3 Initial Project
The principal objective of our research project was to study the impact of extra-ordinary youths’ participation in an inclusive day camp involving an informal musical creation experience with their peers, supported by student facilitators. Oriented around an informal approach, the project aimed to create a musical program offering instruments, adapted if necessary, and minimal guidance by trained student facilitators, in order to allow these extra-ordinary youths to live an inclusive and creative musical experience. To do this, our initial design was intended to add a music program to an existing day camp, in collaboration with the principal actors involved (participants, parents, community organizations and day camps). EntitledExtra-Ordinary Music Camp , this “in-person” format would last from 6 to 8 weeks, allowing children and adolescents aged 8 to 17 years living with a physical or cognitive disability to participate in informal and inclusive musical activities through an adapted pedagogical program, inspired by research into informal music learning (Green, 2002, 2009; Jaffurs, 2004; Westerlund, 2006).
However, when the time came to begin recruitment for participants in our program—which was meant to begin in June 2020—public health measures related to COVID-19 came into effect in the province of Quebec (Canada), where the project was to take place. We were confronted with the fact that there were strong chances that public health measures would still be in effect during the summer period when day camps would be starting, rendering the realization of our project more risky, even impossible, as it was originally designed. Facing this situation—and driven by our wish to contribute to the well-being of extra-ordinary youths and their families in this period of lockdown—we decided to significantly revise our pedagogical plan to allow the program to take place no matter the restrictions imposed by public health measures. In April, considering this uncertainty, we revised the project so that it could be realized under three different possible conditions: a) entirely remotely, online; b) entirely in-person, as initially intended; or c) integrating these two modalities, according to participants’ needs and the possibilities at our two partner organizations, day camps in the Quebec City region. In early June, in light of the direction of public health measures imposed by the provincial government of Quebec the entirely remote project formula was chosen. This significant reformulation necessitated a substantial amendment request to the ethics committee at Université Laval, as well as a review of our research plan, a reorganization of the research team’s work, and a review of the pedagogical intervention plan. This adaptation effort pushed us, as a team, to leave our comfort zone, to take risks, and to use our creativity to explore alternatives that would not only permit us to continue working on our research activities, but also to facilitate the participation of a greater number of extra-ordinary youths in our project. The next section presents in detail the modifications made to the project.