Towards a justification for a philosophy of music education: a quodlibet for South Africa

摘要

ABSTRACTudWith the change of regime in 1994, South African education policies for theudarts have been created without a conceptual base. Music is on the outskirtsudof the present educational master plan that favours mathematics, scienceudand literacy. The current situation of teacher shortages and emphasis onud‘basic’ subjects does not make posts possible for specialist music teachers inudprimary schools. The generalist trained Arts and Culture teacher is tasked toudteach drama, music, and the visual arts. The attempt by policy makers to blurudthe outlines of individual art forms has created the generic Arts and Cultureudteacher who is unsure of the art forms in which he/she has little or noudtraining. This lack is exposed and justification for the necessity of audphilosophy of music education for South Africa will be proposed.udA philosophy of music education refers to a system of basic beliefs, whichudunderlie the operation of musical enterprise in an educational setting,udwhether school, community centre, or tertiary institution. A philosophy ofudmusic education would investigate and create an understanding of theudunderlying assumptions and principles governing the teaching and learning ofudmusic.Music is a modelling system for human thought and is a cognitive activity withudforms of knowledge as important as any school subject. The ‘out of school’udinfluences of music are all-encompassing and ubiquitous to interculturaludcommunication between peoples. Evidence is overwhelming that the politicaludhistory in South Africa has interfered with and disrupted an enculturation of audmusical life for children.udThe literature research shows that music education in South Africa was usedudas a political tool to support apartheid doctrines and processes. Theudrestoration of a culture of co-operative musicing would help music teachers.udTheir active agency would positively affect policy in the arts. Furthermoreudmaking music or ‘musicing’ in a collaborative manner would break downbarriers because musicing encourages inter-racial rapprochement in audsociety where racial barriers are no longer dominant. Such harmoniousudcommunicating will help to create a new and idiomatic South African musicudculture.udFor this purpose I have proposed the adoption of the musical genre calledudquodlibet, a technique of composing music for many voices which are playedudsimultaneously. This provides a platform for the collaboration of musicians,udteachers, policy makers, and parents, within the wider community from whichudthe pupils come to from. The quodlibet becomes a guiding principle andudmetaphor for the entire study.udThe central focus is to articulate the need for a philosophy of music educationudand to propose and defend conditions that would facilitate the growth of audconceptual centre for music education.