Nation Building--One Child at a Time: Early Childhood Music Education in South Africa

The author first makes the point that the socio-political state of a nation is determined in a large way by the education of its youth, beginning in early childhood. Since music is so important to the South African culture, she insists that music education is essential for a healthy social environment. Music therapists are recognized as health professionals and music is similarly valued in the classroom, but lack of structure and accessibility deter integration of music in education. In addition, a tendency to adopt Western practices may eliminate musical traditions if they are not taught in schools. Woodward cites M. Xulu in claiming that there is also a bias toward "art music" and a devaluing of traditional music or "music of the people." The idea that music should be nonfunctional, abstract (some might even say absolute, but that's another argument), and intellectual rather than functional is a relatively recent Western idea that tends not to bother about everyday music that is actually valuable and central to culture.

Another problem in South African musical education is the lack of materials. If using a multicultural approach, the only readily available materials are for Western music--notation, instruments, theory, etc. which simply do not capture the essence of traditional African music.
Teachers, also, need to learn not only the music itself and the styles, but appropriate teaching methods which may differ from what they are accustomed to. The author posits that the best way to go about bringing change in South African early childhood music education is through legislation for the school systems, providing an educational foundation on which musical learning can be built.


I didn't have a huge reaction to this article, which seems very logical and frankly, much more bureaucratic than I was expecting for this sort of class. It makes sense though, to tie in a socio-political background, because the state of the education system both influences and is influenced by the socio-political state of a nation.

I am also glad to see that an emphasis on traditional musical forms is being made; the Western canonical tradition has taken over much of the musical world, to the loss of many rich and varied musical styles that are now seen as "wrong" or "not as perfect." With an expanding global society, it is increasingly more important to be able to keep one's cultural arts to preserve them for the next generation.

Music Therapy

The premise of this article revolves around music therapy as a means of lessening pain and making hospital stays easier for children 3-17 with different types of cancer. It focused on measures of pain and comfort, using music in difficult situations such as taking medicine, dealing with needles, etc. They kept track of the way the children felt before and after sessions ranging from 15-45 minutes and how interactive the activities were.

Not surprisingly, the children tended to report tha music distracted them from their pain and the medical procedures and relaxed them. Interestingly, they tended to report that the music made them happier and made them forget, at least temporarily, about their illnesses. This article reminds me of Oliver Sacks' work as he reported in Awakenings, with music seeming to have almost druglike properties. In Awakenings, Sacks studied the effects of both L-dopa and music on catatonic post-encephalitic Parkinsonian patients. The music had fascinatingly better effects, with no side effects like L-dopa, than drugs. Similarly, in this article music has shown to have better effects, at least on the affective states, of hospitalized children. One might argue that it is a conditioned effect; in Western culture, music is associated with relaxing, recreation, and higher intellectual venues, all of which go directly against the everyday life of hospitalized children in chronic pain. I would argue that as long as it seems effective and improves the children's lives, then it is a worthwhile endeavour. As a scientific treatment, however... I think there is definitely something important in music therapy, but as yet it cannot be proven using scientific methods.

Fostering Young Children's Representation, Planning and Reflection

This article compares three models of early childhood education. The High/Scope model is based on a constructionist view where the child is an active learner. The child learns thought personal interaction with the world and with others and also through introspection about those physical interactions. In education, the model uses a plan-do-review system where the teacher helps the child make a detailed plan for play, carry out the plan, and the review the plan afterwards, sometimes the next day.

The Tools of the Mind model is based on Vygotsky and focuses on the development of self-regulation and deliberate behaviours. Teachers and students are involved in extensive planning, including discussion of the roles the child will take in play and discussion of previous play.

The work in Reggio Emilia focuses on teachers' extensive observation and documentation of children's activities and a study of that documentation. Teachers encourage children's use of graphic representation as a means of communication that is simpler than language.

I think all three models have a lot in common; they all stress planning and review, but I feel that the main difference is in the level of involvement of the children in the instrospection into their own activities. Very young children might not benefit much from being expected to think and plan in great detail, and I also think free play is incredibly important. It seemed like none of the models allowed for play without hyperanalysis. While I think that structure is very important in a child's life, I also think children should be given the ability (and encouraged) to be creative in their play.