laundry.

As my teammates and I interpreted the TV drawing together, a scene from my childhood suddenly came to mind. My room featured a balcony with a washing machine, and the sounds from the balcony were easily heard through the window. As I deciphered the laundry sounds in the invented notation, along with the sounds of opening and closing doors, footsteps, and the continuous TV soundtrack persisting from the beginning to the end, scenes from childhood weekends suddenly flashed back. I couldn’t help but think that the notator of the invented notation attentively listened to and meticulously documented sounds from highly ordinary and everyday situations. This notion made the invented notation feel deeply relevant to me.

(adopted from Yujin’s journal on the interpretation of the invented notation, 14 June 2023)

The in-depth intra-actions between Yujin and the meaning of the TV drawing stemmed from her shared experience related to the sounds embedded in this invented notation. As mentioned in Yujin’s journal on the interpretation of the invented notation, the notation regarding laundry promptly transported her back to weekends of her childhood, evoking memories of hanging laundry when she was young. Similar to the sounds in the invented notation, Yujin, while hanging laundry on the balcony, also recalled an experience of hearing the TV sounds from the living room through the open door. It was this childhood memory that the TV drawing in the invented notation brought to her mind. Essentially, the agency embodied in the small TV depiction within the invented notation triggered Yujin’s recollection of her prior experiences. Intensifying these memories, Yujin naturally came to slide into a newly territorialized sound realm (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004), intricately engaging and intra-acting with the sounds documented by the notator. The sudden invocation of memories triggered by the materiality of the TV drawing enabled Yujin to immerse herself further in the interpretation of the invented notation. Additionally, as she gradually discovered that the notator had shared a similar experience of laundry sounds, a bond of becoming-with was being enacted between Yujin and the notator.

3.2.2. ‘Sustainable Sound-Music-Becoming’ Through ‘N-Dimensional’ Sound Generation

In the process of selecting instruments based on the interpreted contents, the primary challenge was determining how to translate everyday sounds such as the washing machine’s water noise, the operational sounds of the machine in motion, and the sounds of sorting and wringing laundry into musical elements. In the meantime, one of the group members suggested the idea of using real water to represent the water sounds. Building on this concept, we tried to reproduce the sounds of the washing machine in operation by physically placing items inside a box, using an actual towel for the laundry sounds, and creating the water sounds by shaking a water-filled pet bottle. Additionally, we incorporated real instruments into the composition, such as playing the xylophone for the end-of-cycle signal and utilizing a rainbow maker for the sounds of water emerging at the beginning of the washing machine operation. Notably, a group member’s enthusiastic execution, skilfully bouncing a ball throughout practice sessions, contributed to dynamically represent the delightful sounds of water droplets, thereby adding an extra layer of enjoyment to the musical notation.

(adopted from Yewon’s journal on the interpretation of the invented notation, 14 June 2023)

The members of Group 2 thoroughly analyzed the musical notation symbols to interpret them accurately and engaged in discussions regarding the selection of appropriate sounds and performance techniques for playing two invented notations. The most intriguing symbol decoded was the washing machine’s end-of-cycle melody, which will be performed on a xylophone. The sounds of water inside the washing machine were mimicked by tapping on a water-filled plastic bottle. The sounds of hanging laundry were expressed by shaking a towel along with the physical action of hanging the towel on the line. In particular, Gamin, who paid close attention to the swirl depicted on the closed door of the washing machine in the invented notation, proposed attempting to portray the sounds of the washing machine rotating to detect the quantity of laundry, in addition to the sounds of water. In response, Sumin stumbled upon a stack of paper boxes piled up at the back of the classroom, intended for use in other instructional activities. She brought them to experiment with her group members, tapping and knocking them to explore the sounds of the rotating washing machine. When Yujin put her pencil case into the paper box and rotated it, everyone agreed that it sounded like an empty drum rotating without water, as they had anticipated. Yewon proposed preferring slightly softer sounds by suggesting the use of erasers instead of a metal pencil case. Subsequently, she placed a few erasers inside and rotated the paper box. All group members unanimously agreed that these sounds resembled those of a washing machine with laundry, leading them to finalize the decision to place erasers in the paper box.

Five pre-service teachers were arranging instruments and items on the desks in the front row of the classroom. Each desk was equipped with a xylophone, a tambourine, a box containing four erasers, a tumbler, two bottles filled with water, a cellphone, and a towel. They were standing by the desks, each positioned in front of their assigned instruments, and began replaying the invented notations.

The invented notation of washing machine:

Harim started by playing the LG washing machine startup melody.

Gamin shook the rainmaker up and down, simulating the sounds of water pouring.

Yewon activated the vibration sound of a cellphone.

As Harim and Gamin vigorously shook a half-filled PET bottle (to depict the sounds of water filling the machine and mixing with laundry), Yujin rotated the box containing erasers. Simultaneously, Harim shook the PET bottle (washing machine sounds).

As the box rotated, the five pre-service teachers expressed amazement at the sounds, focusing intensely.

Harim, Gamin, Yewon, and Yujin tapped on the desk floor (the sound of spinning).

When Harim, Gamin, Yewon, and Yujin turned their attention to the left, where Soeyoung was, Soeyoung played the washing cycle end up melody.

The Invented Notation of Laundry Hanging:

Harim, Gamin, Yewon, and Yujin took four or five steps in place.

Yewon opened the tumbler lid (the sound of opening the washing machine door).

Harim held a microphone near his cheek and tapped his cheek, producing droplet sounds (the prospective teachers laughed).

Yujin held the tambourine horizontally and shook it gently.

Meanwhile, Gamim took out a towel, wrung it out, and shook it a few times, pretending to hang it on the line.

Yewon closed the tumbler lid (the sound of closing the washing machine door).

Harim, Gamin, Yewon, and Yujin took four or five steps in place together.

Yujin stood up a box and knocked it over, producing dull sounds (the sound of closing the laundry room door).

(adopted from an observational record, 5 June 2023)

The five pre-service teachers demonstrated a performance lasting approximately 1 min and 50 s, utilizing a variety of instruments and items to interpret the visual sounds depicted in the two invented notations. In sequence, they exchanged glances, becoming entangled with the materials assigned to produce their respective sounds. The sounds of the five individuals or materials merged sequentially or simultaneously, resulting in the creation of a 1 min and 50 s composition combining washing machine, laundry, and sounds with music. The process of washing machine–laundry–sounds becoming-with music does not align with the sounds envisioned by the notators of these invented notations, nor does it reflect the latent sounds inherent in the two invented notations. Beginning with the sounds in the notators’ minds, the visual symbols of the invented notations, the agency of five pre-service teachers, and a variety of instruments and materials became entangled, resulting in the performance of the washing machine-laundry-sounds-to-music on 5 June 2023, in the afternoon. According to Deleuze (1994), learning arises from repetition with a difference, wherein the same theme of sound continues to repeat but with variations from the previous iterations. In alignment with this aspect, he regarded this transformative repetition as ‘becoming a manifold of N dimensions’. The performance, which interprets the invented notation by the pre-service teachers, embodies Deleuze’s notion of differential repetition, signifying a transformation into a manifold of N dimensions. In this context, the manifold can be understood as the result of the entanglement of materialities and agencies, as articulated by Barad (2010), denoting performativities within new relations. Hence, in the reperformance of the invented notations, the pre-service teachers became entangled with diverse agencies, thereby engaging in relational competencies and facilitating learning through the generation of N-dimensional sounds.

Furthermore, the ‘N-dimensional’ sound generation in these invented notation activities becomes possible through the sustainable experimentation between pre-service teachers and materials. The sounds of the “washing machine and laundry”, originally recorded by the notator, were transcribed onto two sheets of invented notation and later regenerated through the entanglement of pre-service teachers with the materials they selected. This process is made possible through the equal ‘intra-action’ between humans and nonhumans. The materiality of the “washing machine and laundry sounds” was first stored in human memory and then re-emerged through nonhuman entities such as musical instruments and objects, demonstrating how the original sound was reborn through a sustainable process. In other words, the entanglement between humans and nonhumans can shape sustainable learning, emphasizing that the ‘agency’ central to post-humanism is a fundamental educational principle in implementing education for sustainable development (ESD).

The journey of pre-service teachers toward sustainable music-becoming through invented notation activities (Figure 4) can be summarized as follows: The starting point for sustainable musical learning begins with encounters between pre-service teachers and materials. These encounters lead to close entanglements, and the intra-action within these entanglements persists throughout the processes of notating and interpreting invented notation. During the notation process, pre-service teachers experiment extensively with the agential capacities of materials, ultimately creating physically performable notation. Additionally, in the interpretation process, through becoming-notator-together, pre-service teachers imagine the notator’s intentions and perform music accordingly, ultimately resulting in N-dimensional sound generation based on continuous repetition with differences. Such performances lead directly toward sustainable music-becoming.

4. Discussion and Recommendations

This study examined various instances of intra-action between pre-service teachers and music in the context of invented notation activities. The pre-service teachers initially began by engaging with diverse materials from their daily lives, documenting their experiences. Through continuous exploration and experimentation with artistic media, they produced sounds and created three-dimensional, performable invented notations. Additionally, by interpreting the symbols within their invented notations, they connected their musical expressions to their daily lives, embodying the process of ‘becoming-notator’. Through continuous differentiated repetition, they actualized “becoming-music” by generating sounds within an ‘n-dimensional’ musical space.

Based on these findings, this study discusses the educational value of invented notation, the significance of becoming-music, changes in the structure of early childhood music education courses, and the need for a new approach to education for sustainable development.

First, invented notation activities offer pre-service teachers a dynamic environment to experiment with and experience the materiality of music. In this study, rather than merely representing the developmental stages of children’s musical thinking (Baek, 2014b; Barrett, 2001; Sue & Jang, 2023), invented notation functioned as a musical environment, enabling pre-service teachers to encounter music itself, intra-act with various materials, and engage in the process of becoming-music. Within this musical environment of invented notation activities, pre-service teachers explored familiar sounds and music, creatively represented them through visual media, interpreted the notational symbols, and performed their compositions. Through this process, they did not perceive music merely as knowledge to be memorized from books or as a skill to be mastered through repetitive practice. Instead, they engaged in sounding, experimenting, discussing, and continuously recreating music. In this sense, invented notation activities function as a creative laboratory where music is not approached as a fixed path leading to a single correct answer but rather as a space for deterritorialized exploration (Deleuze, 1994), entangled with the diverse ways one can engage with music.

Second, becoming-music does not occur solely within an individual’s mind but emerges within a relational network, entangled in the intra-active space between pre-service teachers and the material entity of music. In other words, pre-service teachers’ musical learning and growth as educators do not exist in isolation but are shaped through their dynamic engagement with music and its materiality. In addition, they continuously emerge through affective encounters within the in-between space where music, the environment, and pre-service teachers intertwine (Barad, 2007, 2010). Since the intra-action between pre-service teachers and music is distributed across multiple performative agents, including music and the surrounding environment (Taguchi, 2010), fostering learning necessitates opportunities for experiencing dynamic relationality.

Third, relational materialism, which posits that learning occurs not within the individual but through intra-action with material entities, Barad (2007), holds significant implications for teacher educators in designing early childhood music education curricula. Traditionally, early childhood music education courses have been structured as a fragmented collection of knowledge, encompassing theories of children’s musical development, instructional methods categorized by activity types, and piano accompaniment skills. Consequently, these courses have remained confined within individualistic and reductionist traditions. Thus, teacher educators should create opportunities for pre-service teachers to encounter vibrant, living music in their daily lives and engage in meaningful musical events within those experiences. Through this approach, pre-service teachers will be able to fully attune themselves to the agency of music and the environment, experiencing the entangled process of becoming-with music.

Fourth, invented notation activities can serve as a significant driver in implementing the 2030 Agenda (United Nations, 2015) by providing sustainable alternatives for knowledge creation. The specific goals of the 2030 Agenda emphasize that all learners should receive education that respects sustainable development, human rights, gender equality, a culture of peace and nonviolence, global citizenship, cultural diversity, and the contributions of culture (Lim, 2024). The characteristics of sustainable music-becoming, which involve intra-actions with materials, are linked to innovation by offering new perspectives on various issues. Collaborative interpretation and joint performance of invented notation naturally foster pre-service teachers’ abilities in cooperation, communication, and inclusiveness, thereby enhancing social solidarity.

In other words, the experience of sustainable music-becoming through invented notation strengthens essential competencies, such as innovation and social solidarity, for future members of a sustainable society. This lays the groundwork for fostering a culture of peace, nonviolence, and innovative cultural creation as envisioned in the 2030 Agenda. Consequently, methods of creative knowledge generation, such as invented notation, should be applied across diverse age groups. Educational administrators, policymakers, and researchers involved in curriculum design are therefore encouraged to adopt alternative sustainable knowledge-creation methods, such as invented notation, to facilitate the effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

Finally, this study underscores the need for a value-oriented approach to education for sustainable development (Sadownik & Gabi, 2021) grounded in post-humanism, ensuring that pre-service teachers’ musical growth aligns with future-oriented sustainable learning. The vivid intra-actions between pre-service teachers and music observed in this study exemplify human responsiveness that recognizes the agency of matter. When humans and nonhumans affect and are affected by one another on an equal footing, human development flourishes, and the Earth’s environment remains sustainable. Thus, advancing toward future-oriented ESD requires recognizing the environment not as a subsidiary tool for human survival but as an agentic entity with which humans coexist. When post-humanism serves as the philosophical foundation of ESD, the equality of humans and nonhumans becomes a fundamental principle, fostering the realization of a truly sustainable society. Thus, the findings of this study are significant in that they demonstrate the potential for value-oriented ESD grounded in post-humanism through the intra-action between pre-service teachers and music.

Meanwhile, the limitations of this study and suggestions for future research are as follows. Although this study employed post-qualitative inquiry, which acknowledges the entanglement of researchers, participants, and theory, incorporating additional peer-checking could further integrate multiple perspectives into the data analysis. This would help mitigate subjectivity in the interpretation of findings and enhance the study’s validity. Additionally, since invented notation activities were conducted within the music curriculum, this study primarily focused on musical learning. The authors of future studies should investigate how creative recording activities, such as invented notation, can be implemented across various subject areas to explore pre-service teachers’ integrated learning and development within a broader educational context.