Structure and Fragmentation: The Current Tensions and Possible Transformation of Intercultural Music Teacher Education in South Africa

Abstract

The issues of multiculturalism and interculturalism are part of the daily discourse and painful history of South Africa. As such, South African music teacher educators have a unique contribution to make to the international discourse on diversity in music education. This chapter draws on Activity Theory to conceptually position the practices of music teacher education in South Africa, and to place the practices in a wider socio-political environment. Interviews were conducted with four music teacher educators in this interpretative descriptive study, in order to understand their conceptions of multicultural and intercultural music teacher education. Three common practices that are critically framed by the teachers are identified: immersion, interaction and documentation. These practices are then considered in the broader contexts of the structure of the university and the fragmentation of society. The chapter argues on the basis of this analysis that the historically accumulating structural tensions inherent in music teacher education in South Africa should lead to transformation of the activity, but only if music teachers themselves become cognisant of the contradictions inherent in the current practices and collaboratively and creatively expand beyond them.