In 2011 Minister Blade Nzimande reported that, "despite a national call for the provision of accessible, decent, safe and academically conducive student accommodation safety in student accommodation in South Africa remains a serious challenge" (cited in, Department of Higher Education and Training 2011). Against the backdrop of the provision of safe student accommodation, this study, through a qualitative research design, examined residence students' experiences of safety and security in student accommodation (residences). Through narrative enquiry the study-generated data from purposively sampled male and female residence students representing undergraduate and postgraduate students. The data points to fears and anxieties of students living in residences enabled by a vulnerable (unsafe) residence environment influenced largely through diminished state resources. The study makes recommendations for state resource investment that promote safe, quality residences to enhance student academic success.
Music Education, as well as cultural and musical identities are all being renegotiated, post-Apartheid, within the so-called 'newer' rather than the commonly known 'new' South Africa. The developing situation with certain minority groups is particularly interesting. Education in general has undergone much change since the first democratic elections in 1994: music education specifically has been affected by such change in terms of content, delivery and assessment. Within the South African context, cultural and musical identities are often intertwined with language, racial and even tribal identities, and discussing one implies the others. We are particularly interested here in the role of formal Music Education in relation to white Afrikaners and Indians as they renegotiate their cultural development, including musical aspects.
Generalist educators in South Africa shy away from music in the subjects Life Skills (Dance, Drama, Music, Visual Art, Physical Education and Personal and Social Well-being) and Creative Arts (Dance, Drama, Music, Visual Art) and universities are not delivering generalist students for the subject demands. In-service educators as well as subject advisors have often had no music training. The twofold purpose of the study reported on in this article was to determine the extent of challenges experienced in the music component of Life Skills and Creative Arts in South Africa and how this can best be dealt with.Mixed methods research was conducted to ascertain the problems experienced with music tuition in Life Skills and Creative Arts classrooms. It was found that generalist educators have to teach music, whether they have the requisite skills or not. The subject has low status and is frequently used as a filler subject for teachers. Lack of music knowledge, scarce resources, limited support and everchanging educators are some reasons for the absence of quality music tuition. Mentoring by competent subject advisors and senior educators and the re-alignment of school and university curricula will assist music in enjoying its rightful place in the school curriculum.
STTEPping in the right direction? Western classical music in an orchestral programme for disadvantaged African youth.
Music"s power in leadership and the development of trust has been both recognised and documented at least since the time of the Ancient Greeks. The potential impact of faceto-face meetings, as opposed to communication by other means -even aided by a battery of technological developments -is also widely accepted. The authors argue that modern quality-driven managers are missing a significant opportunity by their apparent failure to perceive and exploit the synergy between these two elements.The article commences by tracing the history of the use of music and its influence on inter-personal behaviour. It continues by exploring the various attributes of music that can be brought to bear on improving quality in meetings. Finally it describes the many tools and opportunities that managers have to exploit the power of music in targeting greater efficiency in communication, cognition and cooperation among quality-focused teams.
A sexagenarian retired physicist (the first author) set out, with the assistance of members of a university music department, to acquire some insight into Western music theory. For a lifelong singer and seasoned autodidact, this appeared to be a not too formidable challenge, yet he experienced significant difficulty in penetrating the music theory paradigm. He discovered an entry point in the layout of black and white keys on the keyboard, which presented a "mental model" amenable to his physicist's mindset. The experience could prove valuable in further exploration of the use of the keyboard layout in teaching music theory to students of all ages with little or no exposure to the piano or other keyboard instruments. The process also suggests new perspectives of familiar learning challenges for mature candidates.
Purpose: Coordination of group activity is rarely more important than in a singing group that has no designated conductor. This paper aims to explore the group dynamics in an 11-man singing group whose members, all over 60, have without exception occupied senior leadership positions in their working careers. The study arose because responses to a wider research study revealed interesting perceptions of leadership issues in the group. Design/methodology/approach: All the members participated in semi-structured interviews and interpretative phenomenological analysis of the responses was used to process the responses. This enabled the identification of practices that support the group's success and illustrated how this group of practiced "leaders" respond to a (relatively) conductorless situation. Findings: It was confirmed that the group exhibits several characteristics of self-managed teams and string quartets. All members felt empowered to take a lead, although their backgrounds might have predisposed them to take such initiatives anyway. But the longserving female accompanist is, by virtue inter alia of her superior musicianship, which appears to overcome any gender bias, in many respects the de facto leader. In performance, the singers synchronize their singing in response to cues from each other, but this could work better if given more specific attention. Originality/value: Whereas conducted choirs have been extensively studied, such a selfmanaged group of amateur singers, all of whom are accustomed to leading in their working careers, has apparently not been studied. This study sheds some light on techniques for overcoming the challenges of creating quality performance in such a group and insights for similar groups, not necessarily musical, are identified.
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