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An Analytic-critical reflection on an integrated arts education curriculum in a multicultural South Africa

The structure of an education system and its curricula reflects the influence of a specific
paradigm. Since the onset of colonial rule and apartheid in South Africa about
everything in the South African society, including the education system and curricular
issues in particular, have been shaped in accordance with the macro paradigm: the
modern Western paradigm.
The emergence of a new paradigm: the postmodern paradigm, created the possibility
of a new order of thinking which influenced all societal domains and aspects and
propelled the society into the new millennium. Since 1994 a new approach forms the
corner stone of all the new South African policy documents on education. It is for this
reason that the issue of an arts education curriculum is investigated from a
paradigmatic point of view with reference to the modern, the postmodern and the
African paradigms.
Various components, roles and dynamics of educational curricula cast in the modern
paradigm framework are compared with characteristics of their counterparts in the
postmodern paradigm framework, and how they can influence the design of curricula,
especially arts education. The contribution of an African paradigmatic perspective is
accounted for.
A new approach to curriculum development based on the ideals of a learner-centred
education approach, an outcomes-based education approach and the integration of
subjects into specific learning areas has officially been adopted as the approach for
transforming education and curricular issues, resulting in the present Curriculum 2005.
Within the context of the Arts and Culture learning area of this Curriculum, the study
concentrates on and emphasises the integration of the four art forms of dance, drama,
music and visual art in order to overcome the legacy of fragmentation of a curriculum.
The study culminates in a proposed integrated arts education outline for curriculum
development that defines the rationale and vision for South African arts education. The
researcher contends that there is sufficient scope for arts education to contribute its
unique aesthetic values to the new national curriculum in South Africa and that
integration of these art forms does not in any way diminish the unique character of
each. / Didactics / D. Ed. (Didactics)

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:umkn-dsp01.int.unisa.ac.za:10500/15622
Date12 1900
CreatorsNevhutanda, Ntshengedzeni Alfred
ContributorsSöhnge, W. F.(Waldemar Ferreau), 1939-
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Format1 online resource (242 leaves)

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