Music’s significant contribution to the holistic development of the young learner is uncontested and confirmed by views of seminal scholars, such as Nzewi 2003, Reimer 2003, Nussbaum 2001, Elliot 1994 and Merriam 1964, amongst others. As such, music education supports basic values of self-growth, self-knowledge and enjoyment. This study argues for the vital importance of music education in Grade R in the South African schooling system where teachers can successfully implement the curriculum. In post-apartheid multicultural and multi-musical South Africa music education in Grade R is the sole responsibility of the generalist Grade R teacher. However, due to inadequate training and minimal, unproductive in-service initiatives, the vast majority of Reception Year teachers assumingly do not have the required competences to teach music in a way that maximally enhances the holistic development of their learners. Findings revealed that teachers exhibited limited, if any, musical knowledge and per se, they are insufficiently skilled in the effective delivery of the curriculum in terms of music. This study acknowledges the need to equip in-service Grade R teachers with the required competences to effectively implement the national school and teach music with confidence. The lack of successful and effective continuing professional teacher development initiatives from the Department of Education and Department of Basic Education to assist Grade R teachers in teaching music, was a serious concern to me. This concern reinforced the motivation to embark on this project. In this thesis, I report on an intervention strategy aimed at enabling three Grade R practitioners at one peri- urban township school in the Eastern Cape to improve their music education competencies. These three Coloured ladies only held a Certificate in Early Childhood Development, rating at an NQF level 4 and 5. None of these practitioners had any prior music experience in music training, music making or music teaching. I utilised a Participatory Action Learning and Action Research (PALAR). PALAR combines research with development and is thus highly suitable when addressing multifaceted problems in rapidly changing environments, such as South Africa. In my study, the participants were thus actively involved in identifying problems and creating solutions. A number of collaborative interactions and qualitative data generation strategies such as Focus Group Interviews, Observations, Drawing, Interviews, Narrative Inquiry, Case Study and Reflective Journals were implemented. Findings indicated that the practitioners experienced transformation on both a professional and personal level as they discovered and tapped into their own innate musical competences. This enabled them to explore ways to teach music that enhanced the holistic development of their learners, developing them physically, cognitively emotionally, socially, and musically. Learners likewise benefitted from the intervention as they experienced social cohesion in a multicultural classroom and gained the fruits of music’s remedial impact and therapeutic value in their lives.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:8530 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Cloete, Erna Petronella |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Arts |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Doctoral, DPhil |
| Format | xviii, 285 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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