After completing her studies in performance on the flute, having obtained a bachelor’s degree at the Université Laval and a master’s at the University of Montreal, Hélène Boucher finished her doctorate in music education at McGill University in 2009, thanks to scholarships and grants from McGill and the SSHRC. She continued to develop her expertise in active pedagogy by taking courses including:Kodaly (Indiana University, Bloomington ; Université Wilfred Laurier, Waterloo; Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto), Orff (Royal Conservatory of Music, Toronto) and Dalcroze (Association Dalcroze Canada, Toronto). She is certified to teach the Kodaly method by the Organization of American Kodály Educators (OAKE).
In addition to her academic background, she has taught music, both pre-school and elementary, for more than 15 years. She is now Professor of Music Education at Université du Québec à Montréal. Courses she teaches include: Fondements de la pédagogie musicale, Didactique de la musique au préscolaire et 1er cycle du primaire, Stage d'intégration professionnelle: enseignement de la musique au préscolaire-primaire; Stage d'enseignement de la musique au préscolaire-primaire; Séminaire et pratique supervisée 1 : réflexion et analyse de la pratique d'enseignement dans une perspective systémique, La transposition didactique et l'enseignement de la musique au préscolaire, primaire et secondaire. From 2005 to 2019, she taught for the Faculty of Education and the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. She was also a Visiting Professor at Université Laval (campus Québec and Sherbrooke) between 2013 and 2018. Courses she taught included: Music for Children, Music Methods, Music Curriculum and Instruction, Music in Early Childhood, Philosophy of Music Education, Psychology of Music, Graduate Colloquium, Seminar in didactics: Early childhood and music. She received an Award of Excellence for her elementary music education in 2010, as well as the Outstanding Teacher Award from the graduating students from the Faculty of Education at McGill University. She was also nominated for her teaching at the Faculty of Education at McGill University as Teacher of the Year in 2017. In 2023, she is part of the group that received the Reconnaissance aux organismes Accessibilité en loisir prize for the development of the choral network of Quebec schools.
In 2000, she also founded Les Ateliers de la Muse, a music, science and arts initiation program for children attending day care centers in the greater Montreal area. This program, which enabled hundreds of children to have a first quality contact with the arts, was bought in 2015 by the company 'Musique et Compagnie' and will continue its work in the same philosophy where play is at the center of learning.
Her research interests have so far centered on the development of performance anxiety in pre-school and school-age children. She was able to demonstrate the existence of this phenomenon in children, from the age of three years. Currently, her research focuses on the cultural adaptation, in French for Quebec, of the Kodaly approach; on singing games as a teaching tools; on the role of music in the socio-emotional development of young children; on individualized mentoring as a teaching medium in early childhood music educator training; on the teaching of philosophy of music education through an experiential rather than traditional approach; and on the development of the compositional capacities of learners aged 8 to 25 using an approach inspired by R. Murray Schafer soundscapes. She has been invited to present the results of her research in various conferences in Canada, the United States and Europe. She is also frequently invited to offer lecture and training in early childhood music teaching, as well as to the Kodaly method. In addition, she is still active as a flautist for various occasions. Sound audio clips are available on the page:
Performances.