USAf features Dr McConnachie in 'Unsettling Paradigms Colloquium' report back

Dr McConnachie is one of the four scholars who presented at last week's Unsettling Paradigms Colloquium that was organised by Universities South Africa's Teaching and Learning Strategy Group (TLSG). The Colloquium was an opportunity to share insights emerging from on-going research projects investigating what to change, how to change it, why, for whom and to what outcomes. These scholarly enquiries are part of a five-year project that started in 2017 at eight research-intensive universities, driven by USAf's TLSG and co-ordinated from the 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网 of Pretoria's Faculty of Humanities.

Delivering his welcome remarks at the virtual Colloquium on 7 September, Dr Sizwe Mabizela, Chair of the TLSG and Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网, said the purpose of that gathering was to stimulate debates in the higher education sector. He told the assembly of academics, students and higher education policy makers that these interventions were meant to transform teaching and learning, over time, at South Africa's institutions. "Today we focus on insights from the inclusive and participative research going on at our institutions to strengthen humanities and social sciences capacity to engage with these dialogues." This, as the Unsettling Paradigms research project reaches mid-term.

Talking About Indigenous Music – Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网

In her quest to develop a new generation of future teachers, cultural ambassadors and music lovers with a deeper understanding and passion for indigenous African music, Dr McConnachie abandoned pianos, violins and flutes and, in their place, introduced uhadi, endingidi and Nyanga pipes. She aspires to produce teachers who will engage rigorously with African musics through their own teaching, learning and appreciation.

She told the 160-strong audience at the Unsettling Paradigms that, by engaging in these three methodologies:

• embodied learning, that is, using the body to understand the theory;
• experiential learning, meaning learning through reflection on doing or experimenting with knowledge, first-hand, and also in
• connective aesthetic,, which refers to finding a tangible connecting force for students to create knowledge together,

Student interest in her course had soared significantly. In a space of three years from 2017 to date, enrolment in Instrumental Music Studies has tripled from 27 to 94 – accounting for ? of the total number of students reading Music Studies at Rhodes 老虎机游戏_pt老虎机-平台*官网.

Students' feedback speaks for itself

What this development means to the course recipients is captured in the feedback below:

• "Before I joined this course I knew nothing about African music and as an African female, this has just re-connected me with my culture and has given me an understanding of the creativity of my ancestors," says a 2nd year Bachelor of Social Science student of mixed Sotho and Xhosa descent.
• "This is a much needed alternative course offered at Rhodes. I hope it grows because it is necessary for a grounded liberal arts education," says a Bachelor of Arts student and black South African.
• "My confidence has grown substantially; performing has now become a breeze, not only in IMS but in other sectors of my life too." – 1st year Journalism student; a Xhosa who grew up in urban East London.
• "I didn't realise how much colonisers take credit for instruments that were natively African," a BA Law, Xhosa student also commented.

Integrating traditional and modern forms of knowledge in teaching is feasible

Dr McConnachie said pedagogically, using embodied ways of learning opens up the Instrumental Music Studies course to students who have struggled to gain purposeful knowledge through other forms of learning. The transgressive social learning method assists the university music community to break through previously established norms of musical devaluation. Furthermore, involving local community musicians in teaching empowers them to take their place in tertiary education – based on their skills and not academic pursuits.

By implementing this change in the course, Dr McConnachie has not only contributed to raising the social status of African traditional and indigenous knowledge systems; she is proving that where there is a will on the part of academics, integrating traditional and modern forms of knowledge in equipping future generations to solve national challenges is feasible.

To read the full article, please see: https://www.newssite.co.za/usaf/indigenous-music.html