‘We’re all going Bali’: utilising Gamelan as an educational resource for leadership and teamwork in post-qualifying education in health and social care

‘This kind of activity is an example of a great “leveller”.’ The development of distributed leadership qualities in health and social care are cited as crucial to effective team working, staff development, collaboration and partnership within an interprofessional context. We share a case study in which music and percussive activities were introduced into the social work and nursing curriculum of a Post-Qualifying Award for Practice Education and Leadership and Management. Participating students, service users and academics learned to play a complex traditional piece of Balinese Gamelan music led by an external facilitator. This provided opportunities for ore innovative and creative co-produced learning experiences using arts-based methods. These approaches are recommended to improve critical reflection, collaborative teamwork and participatory leadership, transferrable to different settings in health and social care. Evaluation from the learners’ perspective identified key themes from these approaches relating to emotional engagement in learning, acquiring a sense of achievement and the significance
of equality and co-production in learning a new skill. Using more creative pedagogies in post-qualifying education proved to be a ‘great leveller’ in achieving more satisfying and effective learning relationships whilst acknowledging the dynamics and power relationships involved in the process.

First published online in November 2011