123

S P R I N G E R B R I E F S I N E D U C AT I O N

Chee-Hoo LumSiew Ling Chua

Teaching Living LegendsProfessional Developmentand Lessons for the21st CenturyMusic Educator

SpringerBriefs in Education

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8914

Chee-Hoo Lum • Siew Ling Chua

Teaching Living LegendsProfessional Development and Lessonsfor the 21st Century Music Educator

123

Chee-Hoo LumNational Institute of EducationSingaporeSingapore

Siew Ling ChuaSingapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRtsSingaporeSingapore

ISSN 2211-1921 ISSN 2211-193X (electronic)SpringerBriefs in EducationISBN 978-981-10-1481-9 ISBN 978-981-10-1482-6 (eBook)DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1482-6

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016942034

© The Author(s) 2016This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or partof the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmissionor information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilarmethodology now known or hereafter developed.The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in thispublication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt fromthe relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in thisbook are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor theauthors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein orfor any errors or omissions that may have been made.

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Acknowledgements

This book is the outcome of a research study funded by the Academies Fund,Ministry of Education in 2014–2015.

• Teaching Living Legends is a term coined by our colleague Mrs. JoanneYeo-Tan from the Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts (STAR), and itwas first used as a title of the professional development programme imple-mented at STAR. We thank Joanne for assisting in the research as a collaboratorand for her invaluable input to the initial drafts of this book.

• We wish to express our heartfelt thanks to Mrs. Rebecca Chew, Principal ofSingapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts (STAR), Ministry of Education, forher support and encouragement in this research project.

• We wish to express our sincere gratitude to Professor Graham F Welch (Chair ofMusic Education, UCL Institute of Education, London) and Professor TongSoon Lee (Music Department Head, The Chinese University of Hong Kong) fortheir valuable insights and contribution in writing the epilogue

• We also express our gratitude to the rest of our colleagues at STAR, ArtsEducation Branch (Ministry of Education), National Institute of Education(NIE), National Arts Council, National Library Board, teachers, and arts prac-titioners in Singapore who have contributed in one way or another to thedevelopment of Teaching Living Legends programme which is the subject ofthis research study.

At the point of print, STAR is in discussion with National Library Board toupload some of the video resources from the Teaching Living Legends project ontotheir website to make them accessible to the public. Readers may refer to thewebsites of the National Library Board (www.nlb.gov.sg) or the SingaporeTeachers’ Academy for the aRts (www.star.moe.edu.sg) for updates.

v

Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Setting the Context: Identity and Music in Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Integrating the Ethnomusicological Approach in Music Education . . . . 5Situating Adult Learning, Partnerships, and Communityin Professional Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Closing Note. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2 Approach and Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Partnership: A Co-Constructive Processwith the Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17The Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18The Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Pedagogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

The Research Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23The Quantitative Strand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25The Qualitative Strand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

3 Tensions and Resolutions: Professional DevelopmentConsiderations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27An Evolving Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Rationalising Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Lost in Translation and in Transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Working with Culture Bearers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Navigating Through Identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Teacher Efficacy and Teaching Confidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

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4 Practice and Pedagogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Approaching Local Living Music Traditions in Practiceand Pedagogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Vignette 1—Tuning-in Activity for Malay Rhythms Segment . . . . . 46Vignette 2—Tuning-in Activity for SingaporeComposers Segment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Malay Rhythms Segment in the Teaching LivingLegends Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Indian Orchestra Segment in the Teaching LivingLegends Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51Xinyao Segment in the Teaching Living Legends Workshop. . . . . . 57Micro-Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Concluding Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

5 Perspective Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Dialoguing About Identity Through Thinking Routines. . . . . . . . . . 64Highlighting Uniquely Singaporean Features of ParticularMusic Genres Explored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Participants’ Responses to the Applicabilityof Perspective-Taking Activities for the Music Classroom. . . . . . . . 76

Summary Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

6 Professional Learning Experiences from Participants’Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Research Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Teacher Efficacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82Teaching Confidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Qualitative Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Results and Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Changes in Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Changes in Teacher Efficacy and Teaching Confidence . . . . . . . . . 86Teacher Efficacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Teaching Confidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Positive Interactions of Pedagogy, Perspective, and Practice . . . . . . 89Post-Workshop Learning and Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

7 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95Pedagogy, Practice, and Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96Pedagogy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Engagement with the Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Implications for Music Educators in the 21st Century. . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

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8 Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Lessons in Teacher Development in Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103Music, Pedagogy, and the Shaping of Identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Contents ix

About the Authors

Chee-Hoo Lum is Associate Professor of music education at the Visual &Performing Arts Academic Group at the National Institute of Education (NIE),Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is also the Head ofUNESCO-NIE CARE (Centre for Arts Research in Education), part of a region-widenetwork of Observatories stemming from the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Action Plan.

His research interests include issues towards identity, cultural diversity andmulticulturalism, technology, and globalization in music education; children'smusical cultures; creativity and improvisation; and elementary music methods.

He is currently the co-editor of IJME (International Journal of Music Education)and on the editorial board of RSME (Research Studies in Music Education) andIJCM (International Journal of Community Music). He is a member of the steeringcommittee of INRAE (International Network for Research in Arts Education) and aboard member of APSMER (Asia-Pacific Symposium for Music EducationResearch). He has previously been an associate editor with IJEA (InternationalJournal of Education and the Arts).

He has published two edited books: (1) Contextualized Practices in ArtsEducation: An International Dialogue on Singapore; 2) Musical Childhoods of Asiaand The Pacific), numerous book chapters, journal articles, and conference pre-sentations at local and international settings.

Siew Ling Chua is a Master Teacher (Music) at the Singapore Teachers’ Academyfor the aRts (STAR), Ministry of Education (Singapore), where she conceptualises,designs, and delivers professional development programmes for in-service musicteachers. Her work involves developing the professional development curriculum,conducting workshops, nurturing teacher-leaders, and coaching and mentoring ofin-service music teachers. She has also led and conducted research related to musicpedagogy and professional development of music teachers at STAR. She receivedher B. Mus (Hons) from the University of Birmingham and the M. Mus.(Ethnomusicology) from the School of Oriental and African Studies (University ofLondon) supported by Singapore government scholarships. She is currently pur-suing her PhD at the UCL Institute of Education, London.

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Chapter 1Introduction

The purpose of this book was to put together a research narrative of the develop-ment and delivery of a professional development programme for music teachers,with the objective of enhancing their teaching of different music traditions inSingapore for the General Music Classroom. It also discusses the key dilemmas andtensions in designing such a programme, as well as the key experiences andlearning that participants and facilitators gathered in the process. This programme,titled Teaching Living Legends, which is comprised of workshops and supportingteaching resources for in-service music teachers in Singapore schools, was devel-oped and implemented by the Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts (STAR),Ministry of Education (Singapore), in collaboration with artists, practitioners,teachers, and organisations. From a wider perspective, the narrative also intends tofurther literature discourse on ethnomusicological perspectives in music educationand professional development of music teachers in the context of the 21st Centurymusic classrooms.

A priority for STAR, ever since its inception as an academy dedicated to theprofessional development of in-service music teachers, has been to grow teachers’confidence and competence in teaching different music traditions in Singapore withappropriate pedagogies for the 21st Century General Music Classroom. Manymusic teachers in Singapore have experiences and training in the Western classicaltradition and may have less exposure and understanding of the myriad of musictraditions in Singapore. STAR has observed that workshops on other music tradi-tions, apart from Western classical music, were popular and tended to be over-subscribed. It was in this context that teacher educators at STAR mooted the ideafor the Teaching Living Legends programme.

The concept of “living” refers to the traditions that are still existing in Singapore,and “legends” relate to the stories and narratives behind these musics that havemade them enduring and given them their identity. Hence, Teaching LivingLegends was conceived as a professional development curriculum, supported bycustomised teaching resources developed by the team, to guide teachers in making

© The Author(s) 2016C.-H. Lum and S.L. Chua, Teaching Living Legends,SpringerBriefs in Education, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1482-6_1

1

existing music traditions in Singapore relevant to students via the stories and nar-ratives behind these musics.

Teaching Living Legends’ main aims were that of enhancing music teachers’understanding of living music traditions in Singapore and investigating how thesecan be taught in the 21st Century General Music Classroom at both primary andsecondary school levels, for students aged between seven and fourteen. It also setsout to support the national syllabus objectives of deepening students’ knowledge ofmusic traditions, where the music has lasting impact on students’ understanding,thus becoming an integral part of our developing social and cultural heritage. At thesame time, the programme seeks to be informed by larger discussions on culturaldiversity, ethnomusicological perspectives, and pedagogy for the General MusicClassroom.

The following sections in this chapter will ground the context of Teaching LivingLegends by introducing the socio-historical and cultural background, and consid-erations from research literature, on ethnomusicological and adult-learningperspectives.

Setting the Context: Identity and Music in Singapore

At the point of independence in 1965, Singapore was made up of a majority ofChinese, Malay, and Indian immigrants due largely to historical and political fac-tors.1 With Singapore’s multi-ethnic make-up, scholars have observed dilemmasand difficulties with establishing a national identity. Vadaketh (2012, 2014) viewedthat:

It [Singapore] has tried to position itself as the Asian jack of all trades, a developed worldhodgepodge that is both all of Asia and yet not Asia at all. While this may work eco-nomically, from an identity standpoint, contradictions abound. (Vadaketh, 2014, p. 65)

Kuo Pao Kun, the late Singapore playwright, theatre director, and arts activist,who spoke about the revival of traditional culture and arts, articulated one of thekey contradictions in defining a Singaporean identity:

This is much more difficult for peoples who have long been dislodged from their motherculture. The problem is many times aggravated when the uprooting had been radical andprolonged, especially when the totally uprooted people have been taken away from theirancestral land, brought to a multi-ethnic environment… In Modern Singapore…the entirenation had been built through such a process of displacement. Even to the extent of totallygiving up their mother languages, adopting the ex-colonial English for official business aswell as daily living… While the supremacy of English seemingly helped much in

1By the end of the 19th Century, Singapore was recognised as one of the most cosmopolitan citiesin Asia, attracting migrants and merchants from China, the Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, theMalay Peninsula and the Middle East due to its vibrant commercial success as a trading postbecause of its geographical positioning (Your Singapore, 2013).

2 1 Introduction

developing Singapore’s thriving economy, it has posed monumental challenges to thenation’s cultural dislocation. (2002, p. 212)

This dislocation is felt acutely in music and music education when aSingaporean is requested by others to sing or articulate repertoire and discourse thatis representative of Singapore as a nation. The varied and changing music influ-ences, which are hardly singular or deeply rooted in any particular genre or tra-dition, create an interesting, but oftentimes perplexing, dilemma of what musiciansor music educators feel might be “representative” as repertoire to put forth that issignature to this young and constantly changing immigrant society. On top of that,there are multiple intersections of the global and local at work in the construction ofmusic in Singapore, which are also driven by economic, cultural, and politicalinfluences (Kong, 1997).

Vulnerabilities were also abounded at the point of Singapore’s independence,which were linked to racial riots, pressing the government to forge a cohesivenational identity towards “a gradual deemphasising of ethnic, clan, and communalidentities and sentiments in favour of a higher, common Singaporean identity…The Singaporean, a new glorious pan-Asian breed, was meant to rise from the ashesof ethnic and religious strife, to tower above the clannish impulses that governlesser beings” (Vadaketh, 2014, p. 66). The Singapore government’s main concernwas to unite its ethnically diverse population, and a major aim since the late 1970swas the construction of an overarching national identity based on the ideology ofmulti-racialism:

…four races or cultures (Chinese, Malay, Indian, Other) validated by four correspondingofficial languages (Mandarin, Malay, Tamil, English) and applied as valid media ofinstruction. English was instituted as the sole medium of instruction in 1987 to ensurenational cohesiveness through the use of “one common working language.” At the sametime, a second language as mother tongue was retained and made compulsory for studentsfor the purposes of retaining ethnic identity through language. More importantly, there wasa gradually increasing emphasis on ethnic traditions, in terms of language, religion, customsand other expressive forms. (Dairianathan and Lum, 2012, p. 116)

Emphasising specific ethnic and communal heritage is part of the overarchingnational identity, which comprises this constructed multicultural identity. So the idealof a national culture in Singapore was envisaged as one that transcends the idiosyn-crasies of current and emerging diverse ethnic cultures that constitutes its population.Koh (1989) drew on a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office in 1986:

The government’s policy was not to “assimilate,” but to “integrate” our different com-munities, in other words, to build up common attributes such as one common workinglanguage, same loyalties, similar values and attitudes, so as to make the different com-munities a more cohesive nation. (p. 711)

Today, this already-convoluted sense of national identity is further complicatedby globalisation and Singapore’s rapid economic growth, along with its changingdemographics. Singapore has seen large numbers of migrants entering the country,and according to the national agenda, “will continue to welcome new citizens andpermanent residents” as “diversity in our population supports innovation and

Setting the Context: Identity and Music in Singapore 3

entrepreneurship, and adds to our strengths as society and economy” (PMO, 2013,p. 26). Singapore’s changing demographics and ethnic composition are alsoaffected by a rising trend in international marriages over the years, which now makeup four in ten of all marriages involving a Singaporean (ibid). Former deputy PrimeMinister S. Rajaratnam, who was born Ceylonese, but wrote the words of theSingapore Pledge, once said, “Being a Singaporean is not a matter of ancestry… Itis conviction and choice.” One view is that the embracing of diversity is a mark ofthe Singaporean identity. Indeed, in a 2010 survey of 2000 citizens—halflocal-born, half foreign-born—the Institute of Policy Studies found that both groupsranked “respect for multi-racial and religious practices” as a top marker of theSingaporean identity (Straits Times, 2013). Another view is that for new immi-grants, migration may not be “about ideals or dreams or what the country standsfor” (Vadeketh, 2014, p. 68). Vadeketh, for example, argued that Singapore has inmany ways moved towards a global city identity, which is more fluid and lessrooted compared with a national identity:

Singapore has unwittingly created a model for a future where nationhood, ethnicity, andreligion should not matter. Each must be celebrated, but remain secondary to the higherhuman identity… while there may never be a larger, imagined community withinSingapore, people here will constantly be thinking about the larger, global imaginedcommunity. (Vadaketh, 2014, p. 69)

Folkestad (2002), in articulating the association between music and nationalidentity, mentions that:

Music has two main functions in expressing and communicating national identity, whichmight be called ‘inside-looking-in’, an in-group perspective, and ‘outside-looking-in’, anout-of-group perspective. In the first of these, music is used in order to strengthen the bondswithin the group, and to make the members of the group feel that they belong to oneanother. In the second, the aim of the music is to be recognised [sic] by others as beingtypical member of one national or particular group, and to make people outside the groupidentify the members of the group as such. (p. 156)

Given the complexity in articulating a national identity in Singapore as evi-denced in the above discussion, an exploration into the association between musicand national identity would equally be bound with contradictions. Nevertheless, it isa necessary exploration to gather perspectives of “inside-looking-in” and“outside-looking-in” (Folkestad, 2002) to come to terms with the positioning ofidentity and music in Singapore so as to draw implications for local music edu-cation in taking steps forward.

In defining Singapore music, music by Singapore composers, or musics of or inSingapore, one needs to consider these inside–outside perspectives by taking intoaccount the historical and political factors, the influx of globalisation throughmigration, and technology and media, while being cognisant of the development ofa common national identity in balance with maintaining a state multi-racial agendathrough arts and culture. Some key considerations include: (i) the claiming, dis-placement, and transformation of Chinese, Malay, and Indian cultural traditions thathave been in existence due to historical and political factors; (ii) an emphasis on

4 1 Introduction

nurturing a common Singaporean identity and a “strong Singaporean core” (PMO,2013, p. 14) while valuing ethnic diversities; and (iii) an embracement of a globalcity identity for economic and political reasons.

Integrating the Ethnomusicological Approach in MusicEducation

In view of the contexts as set out above, how could music educators in Singaporeapproach the issues of identity and the teaching–learning of music in Singapore?

Some forty years ago, Blacking (1974) envisioned that “Ethnomusicology hasthe power to create a revolution in the world of music and music education” (p. 4).Several ethnomusicologists and music educators have also since acknowledged theinfluence of ethnomusicology in music education. The rise of cultural diversity inmusic education as a result of the blossoming field of ethnomusicology in the USAwas documented by Schippers and Campbell (2012). Krüger (2009) wrote abouthow the shift towards interdisciplinary perspectives, multiple methods, and expe-riential learning in the UK defines ethnomusicology as an “approach” to experi-encing and knowing music (p. 160). In Singapore, the music curriculum hasbroadened to incorporate music from around the world. The 2015 edition of theGeneral Music Programme syllabus echoes Blacking when it states, “The syllabusis developed on the premise that all children are musical…” and recognised theconnection music has with culture, stating among its aims, how music education“contributes to the future development and preservation of Singapore’s culturalheritage”, and that, “being an integral part of many cultures, also provides a meansto raise global awareness amongst students” (MOE, 2014a, p. 2). To support thesyllabus implementation and to enhance teacher efficacy and confidence in usingmusic material in Singapore, Teaching Living Legends was one of the programmesinitiated in 2013, to develop resources and a professional development curriculumfor music teachers, while taking into account ethnomusicological perspectives.

In music pedagogical discussions, ethnomusicology provides fresh perspectivesand a critical lens throughwhichwe examine how theworld ofmusics could be taught.Krüger (2009) refers to music pedagogy integrating ethnomusicology’s approach as“ethnomusicology pedagogy” (p. 163). Campbell defined the “ethnomusicologicalmethod” as “a mode of inquiry with its blend of musical and cultural perspectives”(2003, p. 17) and introduced the term “world music pedagogy” to address theteaching–learning and transmission–reception of music (2004, pp. 26–27). Hence, aswe seek to study music from different traditions, the ethnomusicology pedagogy orethnomusicological method helps to broaden the music educator’s perspectives withcritical considerations as they conduct lessons with world music pedagogy. Worldmusic in this instance is synonymous with Schippers’ (2009) definition as “the phe-nomenon of musical concepts, repertoire, genres, styles and instruments travelling,establishing themselves, or mixing in new cultural environments” (p. 27), a definition

Setting the Context: Identity and Music in Singapore 5

particularly significant to a space like Singapore where early migrants brought inmusics that have travelled from their ancestral lands and evolved in new contexts,slowly growing into living music traditions.

With the ethnomusicological perspective, music teaching approaches broadenand depart from the traditional starting points in music study, such as music theoryand score analysis. In a commentary on the use of music theory outside the Westernclassical canon, Miller (2013) observed, “Many of the world’s theoretical systemsare far more speculative and philosophical than they are practical. Rather thandescribing the musical world as it is, they seek to describe an ideal world that is“logical” in comprehensive ways unknown to reality” (p. 385). Besides acknowl-edging the limitations of studying music theory, many ethnomusicologists aremoving beyond music analysis as a culmination of their research, and “insteadstrive for the development of musical ethnographies of individual musicians (bothprofessional and amateur), musical families, and communities of musicians, lis-teners, consumers, and ‘users’” (Campbell, 2003, p. 24). Ethnomusicologists havestudied music learning in formal and informal contexts and they have examined theextent of verbal and nonverbal techniques, the use of vocalisation and solmisation,the extent of aural and oral techniques, the use of rehearsal strategies, and the paceof the instructional delivery from the teacher to the student (Campbell, 1991).Similarly, in music education, there is increasing recognition of informal andnon-formal approaches in formal music education (Green, 2008; D’Amore n.d.)which values oral–aural learning, enculturation, and the social environment, amongothers in music learning.

Perhaps influenced by the ethnomusicological perspective of the myriad possi-bilities to approach the study of music in putting together Teaching Living Legends,it turned out that the STAR team could not neatly organise the package through“genres”. The topics took various forms—genres, composers, concepts, andmusical behaviours. For example, topics developed in 2013/4 were “xinyao2”,“dondang sayang3”, “Singapore composers”, “Malay rhythms”, “National Anthemand Singapore Songs”, “Indian orchestra”, and in 2015, topics such as “English Popsongs” and “children’s musical games” were added, essentially focusing on thenarratives and the stories that could give contextual meaning beyond music anal-ysis, giving attention to the study of music in and as culture. The topics also wentbeyond the traditional ethnic classifications of “Malay”, “Chinese”, and “Indian”,taking into account the changing ethnic compositions as described above. Althoughthe music content is focussed on the music traditions in Singapore rather thanmusics of the world, it is a step to foster an awareness of cultural diversity and awindow to open discussions on identity issues. This led to the articulation of the

2Xinyao is defined by Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians as “a Mandarin vocal genreaccompanied by guitars which began in the early 1980s among teenage students” (Groves, 2001,pp. 421–423).3Dondang sayang, as described in the Teaching Living Resource kit, is a form of singing poemsoriginating from the Malay community, which has become a shared cultural practice between theMalays and the Peranakans.

6 1 Introduction

“seven wonders of studying the world of music” laid out by the teacher educators atSTAR, drawn from ethnomusicological perspectives (Nettl, 2005), in setting thetone for the workshop, which urged participants to wonder:

• How are sounds organised and why?• How are musical styles distinguished?• What is the role of musicians and how do they learn?• What is the role of instruments and how are they played?• How music is realised (vis-à-vis a model)?• What is the purpose of notation?• Is music a universal language? Are we insiders or outsiders?

Although there are several ways in which perspectives of ethnomusicology canbenefit music education, integrating these are not without its difficulties. Swanwick(1992) suggested that education is “interventionist in character and culturallysubversive” but ethnomusicology is “more locally descriptive and culturally neu-tral” (p. 137). If we accept that “intervention” is an essential activity of educatorssince educators seek to mediate students’ learning, maintaining authenticity in thetransmission of music and musical practices then becomes an issue. Szego (2005)pointed out how ethnomusicologists have weighed in on the issue of context andauthenticity, and cited Blacking’s hard-line view of how, without the originalperformance contexts, the music “cannot have the same significance for performersand audiences” (p. 209). Szego (2005) noted that “even in the best of all possibleworlds, it is unlikely that music educators will be able to live up to the moststringent demands for recreating performance context” (p. 208). He noted that whileauthenticity is a “very valuable guiding principle, it is a rather elusive objective,complicated by the crossing of historical, cultural, and even generational bound-aries” (p. 214).

The debate of authenticity among ethnomusicologists and music educators alikecan possibly have no resolution. On the one hand, scholars have urged for authenticperformance and respect for diverse musical practices and the people who generatedthem; pedagogues, on the other hand, have equally compelling reasons to revise andarrange music material for pedagogical needs, such as modifying instrumentation,tuning systems in view of the practicalities of the classroom, and to make theseaccessible for different learning profiles of students. Indeed, for many music edu-cators, successful teaching is predicated on the ability to adapt and contextualisemusical material for classroom needs. Hence, the degree of representation ormisrepresentation is arguable, depending on one’s beliefs, values, and experienceswith the specific music material and contexts.

Integrating the Ethnomusicological Approach in Music Education 7

Situating Adult Learning, Partnerships, and Communityin Professional Development

This leads to a discussion on pedagogy and andragogy (Knowles, 1973) for thepurposes of professional development of teachers and preparing them to teachliving music traditions in the 21st Century contexts in Singapore. Alexander(2001a) defines “teaching” as “an act” while “pedagogy” is “both act and dis-course” (p. 540, emphasis is original). Pedagogy encompasses teaching and theirtheories, beliefs, policies, and controversies that inform and shape it. Pedagogyconnects with culture, structure, and mechanisms of social control (ibid). Hence,studies in comparative pedagogy highlight the interplay between education andculture (Alexander, 2001b). Prema Clarke, for example, has set out a number of“cultural models of teacher thinking and teaching” (cited by Alexander, 2001a,p. 553). This adds another facet of understanding—that while there are pedagogicalconsiderations in dealing with diverse musics, pedagogical considerations also varywith different education contexts due to social and cultural influences.

In the context of 21st Century Singapore, the Ministry of Education identified threeemerging 21st Century Competencies: Civic Literacy, Global Awareness, andCross-cultural Skills; Critical and Inventive Thinking; and Communication,Collaboration, and Information Skills, that will “underpin the holistic education thatour schools provide to better prepare our students for the future” (MOE, 2014b). Thecompetencies have been explored and revisited in several other professional devel-opment programmes for teachers since they were first introduced in 2010 (MOE,2010). Hence, by 2014 when Teaching Living Legends was introduced as a

Fig. 1.1 21st Century Competencies framework

8 1 Introduction

professional development programme, teachers would likely have had opportunitiesto discuss pedagogy in the context of these 21st Century Competencies. Similarly, inthe development of resources and workshop curriculum for Teaching Living Legends,the STAR team needed to consider the 21st Century Competencies framework inarticulating pedagogical approaches for music lessons in Singapore (Fig. 1.1).

Apart from pedagogical discussions, the field of andragogy and adult learningwith their roots in John Dewey’s ideas about education, experience, and commu-nication provides insights to professional development work. As a spokesperson forandragogy, Knowles (1973) differentiates the characteristics of adult learning fromthose of children. One of the assumptions is the role of the learner’s experience intheir learning. “To a child, experience is something that happens to him; to an adult,his experience is who he is.” The experiences “produce deep-seated changes in theways adult approach problems, handle risk and organize their thinking” (p. 46,emphasis is original). There are critiques to this dichotomous view of andragogy–pedagogy, and Knowles (1979) himself came to believe in the pedagogy–andra-gogy continuum (cited by Davenport & Davenport, 1985, p. 155).

What was significant in these discussions is the consideration of the experiencesof the learners in the learning processes. This resonates with Dewey’s (1934/1958)“habit” and notions of “embodied understanding” (Alba & Sandberg, 2006) andthat “professionals not only learn knowledge and skills, but these are renewed overtime while becoming integrated into ways of being the professional in question”(p. 389). According to Dewey,

The basic characteristic of habit is that every experience enacted and undergone modifiesthe one who acts and undergoes… From this point of view, the principle of continuity ofexperience means that every experience both takes up something from those which havegone before and modifies in some way the quality of those which come after. (Cited byAlba & Sandberg, 2006, p. 393)

This is also seen in Mezirow’s (1990) transformation theory of adult learning,which assumes that adults already have assimilated beliefs about the world, andthese become “frames of reference” or “meaning perspectives” which “profoundlyeffect how, what, and why we learn” (p. 141). These notions are important con-siderations especially in the discussion of the teaching–learning of different musictraditions that might potentially require a rewiring of participants’ previous musicalunderstandings and reviewing previous assumptions about music. The field of adultlearning also offered suggestions in operationalising these adult-learning theories.Knowles, for example, discussed the approaches of teaching through inquiry, andteaching through modelling (1973, p. 74), thus paying attention to the processesthat help learners acquire information and skills. Mezirow presented how reflectivethought could transform beliefs, interpretations, or meaning schemes, and how thetransformation process appears to involve a disorienting dilemma, critical assess-ment of presuppositions, building competence and self-confidence among others(p. 146).

Another significant strand in adult-learning discourse is the contribution of socialconstructivist perspectives on teaching and learning (Palincsar, 2005), which are

Situating Adult Learning, Partnerships, and Community … 9

manifested, for example, through notions of learning through the community andidentity formation (Wenger, 1999). The significance of the role of community inprofessional learning is also acknowledged in various teacher education and pro-fessional development literature. For example, Sachs (2003) explained that intransformative professionalism, “teachers will have to work collaboratively, notonly with other teachers but also with others interested in education and improvingstudent learning…” (p. 15). Shulman (1998) saw the importance of creating andfostering the work of communities of practice since “individual experience becomescommunal, distributed expertise can be shared, and standards of practice canevolve” (p. 521). Hence, the value of exploring and engaging in partnership withthe community for teacher development cannot be underestimated. Discoursesspecific to music teaching and learning have already made references to harnessingthe expertise of community musicians and other members of the community.Jorgensen (1995) pointed out, in her opening to the article “Music Education asCommunity”:

One of the most pervasive models underlying music education is that of community.Whether it be the Hindustani sitarist instructing his disciple in traditional manner, theWestern classical pianist conducting her masterclass, the Australian Aboriginal songmanteaching his young kinsman a love song, or the Balkan mother singing her daughter alament, all participate in a community in which music making and taking plays a centralrole. (p. 71)

Partnership between teachers and professional artists may also lead to a processof knowledge creation in understanding about teaching. Burnard (2013), forexample, saw how a creative resolution needs to be arrived for teacher–artistpartnerships to balance typically improvisational and unpredictable approach ofartists with the more predictable and normative style of teachers:

Teachers and artists co-construct knowledge… When teachers and artists collaborate, theyoften have different conceptions concerning the professional knowledge that brings thepurpose of teaching into focus. Some see teaching as imparting knowledge and othersmaintain a focus on the act of teaching, perceiving teaching as the preparation of pupils touse old and create new knowledge. The visiting artist typically uses a more improvisational,open-ended approach, whereas the classroom teacher typically uses a more structured style.(p. 9)

Hence, the partnership between artists and music teachers is an opportunity toengage in a dialogue to re-examine their respective teaching practices andassumptions.

Some studies (Gradel, 2001; Hall & Thomson, 2007; Jeffrey, 2005; Lum, 2013)have also indicated that artists propel teachers to think and rethink about theirpedagogic approaches through the ways artists define themselves in the schoolsetting as creative practitioners in terms of their artistic expertise, knowledge, skills,and pedagogic practices. Artists have the potential to bring to the school setting,“adaptive educational environments”, where creative spaces are developed thatfosters creativity in ways that lead to change (Loi & Dillon, 2006). Artists workingin schools opened up opportunities for time, space, and context of learning to be

10 1 Introduction

challenged and questioned (Galton, 2008), for instance, using “real world culturalsettings as contexts for learning which provide pupils with a sense of authenticity”(Jeffrey, 2006; Jenkins et al., 2008 as cited in Burnard & Swann, 2010, p. 72).There is also evidence to suggest that artists take a strong facilitative stance inengaging with students’ learning and often see themselves as co-learners whileencouraging collaborative exercises, opening up dialogue with students to uncover,share, and extend learning (Loveless, 2008; Sefton-Green, 2008; Galton, 2008 ascited in Burnard & Swann, 2010).

Through teacher–artist partnerships, encountering artists’ practices and processesworking with students, Burnard & Swann (2010) pointed out that there is much thatteachers can do to bring real-world learning into school:

[Teachers] can, and do, provide the trusting, collaborative, facilitative relationships thatpupils found with the artists. Teachers can plan for the emotional dimension of learning.They can work to find or create conducive contexts of learning which maximise immersive,first hand sensory experience, and provide opportunities for learning where what is learnt,how it is learnt, and what counts as learning are inherently culturally and contextuallyspecific. They can also actively seek opportunities for pupils to work alongside contem-porary artists. (p. 80)

The extent to which arts-inspired approaches get infused into classroom teachingis very much dependent on how deeply the artists are involved in the partnershipitself (Upitis, 2005). Gradel (2001), in the context of the initiative at the John F.Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, delineates a continuum of artistinvolvement in educational settings, ranging from “presenting artist” to “interactingartist” to “collaborating artist” to “master instructional artist”. The “presentingartist” performs for students and teachers without engaging in interactive learningexperiences. At the other end of the continuum, the “master instructional artist”works with teachers, leads in the curriculum planning and development, and pro-vides professional development to the other educators.

In a recent study, examining partnership and professional development processesof artists through the Artists-in-schools-scheme from the National Arts Council,Singapore (Lum, Tse, & Vu, 2015), an adaptation of Gradel’s (2001) modelalongside Craig’s (1992) pointers on effective arts partnership processes was sug-gested to further detail descriptions and indicators in the partnership framework.Instead of Gradel’s four categories, five categories were indicated: (i) Instructor;(ii) Teaching Artist; (iii) Artist–Teacher; (iv) Collaborating Artist; and (v) MasterInstructional Artist. The “instructor” is described as an artist who sees the part-nership as a simple transaction and “teaches the entire duration of the workshopbased on prior teaching/learning experiences with little or no knowledge of peda-gogy.” On the other end of the continuum, the “master instructional artist” viewsthe partnership as ongoing collaboration and “both the artist and the teachers areinvolved in all aspects of the course from pre- to post-discussions, as well as lessondelivery; in addition, the artist revisits the school regularly to adapt the syllabus as itis being executed on a long-term basis”.

Challenges of artists working in educational settings were also mentioned byGradel (2001), including “difficulties of finding time to plan and communicate with

Situating Adult Learning, Partnerships, and Community … 11

teachers, of planning assessment strategies that resonate with the school system,and of resolving the tension between individual artistic endeavors [sic] and pro-cesses with the philosophies and teaching approaches of the educational settings”(Upitis, 2005, p. 2). Other challenges in arts partnerships include factors such asteacher autonomy, availability of resources, time for planning and development,support of administrators, school commitment to professional development, andgovernmental policies regarding curriculum and testing (Elster, 2001; Fullan, 1991;Patterson, 2005; Sarason, 1999 as cited in Upitis, 2005). Rowlett (1986) alsopointed out the importance of clarity in articulating the objectives of arts partner-ships and the release of time for teachers to be engaged in such partnerships andprofessional development programmes.

Upitis (2005) in her study looking at the experiences of artists and artist teachersinvolved in teacher development programmes noted several factors for artists toconsider as they embark on partnerships with teachers, suggesting that:

Successful artists had to be willing to take on the role of an artist-educator, to engage inprofessional development, and to understand their art form well enough to be able to shareit with teachers and children…artists needed to be willing to build relationships withteachers and students…(and) artists had to be willing and able to read, understand, andinterpret state and provincial curriculum documents, and work along with teachers to findsuitable means to approach the mandated curricula. (p. 9)

However, as Gradel (2001) already noted, such an artist who could facilitatelearning processes in others “is a rare breed” (p. 16), and it might well be worth-while for educators seeking partnership with artists to simply value artists for the“uncommon view” they bring with them, that they have “a plethora of ideas, oftenlayered and complicated”, “not linear thinkers” and therefore, “help them to focusand simplify” and “connect his or her lesson to what teachers want to achieve”(p. 16).

In the context of Singapore, teacher education and professional developmentmodels for the 21st Century teachers have also emerged. The National Institute ofEducation (NIE, 2010) adopted a new Model of Teacher Education for the 21stCentury (TE21) which aims to prepare autonomous thinking teachers for the 21stCentury through a new paradigm of teacher education, supported by a robustpartnership with stakeholders and a strong theory–practice link in the programs[sic] (Tan & Liu, 2015, pp. 139–140). At MOE, the Teacher Growth Model(TGM) is a professional development model aimed at encouraging teachers toengage in continual learning and take ownership of their professional growth andpersonal well-being (MOE, 2012). What is common in the above models perhaps isthe recognition of the greater significance of teacher autonomy, ownership, andmastery, as well as links and partnerships with stakeholders and the community.

12 1 Introduction

Closing Note

Approaching the teaching of different music traditions in Singapore in the GeneralMusic Classroom and developing such a professional development programme forteachers is both an art and a science. This chapter has set out to introduce thecontexts, to elucidate the dilemmas and complexities in the discourses on identity,and integrating the ethnomusicological approach in music education. It has alsohighlighted some literature discussing pedagogy, 21st Century Competencies, adultlearning, partnerships, and the community in professional development. The secondchapter outlines the approach and processes in the development of the programmeTeaching Living Legends as well as its research study. The third chapter discussesthe professional development considerations in the design of the resources and thecurriculum of the programme. The fourth and fifth chapters focus on the processesof the workshop and trace how the pedagogies, practices, and perspectives weredeveloped. The sixth chapter outlines the professional learning experiences of theparticipants and the extent to which teacher efficacy was developed. The finalchapter will attempt to synthesise the findings of the research study and draw outimplications and considerations for professional development.

As a whole, this book presents a practitioner perspective from teacher educatorstrying to find a way to help other music teachers develop the knowledge, skills, andconfidence to approach different music traditions in their music classes through theTeaching Living Legends programme. We hope that our sharing contributes someempirical findings to discussions on professional development of music teachersand how the teaching-learning of different music traditions for music teachers mightbe approached.

Closing Note 13

Chapter 2Approach and Processes

This chapter sets out the approach and processes involved in developing TeachingLiving Legends, as well as the processes in which the study of the programme wasconducted. The conceptualisation and development of the resources and the pro-fessional development curriculum was not the effort of STAR alone. Apart fromworking with other colleagues from the Ministry of Education, and teachers inschools, STAR also sought input from organisations such as the National ArtsCouncil and National Library Board, academics from the National Institute ofEducation, music teachers from schools, artists, and arts practitioners in Singaporeto put together audio and video recordings, music scores, background narratives,lesson ideas, and various other resources.

Such a partnership with practitioners was vital to the authenticity and accuracyof representation in developing the resources. As the programme was an inauguraleffort of this scale in putting together resources for teachers’ professional learningof the music traditions in Singapore, the process was also documented as a researchstudy to examine its effectiveness in developing teacher efficacy.

The design of the Teaching Living Legends programme underwent three keyprocesses:

a. Customising and consolidating pedagogical resources related to the teaching ofthe selected music traditions;

b. Developing the workshop curriculum; andc. Documenting the processes and analysing results for evaluation purposes.

The workflow of the processes in the Teaching Living Legends project issummarised and illustrated in Fig. 2.1. The details will be explained in this chapter.

© The Author(s) 2016C.-H. Lum and S.L. Chua, Teaching Living Legends,SpringerBriefs in Education, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1482-6_2

15

Fig. 2.1 Workflow of the processes in Teaching Living Legends (*STAR 3Ps Framework refer toPerspective, Practice and Pedagogy dimensions in the professional development framework.Further details are at http://www.star.moe.edu.sg/star-professional-development-programmes/star-professional-development-framework)

16 2 Approach and Processes

Partnership: A Co-Constructive Processwith the Community

In collaboration with the National Arts Council, the STAR team selected the topicsin Teaching Living Legends based on the respective teams’ views that these topicshave developed their own identity in Singapore. The team deliberately moved awayfrom the traditional classifications of Malay, Chinese, and Indian genres, taking intoaccount the globalised and shifting ethnic composition in the heterogeneousSingapore society of the 21st Century. The topics in the initial conception in 2014included Dikir Barat,1 Dondang Sayang,2 Indian orchestra, Malay rhythms,3

National Anthem and Singapore songs, Singapore composers, and Xinyao.4 Theteam also had plans for more topics to be added at later stages.

The first key considerationwas in locating practitioners in the livingmusic tradition inquestion and having a discussion with these practitioners to determine how the musicalknowledgewithin the tradition could be transmitted into theGeneralMusic classroom. Inthis respect, the National Arts Council played a key role in connecting the teachereducators at STARwith the arts practitioners in the community for the initial contact andexploration on particular music traditions. Detailed resource lists were compiled inpartnership with librarians from the National Library Board, and the National Archive ofSingapore provided other archive materials, artefacts, and e-resources.

The collaboration with arts practitioners was energising as the practitionersexuberated passion and enthusiasm when sharing their music traditions and theywere very willing to help with the development of the resource, giving their time forinterviews, sharing their performance recordings and artefacts, and even providingsuggestions on the resources that could be created for the learning of the traditionand musical practices. Most conversations started with how they saw music tra-dition in the Singapore context and how it has evolved a Singapore identity. Thisallowed the team to gather a broad overview of the tradition through the practi-tioners, speaking to them in meetings and understanding their perspectives.

The STAR team also partnered music teachers in schools to work together indeveloping the resources and saw this as a professional development opportunity formusic teachers. Some teacher educators at STAR began the process by brainstormingwith teachers about what they knew of the music traditions and shared ideas and

1Dikir Barat—“a form of Malay group singing featuring pantun, body movement, call andresponse between groups of singers to the accompaniment of musicians” (Teaching LivingLegends resource—Dikir Barat, 2014).2Dondang Sayang—“a form of singing poems originating from the Malay community, and hasbecome a shared cultural practice between the Malays and the Peranakans” (Teaching LivingLegends resource—Dondang Sayang, 2014).3The five core Malay rhythms (Inang,Masri, Zapin, Joget, and Asli) are widely used and performedin the Malay music tradition in Singapore (Teaching Living Legends resource—Malay rhythms).4Xinyao—Chinese folk songswritten in the popular idiom composed and created by Singapore youths.A movement that started in the early 1980 s (Teaching Living Legends resource—Xinyao, 2014).

Partnership: A Co-Constructive Process with the Community 17

existing resources before embarking on fieldwork through learning journeys andworkshops with music practitioners of the local tradition. Music teachers who joinedthe STAR team in developing the resources had volunteered for the work and alreadyhaving a passion for the particular music tradition in question. Other STAR membersbegan initial work with the music practitioners by having them conduct practicalworkshops for a group of interested teachers to experience and understand the musictradition. This was followed by discussions between the practitioners, music teach-ers, and STAR team members on experiential learning and lesson ideas that couldeffectively teach and portray the music tradition in an engaging manner. Once themusic teachers had created lesson plans, these were trialled in their General Musicclassrooms. The music practitioners and STAR teacher-educators provided furtherpedagogical suggestions to the music teachers after actual lesson observations orthrough conversations on video-recorded lessons by the music teachers. Hence, theknowledge and skills in the music topics were deepened through the support of thesemusic practitioners and industry partners. Snippets of the video-recorded lessonswere then edited by the teacher educators in consultation with the music teachers andbecame part of the resource ideas included in the resource kit.

Other resources such as audio and video recordings of demonstrations of musicalinstruments, musical concepts, and musical repertoire of the local tradition weredone by the music practitioners, and logistically arranged by STAR, usuallythrough a professional recording service. The determination of what audio andvideo recordings were needed for the resource kit were pedagogical decisionsagreed upon between the music teachers and/or teacher educators at STAR and themusic practitioners from the community.

The STAR team also worked with Legal Services from the Ministry ofEducation and National Library Board on copyright issues in seeking permissionfrom practitioners for the use of interviews and audio–video recordings to beincluded in the pedagogical resource kit, as some of these materials would beuploaded onto the National Library e-portals for public access at a later stage.

The development of Teaching Living Legends is thus a collective effort andcollaborative partnership between the teacher educators, music practitioners, musicteachers, and governmental organisations. The close partnership allowed for theco-creation of a resource package and workshop curriculum that is authentic to theSingapore context is representative of the living music traditions in Singapore, anduseful as a pedagogical resource for the General Music classroom.

The Resources

The team started resource development for a pedagogical resource kit in 2013 withseveral partners who have beenmentioned above. Six subcommittees were formedwithmostly volunteers who were music teachers from schools and officers from the partnerorganisations. The committee members interviewed practitioners and video-recordedtheir performances and interviews to provide resources for the teaching of the topics.

18 2 Approach and Processes

Where there were teacher-members in the subcommittees, lesson ideas developed weretrialled.As described in the section above, the STAR team considered this a professionaldevelopment opportunity for the teacher-members where they could work with the artspractitioners to gain a deeper understanding of the music tradition(s).

It was intended that lesson ideas presented in the pedagogical resource kit beframed to explicitly extend students’ thinking and grow their civic literacy andglobal awareness through authentic and meaningful learning of local music tradi-tions. The pedagogical underpinnings in the resource kit were informed by worldmusic pedagogy (Campbell, 2004), critical thinking pedagogies including theoriesand frameworks of Harvard Project Zero (Blythe, 1997; Ritchhart, Church &Morrison, 2011), and established music-specific pedagogical approaches. Thesepedagogies will be described in greater detail below.

For each topic, narratives about the music and its development in Singaporewere presented in multimedia text. The intent was to allow teachers to gain anunderstanding of the legends behind the music and how the music continues toevolve in Singapore society. Taking cognisance of the need to encourage partici-pants’ and students’ direct experiences with music in world music pedagogy, someminus-one tracks were created to allow teachers and students to sing and performwith the recording if they wished. Lyrics, translations, fact sheets, and resource listswere also provided to give greater information about the topics. Video recordings ofthe music in the context of song and dance, where applicable, were included to helpviewers understand the function of the music. Other recordings featured interviewswith practitioners or culture bearers who described their music experiences andprovided insights into the topic. Video snippets of actual lessons in the classroomwere also consolidated to demonstrate the strategies used to teach the music tra-dition as well as the facilitation of music activities.

As much as the team wished to provide guidance and support to teachers, theteam wanted to ensure that the pedagogical resource package was not prescriptiveso that it could empower teachers to adapt and create for their lessons. Hence,instead of prescriptive lesson plans, broad lesson ideas were designed, some withreflection questions, to guide teachers to customise their own context. Visiblethinking routines (Ritchhart, Church & Morrison, 2011) were used as cues to thedesign of the lesson ideas, with the aim of encouraging teachers using the packageto reflect more deeply and to be empowered to make their own decisions. Theresultant pedagogical resource kit, which took the form of a portable thumb drive(Fig. 2.2), was distributed to the primary and secondary school music teachers whoparticipated in the Teaching Living Legends workshop.

The Workshop

The professional development workshop had three objectives. It sought to developparticipants in their musicianship abilities to model students’ various aspects of livingmusic traditions in Singapore, to deepen their pedagogical understanding for teaching

The Resources 19

living music traditions in Singapore, and to broaden their perspectives on the diversityand complexity of identity in relation to living music traditions in Singapore.

The workshop design was framed by STAR’s professional developmentapproach, which underlined the importance of developing the “3Ps”,5 namely the“pedagogy”, the music “practice”, and broadening the “perspectives” for a moreholistic professional learning experience. It was underpinned by the assumption thatan interaction of practice, pedagogy, and perspective components in the professionallearning process would help increase teachers’ confidence and competence inteaching music traditions that were unfamiliar to them. The 3Ps are explained below.

Pedagogy

“Pedagogy”, as discussed here, is defined as “the act of teaching together with theideas, values and beliefs by which that act is informed, sustained and justified”(Alexander, 2008, p. 4). In music, pedagogical approaches such as Kodály and Orffhave been established since the 20th Century and these valued the multipledimensions of musicianship and the critical role of music experience, creativity,improvisation, and play in music education (Houlahan & Tacka, 2008;

Fig. 2.2 Picture of Teaching Living Legends resource kit

5http://www.star.moe.edu.sg/star-professional-development-programmes/star-professional-development-framework.

20 2 Approach and Processes

Goodkin, 2004). Towards the 21st Century, there was a growing recognition of theimportance of valuing different music traditions and hence the need for pedagogythat is underpinned by this broader perspective and respect for different musics. Oneexample is world music pedagogy (Campbell, 2004), which proposes that studentscould discover music via the active listening phases of attentive listening, engagedlistening, and enactive listening. Attentive listening directs the listener to focus onthe music elements and structure of the music under study. For engaged listening, itinvolves the listener in active participation in the music, via such music-makingactivities as singing, moving, or dancing to the music, or performing on percussion.And finally, enactive listening involves intensive listening of the music in order torecreate it in performance. As a whole, the listening phases cultivate students’understanding of music concepts via active participation in music-making, musiccreating, and recreating. They provide a direct musical experience for learners,through which they can be brought to understand the diverse musical practices andtheir cultural contexts. World music pedagogy provides a music pedagogicalpathway to develop students’ civic literacy and global awareness through music,one of the 21st Century Competency outcomes identified by the Ministry ofEducation, Singapore (MOE, 2014b). Similar to Kodály and Orff approaches, worldmusic pedagogy focuses on teaching music through engagement with musicalprocesses and “musical encounters” (Howard, Swanson & Campbell, 2014).

Another pedagogical innovation that is growing in the 21st Century is the use ofinformal learning (Green, 2008) and non-formal music learning approaches(D’Amore, n.d.; Mok, 2011). Informal learning is characterised by students learningon their own in friendship groups, generally by listening to music recording(s) andcopying by ear, similar to how one would have learned music outside of school. It isunderpinned by the notion of enculturation as learning is situated in the musicpractice of one’s social context and taps upon the music experiences of students.Non-formal approaches are group-based, collaborative music-making led by aleader with much of the learning “caught” rather than “taught” (D’Amore, n.d.,p. 44), once again emphasising the critical role of oral–aural learning experiencesand the prominence of music-making in music learning.

All these pedagogical approaches resonate with music education philosophicalideas that value the experiences in music (e.g. Swanwick, 1999/2002). In a similarvein, the revised Singapore General Music Programme Syllabus (2015) envisioned“a musical music lesson” to be one “where the instructional experience revolvesaround the music itself” (p.7) and an “effective approach to engage studentsincludes involving them in decision-making during the process of performing,creating, and listening to music”. In addition, one of the syllabus learning outcomesis to “appreciate music in local and global cultures” and states that “[students] willhave an understanding of the different roles musicians play in society as well as therole of music in different cultures. It is through this knowing about the music, themusicians, its role and value in culture, that musical understanding is deepened andcontextualised for the students” (p. 6). Hence, various pedagogical approaches weredeliberated upon in the design of the workshop and used as part of the facilitationprocesses to achieve syllabus goals.

The Workshop 21

STAR had, in 2011, conceptualised the “Experience-Concept-Application”(ECA) approach, which was shared with teachers through several other workshopsas a broad framework to guide teachers to combine different music teachingstrategies and approaches. The ECA approach proposes that each music conceptcould be (i) prepared through experiencing the concept through music (rather thanexplaining or describing) and (ii) practised through applying and expressing theideas, creating, and experimenting. This resonates with beliefs held by other musiceducation scholars. For example, Hargreaves (1986) described that the “intuitiveexperience and enjoyment of music should come first, such that the later acquisitionof formal musical skills occur inductively, that is, as an integral growth of thechild’s experience” (p. 215).

In more generic pedagogical developments, one important contribution to edu-cation in the 21st Century has been the work of Harvard Project Zero, wherebroader critical thinking frameworks, models, and protocols such as “Teaching forUnderstanding” (Blythe, 1998) and “Making Thinking Visible” (Ritchhart, Church& Morrison, 2011) have been introduced. Echoing the ideas in “Teaching forUnderstanding” (Blythe, 1998) and “Understanding by Design” (Wiggins &McTighe, 2005) laid out practical guidelines and tools to guide the design ofcurriculum, assessment, and instruction, while focussing on developing and deep-ening understandings. These frameworks, models, and protocols provided usefulstrategies for the workshop facilitators to engage in deeper conversations withparticipants and for teachers in turn to engage students in critical thinking.

Practice

“Practice” in this discussion refers to the music practice of music teachers, such asin music composition and performance, which are the necessary skills for theconducting or facilitation of music-making activities in music lessons. Rooted inDewey’s (1934) ideas that knowledge arises through interaction, the STAR teamadvocates that music practice itself is a form of knowledge construction, and is acritical aspect of the development of a music educator. The idea that music expe-rience and music-making are valued areas in music teacher development is not new.Small’s oft quoted term “musicking” encapsulates his position that “music is not athing at all but an activity, something that people do” (1998, p. 2), consideringmusic as a discourse, a verb, and an action. The “doing” of music communicatesartistic knowledge. Music philosophers and educators, including Swanwick, havealso advocated conceiving of music as a form of discourse (1999/2011, pp. 39-47).Other scholars have also found that strengthening the music practice or musician-ship in music teacher development constructs or develops the music teacher identity(Bernard, 2005; Jorgensen, 2008; Pellegrino, 2009; Stephens, 1995). These posi-tions are congruent with proponents of the centrality of the arts experience indeveloping the artist-educator, recognising the significance of music teachers’artistic knowledge as the greatest resource for learning (Stephens, 2012, p. 90).

22 2 Approach and Processes

Perspective

In professional development, rich and flexible knowledge of the subject the teacherteaches is necessary to help foster students’ conceptual understanding (Borko,2004). Perspectives from ethnomusicology provide rich subject knowledge that willenhance in-service teachers’ understanding of the issues in the study of differentmusic traditions. These include the issues of enculturation (Herskovits, 1948,p. 39); instrumental classification; universality of music; phenomenon of worldmusic; transcription and notation; emic–etic perspectives; and change and preser-vation (Nettl, 1983; Blacking, 1974; Merriam, A.P., 1964). These perspectives helpuncover the concept of “identity” in the study of different music traditions andcultivate enduring understandings of how diversity fosters identity, how changepreserves identity, and how identity is a social construct, to facilitate criticalthinking and develop cross-cultural skills in students.

The team designing the professional development curriculum was of the view thatreflective conversations on these perspectives, in-between and during the “practice”and “pedagogy” segments, would aid in sense-making of the different music traditionsand help learners see the relevance of the learning through the connections with issuesin their lives. In addition, these perspectives would provide the in-service teachers witha greater sense of purpose in teaching these music traditions, going beyond “nichelearning” to “lifeworthy learning” (Perkins, 2013) and provide them the knowledge toinstil cross-cultural skills and understanding in their students.

Using “Understanding by Design” (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) as a curriculumorganising tool, the team identified the big idea of “identity” as the core notion thatwould run through the workshop. The essential questions, which were intended tobe provocative and require uncovering, were as follows:

• What are Singapore music or music practices?• To what extent does identity change or evolve?• What makes a tradition living?

The team of teacher educators at STAR conducted the five-dayworkshop. Culture bearers, defined in this book as practitioners who are able toprovide an insider perspective of the music tradition under study, were also invitedto provide first-account perspective for selected topics, with conversations withthese culture bearers facilitated by the team to enhance participants’ understandingof the music. Further to the workshop, participants were invited to return for asession at STAR two months later to discuss how they had applied their learning.

The Research Study

The purpose of the study is to understand the impact of professional developmentwork through Teaching Living Legends on the development of teacher efficacy.According to Bandura (1997), “self-efficacy” is concerned with judgements of

The Workshop 23

personal capability and differed from the construct of “self-worth”, “self-esteem”,and “locus of control”, in that it predicts teacher behaviour and influences teacher’sresilience. Researchers have also found that teacher efficacy is related to studentachievement, attitude, and affective growth (Gibson & Dembo, 1984, cited inTschannen-Moran M., Hoy A.W. & Hoy W.K., 1998, p. 215; Armor et. al., 1976,Ashton & Webb, 1986, Moore & Esselman, 1992, Ross, 1992 cited inTschannen-Moran M., Hoy A.W. & Hoy W.K., 1998, p. 222). Teacher efficacy isthus chosen as an indicator of the success of a professional developmentprogramme.

The study sought to address the following questions:

a. What considerations are there for a professional development curriculum on theteaching of music traditions?

b. What processes in the workshop on teaching music traditions enhance teachers’pedagogical knowledge and perspectives on the teaching of music traditions?

c. How does a professional development curriculum that integrates “pedagogy”,“practice”, and “perspective” increase teachers’ confidence and competence inteaching local music traditions in the general music classroom?

The study took into account perspectives from participants, outcomes attained bythe participants, perspectives from the facilitators and administrators, and the per-spective of the development team. The research team consisted of the first author asthe principal investigator and the second author as co-principal investigator. Thesecond author is also involved in leading the Teaching Living Legends programmeand was the main facilitator at the workshop. As there were different inquirycomponents, a mixed-methods approach was used to address the different com-ponents. The approach had a convergent parallel design (Creswell & Clark, 2011),which applied quantitative and qualitative strands concurrently, before they wereconsidered collectively in the final analysis:

a. The quantitative strand was a questionnaire study conducted by the professionaldevelopment team. The instrument was designed to measure teacher efficacy andteaching confidence. In addition, there were also some open-ended questions toallow for qualitative responses from participants. The questionnaire wasadministered at three points of the research process to measure the differences inparticipants’ efficacy and confidence.

b. The qualitative strand anchored by the principal investigator comprised of aseries of fieldwork observations and recorded interviews: (i) during the designstage of the Teaching Living Legends workshops; (ii) at the five-day workshops;and (iii) a few weeks after the workshops. The analysis of the data attempted tocapture the nuances and patterns in professional development so as to under-stand how the programme impacts participants.

While the data is drawn mainly from the 2014 workshops which was the first runof Teaching Living Legends, references would also be made from ongoing obser-vations in the development of the second run of the workshops in 2015.

24 2 Approach and Processes

The Quantitative Strand

40 participants (20 music teachers each from primary and secondary levels) wereselected for the workshop based on a first come, first serve basis and willingness toparticipate in the research study. The questionnaire was administered at threepoints: before the workshop, just after the workshop, and finally, about four monthsafter the workshop. The questionnaire focussed on participants’ music teachingconfidence and self-efficacy. The team adapted the questionnaire from ready toolsincluding (i) the 22-item Teacher Efficacy Scale developed by Gibson & Dembo in1984 and (ii) the 32-item Teaching Confidence Scale by Ohio State University(Hoy, n.d., 2000). The items in these scales required participants to rate theirresponses to the questions on a five-point scale. The teachers’ efficacy and confi-dence were measured as a composite for all the topics in Teaching Living Legends.

Both paired-sample t tests and ANOVA were used to compare participants’responses in the three phases and to glean insights if there were increased levels ofconfidence and teaching efficacy. Correlation test and linear regression were alsoused to examine the relationship between the teachers’ teaching confidence (of theirpractice, pedagogy, and perspective) and teacher efficacy to contribute to thefindings.

In addition to the questions related to the scales, a few open-ended questionswere also provided to learn about the participants’ reasons for attending the courseand the learning they received from the course. On top of completing the ques-tionnaires, participants were also engaged in reflecting on their learning on a dailybasis during the workshop. For the first four days of the five-day workshop, par-ticipants could pen down any thoughts in the last 15-20 min of each day. Thereflection on the final day was focussed on the micro-teaching segment, whichparticipants had undergone as a final activity for the workshop. All theseopen-ended responses from participants were coded, quantified, and analysed,contributing to findings on participants’ professional learning experiences.

The Qualitative Strand

In the qualitative strand, the principal and co-principal investigators were present atthe meetings in one of the subcommittee’s resource development, all the meetingson the design of the workshop, and at the five-day workshop. The data collectionincluded audio and video recordings of meetings, the lessons that trialled theresources, workshops, and interviews with team members and partners.

The five-day Teaching Living Legends workshop was fully video-recorded usingtwo video cameras, one roving and the other focusing on the facilitators of theworkshop. The principal investigator and two research assistants were presentthroughout the five-day workshop. The research assistants were in charge of thevideo cameras, while the principal investigator wrote down extensive observational

The Research Study 25

fieldnotes throughout the five days. The research assistants were also responsiblefor jotting down observational fieldnotes and taking photographs of material arte-facts whenever possible. Participant’s daily workshop reflections, material artefacts,as well as interviews and surveys with teachers and STAR team facilitators con-tributed to the data for the study.

The analysis procedure consisted of process-coding and chunking activities andresponses that are linked to “perspective” building, “pedagogy”, and “practice”,focussing on facilitators’ and teachers’ talk, action, insights, and reflections,including those gleaned from material artefacts. Analytical memos were written tolink ideas, reflections, and data together (Saldaña, 2010). Analysis of the resultsprovided findings for the study.

Summary

This chapter has given a brief description of the contexts in which Teaching LivingLegends was developed. Teaching Living Legends was a response to the profes-sional development needs of teachers who wanted to learn more about the livingmusic traditions that have developed a unique Singapore identity, and how thesecould be taught in the General Music classrooms in Singapore while taking cog-nisance of syllabus goals and outcomes. The programme started with the cus-tomisation and development of resources for professional development andclassroom use, in partnership with other ministries, arts practitioners, and teachers.This was followed by the development of a workshop curriculum plan by theprofessional development team, guided by an approach to develop “practice”,“pedagogy”, and “perspectives”, and underscored by reflections on identity issues.The professional development curriculum was then implemented at the five-dayworkshop facilitated by the team at the academy, in partnership with culturebearers. The whole process was documented for research purposes usingmixed-methods approach, gathering data from different stakeholders to uncoverinsights for professional development in the subject of teaching music traditions.

26 2 Approach and Processes

Chapter 3Tensions and Resolutions: ProfessionalDevelopment Considerations

This chapter aims to discuss the pertinent issues that arose and were deliberatedupon by the team in the design and delivery of Teaching Living Legends, a pro-fessional development programme which commenced with collaborative resourcedevelopment leading to the conceptualisation and implementation of a five-dayworkshop for music teachers teaching at primary and secondary levels (studentsbetween the ages seven and fourteen). Teaching Living Legends supports thenational syllabus’ (MOE, 2015) aims to deepen students’ knowledge of livingmusic traditions and takes cognisance of larger discussions on world music peda-gogy, ethnomusicological approaches, and multicultural education. The approachand processes involved in developing the programme have been detailed in Chap. 2.Desimone (2009) pointed out, through her literature review on impact studies ofteachers’ professional development, that studies had consisted mainly of docu-menting teacher satisfaction and attitude change, and there was a need to alsodocument its results or the processes by which it worked (p. 181). Hence, it is thehope that this chapter, in sharing the professional development considerations,together with subsequent chapters that discuss the delivery of the workshop, and thequantitative and qualitative findings, would add further dimension and depth to thediscussion of Teaching Living Legends as a professional development programme.

Literature discussing how professional development could be effective hashighlighted a few key considerations. Desimone (2009) pointed out five keycharacteristics, which include the following: (i) content focus, (ii) active learning,(iii) coherence, (iv) duration, and (v) collective participation. Content focus looksspecifically at increasing teacher knowledge and skills in the subject matter content.Active learning would include “observing expert teachers or being observed, fol-lowed by interactive feedback and discussion; reviewing student work in the topicareas being covered; and leading discussions” (Desimone, 2009, p. 184). Coherencespeaks to the consistency of teacher learning with teachers’ knowledge and beliefs.It also includes consistency of school and national policies with what is taught inprofessional development (ibid). Duration suggests the need for a considerable spanof time over which professional development activities should be spread out (ibid).

© The Author(s) 2016C.-H. Lum and S.L. Chua, Teaching Living Legends,SpringerBriefs in Education, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1482-6_3

27

Collective participation suggests participation of teachers from the same school,level, or department with arrangements for interaction and discourse, which willhelp with teacher learning (ibid). Avalos (2011), from her review of publications inTeaching and Teacher Education over ten years (2000–2010), found that teacherlearning and development is a complex process and the way background contextualfactors interact with learning needs varies with different traditions, political andcultural environments, and school conditions. Whilst cognitive theory revealed thatprior beliefs and perceptions of self-efficacy could support or hinder change,sociocultural theory pointed to external situations affecting change. She alsohighlighted that the power of teacher co-learning, networking, collaboration,mentoring, and partnerships could not be undermined (pp. 17–18).

Certainly, the STAR team driving the Teaching Living Legends professionaldevelopment programme embraced the notions of effective professional develop-ment discussed above and engaged in deep discussions with stakeholders andpartners in the co-development of resources and the professional developmentcurriculum. However, a key question remained—whether a five-day workshopcould have a positive impact on teacher efficacy in the teaching of music traditionsunfamiliar to themselves. The above literature reviews (Desimone, 2009; Avalos,2011) have indicated that effective or transformative professional developmentgenerally promoted a longer-term plan. Avalos inferred that prolonged interven-tions are more effective than shorter ones, and these interventions should be coupledwith combinations of learning tools and reflective experiences (p. 17). Desimone(2009) highlighted that one of the five characteristics of effective professionaldevelopment was the need for a considerable span of time over which professionaldevelopment activities should be spread out (e.g. over a semester or intense summerinstitutes with follow-up during the semester), including a minimum of at least 20 hof contact time (p. 184). On the other hand, there are also positive findings for theimplementation of workshops as professional development activity, focussing onthe implementation of research-based instructional practices involvingactive-learning experiences for participants, and providing teachers with opportu-nities to adapt the practices to their unique classroom situations (Guskey & Kwang,2009, p. 495). Borko (2004) found that there was evidence that “intensive pro-fessional development programmes can help teachers to increase their knowledgeand change their instructional practices” (p. 5). In addition, Guskey and Kwangfound that professional development initiatives which included 30 or more contacthours showed positive effects (p. 497). Hence, a carefully planned curriculum for aworkshop that stretches for 40 h in the case of Teaching Living Legends couldpotentially benefit in-service music teachers.

What could this professional development curriculum look like for an intensiveworkshop so that teachers have sufficient efficacy and confidence to teach thesemusic traditions? What balance could we expect to achieve when we arrive atcrossroads of music education and ethnomusicological considerations? How arepedagogical approaches translated for professional development with adult learningconsiderations? These were challenging considerations for the team. It is the pur-pose of this chapter to elucidate the dilemmas and thoughts from the perspective of

28 3 Tensions and Resolutions: Professional Development Considerations

a member in this professional development team. So as to maintain the anonymityof team members in the discussion, names have been substituted with randomlyassigned letters, unless quoted from published sources.

An Evolving Identity

As set out in the agenda of Teaching Living Legends, one of the goals is to supportthe syllabus’ aims to deepen students’ knowledge of music traditions so that themusic will continue to live on in the students’ understanding, hereafter becoming anintegral part of developing Singapore’s social and cultural heritage. This gave theSTAR team a sense of mission as members believed deeply in the programme.Several critical conversations arose when the team got together to design the pro-fessional development curriculum. As one member pointed out:

…because it is not just learning about the art from, it’s your responsibility in passing downthat knowledge, to pass on that knowledge to another person who in turn will send it to theyounger generation who are going to be learning about this art form… (Team member,meeting on 27/05/2014)

Attempting to preserve knowledge and understanding of music traditions that arenot static for education purposes already suggests a tension. The team attempted toresolve this issue by examining the “livingness” of the traditions and how they havecome to develop a unique identity in Singapore. The term “Living legends” alsosuggests a paradox, as a “legend” is a traditional story regarded as historical but notauthenticated, and “living” because it is not just something of the past. How musicwill continue to live on in our students’ understanding, becoming an integral part ofour developing social and cultural heritage as mentioned in the agenda above, is toraise an understanding of an evolving identity being developed through thesemusics.

With Singapore having its roots in being an immigrant multi-ethnic society,there was, at the point of the study, still a general feeling that the study of Indianmusic, Malay music, and Chinese music was synonymous with the learning ofmusic from India, Malay Peninsula, and China. Few understood how some musicalpractices had already departed from their points of origin and evolved in terms ofhistorical, social, cultural, and musical functions in the context of Singapore. Forexample, a Malay music practitioner informed a STAR team member that specificplaying styles in Kelantan, Kedah, and Perak in Malaysia were not practiced inSingapore (personal communication/meeting, 14/03/2014). Malay music practi-tioners also shared with the STAR team how dikir barat in Singapore was largelyperformed in competitions amongst community groups, had become a staged artform, largely performed at community competitions, and hence shaped by the rulesof the competitions and largely departed from the improvised folk art form that waspracticed in places such as Kelantan, Malaysia. In Indian music, cross-culturalcollaboration in the Indian orchestra genre was more common in Singapore than in

3 Tensions and Resolutions: Professional Development Considerations 29

India due to the unique contexts of Singapore, where different ethnic culturesco-exist and various music groups were available as resources. The notion of an“Indian-based orchestra”, as described by an Indian orchestra composer and con-ductor, illustrates that the orchestra was not just restricted to performing traditionalIndian music, but an orchestra of Indian instruments capable of playing other music(Meeting, 27/05/2014).

Rationalising Priorities

Inadvertently, the first steps were the hardest. What is important in the teaching ofliving music traditions? How do teachers decide what to teach?

At the stage of resource development, in the subcommittee working on Malaymusic rhythms, all five participating teacher-members first went through a work-shop conducted by Malay music practitioners to learn Malay rhythms on rebanasand through body percussion and dance. They were also given a brief lecture onMalay rhythms and had several discussions to clarify their understanding of Malayrhythms. However, following this initial stage, all five teachers designed lessonsand taught the Malay rhythms very differently, partly because they had differentprofiles of students, and perhaps more significantly, they differed in their beliefs andvalues about music teaching. In planning these lessons, the teachers typicallystarted with some idea of the module that might stretch over a few weeks, and someidea of what they wished to teach in each lesson. Along the way, they reflectedupon what was important when teaching Malay music and the rhythms. One teacherreflected and sought confirmation by asking the following:

Ok, our aim is to teach the kids all the different (Malay) rhythms, right? Is that the mostimportant thing? And then, from there, teach the songs? (Teacher-member of Malay MusicRhythms Sub-committee, personal communication/meeting, 14/03/2014)

In the actual delivery of the lesson, their values and priorities played out. Forexample, one of the teacher-members was more concerned with the proficiency ofstudents in playing the exact rhythms and the techniques involved. Another wasfascinated with the improvisatory nature of the Malay rhythms and used it as anopportunity to experiment with creative music activities such as creating variationsof Malay rhythms—in pairs or small groups—and developing them into classcompositions. Yet, another used the topic as an opportunity to develop students’awareness of music heritage and went more deeply than the other teachers intosocial contexts of the music, and using questions and other thinking tools to createlessons of inquiry.

A common challenge the teacher-members faced was figuring out, in the musictradition they were developing an understanding of, what gives the music itscharacter and identity. For example, if they were to simplify a rhythm pattern fortheir students, what principles could they go by to simplify it whilst retaining thecharacter of the music? In the Malay Asli rhythm, for example, different

30 3 Tensions and Resolutions: Professional Development Considerations

practitioners have different interpretations of what a simplified Asli rhythm couldtake, as we found out through brief discussions and workshops with Malay musicpractitioners. Indeed, our programme made one local practitioner think about sys-tematising the learning of Malay music rhythms. How could one identify what iscore to the Asli rhythm, and how do we get students to experience the characteristicof Asli rhythm, considering that typically, in General Music lessons, there mightjust be enough time for only a few examples of the music? This was brought intodiscussion by a professor from the National Institute of Education, who sat in at oneof our subcommittee’s discussions:

…even in Western music, you know you teach them (students)…“Sarabande” but (if) yougo and find a real “Sarabande”, it is so much more complex. So, I think that’s the nature ofgenres—that you have this textbook model, but the real practice is quite complicated and soour question now is actually what do we want to teach our students? (Personalcommunication/meeting, 14/03/2014)

Discussions on what the emphasis should be in teaching any music tradition wasoften long and hard. For example, in teaching Malay rhythms, the teachers delib-erated on whether it was important for students to learn to identify all the differentrhythms in a song or dance, or for students to be able to perform and create theirown variations after learning one or two rhythms, or for them to learn about theinfluences and styles in these rhythms. Choices made by the teacher also dependedon his/her own comfort level, his/her perception of the students’ reception, and theclass profile.

Whilst teaching the Asli rhythm to her class, one of the teacher-membersencountered a student who brought another Asli rhythm that was taught in Malaysiainto the discussion. On hindsight, the teacher did not feel she was ready to handlethe discussion. The student insisted that his own rhythm was “original” and that theteacher’s rhythm was a variation instead (Teacher-member of Malay MusicRhythms Sub-committee, personal communication/meeting, 22/05/2014). Theteacher also encountered another student who, because of his own Western classicaltraining from private lessons, decided to notate the rhythm. When she told him thatthe practitioners did not notate their rhythms in the way that he had, he questionedhow these practitioners then read the rhythms. The student went away with theimpression that the Malay rhythms had “no form” due to its looser structure. Theteacher struggled both with explaining how the rhythm worked in the tradition andin helping the student value different practices of the genre (ibid). The confusionbetween rhythm and structure in the music of a different music tradition becamequite challenging for the teacher to explain to her student. Hence, this could be aproblem for teachers dealing with music traditions they did not have a deepunderstanding of.

The team realised that it was necessary for teachers to have a “largermacro-plan” in their minds and to have some idea of the hierarchical system ofmusic knowledge, skills, and understanding which they feel is important for thelesson(s). This would help to shape their teaching in terms of the proportion of timespent on areas which are deemed more important than others. Such a hierarchy

Rationalising Priorities 31

would be underscored by their beliefs. At the same time, an awareness of this innerframe of priorities would empower them to adapt their lesson to different profiles ofstudents.

Lost in Translation and in Transmission

A perpetual difficulty in the process of understanding an unfamiliar music traditionis evaluating what is true to the tradition. Teachers had to be careful to mediateunderstandings of new terms, new categories, and new music concepts which couldeasily be “lost in translation” and to foster in students, an appreciation of what isvalued in the tradition, as seen through different cultural lenses.

To compound the difficulty, these concepts are also changing with time andspace as they assume new meaning in different contexts. For instance, learningabout dondang sayang can be bewildering. As an art form, it typically takes theform of a song usually sung by a male and female, in turns, on a standard tune butwith changes in the verse(s) or pantun1 for each performance. Hence, dondangsayang is a song with a standard tune, but it is also a genre, a category of artisticcomposition that has its own distinctive style, form, content, and technique.Traditionally, the verse(s) or pantun are improvised as the singers banter throughsong. However, as the art form became staged and sung in Malay wedding per-formances or as “extra turns”2 in a Peranakan play in Singapore, the song textbecame prepared, rather than improvised, essentially changing what was valued as atechnique associated with dondang sayang of the past.

In Indian music, the music elements of tala and raga could not simply betranslated as “rhythm” and “scale”, respectively. The tala involves metrical cyclesand syllabic groupings whilst the raga has extra-musical associations and ischaracterised by gamaka, which are ornamentations and inflections on the tones.The notion of “composition” in Indian orchestra differed slightly from that ofWestern orchestral composition as discovered by a colleague in her work withIndian music practitioners (Team member, meeting on 30/05/2014). In Singapore,an Indian music composer writes for an orchestra in mind. There is no “standardrepertoire” which every Indian orchestra can play because the compositions arepersonalised, written for the particular orchestra in mind. Working with Indianorchestras in Singapore, an issue composers and conductors face is the diversemusical training of their musicians. Different musicians have different ways ofpresenting their gamaka, so when one puts them together in an orchestra, there is aneed to have a standardised understanding of how the gamaka could be done (Teammember, meeting on 30/05/2014). To add to this, there are no standard Indian

1Pantun is a Malay poetic form that uses a specific rhyme scheme.2“Extra turn” is defined by Gwee (1995) as “In between changes of scenes [where] an interludewas provided in the form of solo or group singing, group dancing, or a comic sketch”.

32 3 Tensions and Resolutions: Professional Development Considerations

orchestral scores that are published like Western orchestral scores. Different Indianorchestras own different sets of scores as different orchestras have their own uniqueinstrumentation, which makes score sharing rather unfeasible (Team member,meeting on 27/05/2014).

Just as understanding and explaining the music from a different tradition to anuninformed audience in a manner that is true to its form is challenging, usingappropriate teaching–learning approaches so that it imitates its transmission pro-cesses is tricky. One of the dilemmas faced by the team was deciding on theteaching approach at the workshop for teachers and whether these teachingapproaches could be authentic to the transmission processes. Certainly, the teamwas generally convinced of the value of placing emphasis on learning first by ear,rather than through written notation. Beyond this general agreement, there wasmuch debate over how much scaffolding was required which would depart fromoriginal transmission practices.

In Malay music traditions for example, most Malay music practitioners learnedby listening to others perform, listening to cassette tapes, and watching televisionprogrammes from when they were young, and they continued to hone their skills asthey practised and performed with friends and others. One Malay music practitionershared his experiences at an interview for the pedagogical resource kit:

I learn how to play dondang sayang when I used to watch television before the internettime. I used to watch my dad dance to it; my parents dance to it when I was young. So, thatis [sic] where I first saw dondang sayang being played. So, that is where I learned how toplay the rebana. For me, as a rebana player, I look out for the vocalist, the singer. Becausethey are doing spontaneous pantun singing, so we need to play “low” in order for them tocommunicate so that the other party can listen to what they are trying to say. So, when theyare not singing, I will play more. When they start singing, I will play less. So, I always lookout for the singers. (Nizarfauzi Norlie, percussionist and singer, featured in interview videoof resource kit)

In many music learning approaches such as the Orff approach, it is the habit ofpedagogues to “break down” the learning of music into smaller steps, unlike othernon-formal and community learning of music where learners learn through repe-tition and enculturation in social and community contexts. Since teachers areworking with students in classrooms and out of the original space, arguably, there islittle time and opportunity for such learning through enculturation to take place.Some adaptation of how the music is originally learned would seem necessary tofacilitate the learning of the music tradition unfamiliar to students. For instance, inthe learning of Malay music rhythms, in the absence of rebanas and other per-cussion instruments, the team used body percussion to help learners internalise therhythms. And, typically, the teacher teaches the basic core skeletal rhythm of eachMalay rhythm before getting students to do the variations of the rhythm, unlike thepractice of Malay music practitioners who are more likely to start with imitating thecomplex variations without analysing what the basic skeletal core rhythms are. Inanticipating the need to explain how the Malay rhythms are realised and performed,the Malay rhythms chapter in the pedagogical resource kit included videos of a

Lost in Translation and in Transmission 33

Malay practitioner playing the core skeletal rhythms and variations separately, bothon rebanas and on body percussion, to facilitate teaching and learning.

In approaching Indian music, the team tried to understand how Indian musicianslearn since there seemed to be a more formalised tradition of teaching–learning ofIndian music. Do the Indian musicians learn the swaras first in order to learn theraga? Do they teach a song with swaras? One view was that since Indian musiciansdo sing the swaras in songs as if they were lyrics, one approach to teach Indianmusic would be to sing a song in swaras, just as one would sing a song in solfège.And, since, one would need to learn the relative positions of the swaras on a scaleor raga, one might ask if a “solfège ladder” associated with the Kodály approachcould be used. Here is an abstract of the team’s conversation to illustrate thedeliberation of issues:

Member A Why did you introduce the swaras through the songs rather thansinging the scale? Is that the way the (Indian) musicians do?

Member B Yes. The musicians learn the songs through swarasMember A So you actually learn the song to learn the swaras?Member B Yes, that is again linked to another notion in Indian (music)… (the

voice) is treated in such a way that it is okay not to sing the lyrics… itis very common in Indian orchestra and choir. In fact, they areperforming repertories where there are no lyrics actually; they just singthe swaras. And that is considered a part. So, actually, the swaras arenot just an aid. It literally means it is a sound that the voice makes, andit is a valid sound that is part of the concert repertoire

Member A So, do they start by learning the scale?Member B Yes, that is the formal method

…Member A Why are you not using the more formal pedagogy? Why did you

choose to use this approach instead?Member B Because the formal pedagogy doesn’t really sit with our notion of

“experience-concept-application”…. My thinking has been it is moreinteresting to learn a song than a raga right at the beginning of the day

[The “experience-concept-application” is an approach conceptualised by STAR as abroad framework to encourage music concepts to be prepared through experiencingthe concept through music; rather than explaining or describing.]

In the end, the team decided to introduce the swaras as a “warm-up” activitywith the help of a visual aid, before singing a song with swaras. The next questionwas what visual aid could be used to make the learning meaningful.Member C If you “warm up” with this swara, even if we don’t look at the

(solfège) ladder (on the board)—that is fineMember D I think, bringing the people to the board straight away is just,

somehow, makes it kind of rigidMember B I would much prefer (people standing in) a circleMember C Circle? No, what I mean is, even if you don’t do the board, it is just

(teaching) the notion of where “sa”, “ri”, “ga”, “ma” is

34 3 Tensions and Resolutions: Professional Development Considerations

Member B But how do I do that without a board?Member E Then don’t use the board. Just use…Member C The body…Member E Just semi-handsignsMember C Can you do this? [Gesturing with hand movements]Member A Even if you use this (hand gesturing the relative positions of the

swaras), it is notation as wellMember C I am not saying use the (written) notationMember A If you say this (hand gestures) is notation, I think that is fine. As a

warm-up, whether we use notation or not, that is just different teachingapproaches. Because, for teachers, where they are coming from, Ithink this (hand gesturing the relative positions of swaras) can relateto them

…Member E But I would prefer not using the boardMember C I think you just do it this way, like that with the hand movement; it

becomes more musicalMember B Is it okay if I don’t use solfège? Because, there isn’t. While there is a

direct link, I don’t wish to actually draw that link at this point of timeMember A How would you like it then?Member B Just (hand) movements

[Member B tried to demonstrate. Members were a little uncomfortable due toconfusion of the ordering of the swaras.]Member A Then, wouldn’t it be much clearer to just follow the board?Member E No, but then I won’t be looking at (Member B), I’ll be looking at the

boardMember A But why do you need to look at (Member B)?Member E It’s more… It’s more human

…(The discussion went on to the area on teaching of a song repertoire)Member C So, let’s say (there are) eight phrases. So, to organise our thoughts,

when you sing the whole song, you say “there are eight phrases, okay,let’s do the first two phrases, third and fourth phrase. Let’s sing all thefirst four phrases”. So, in my mind, I already know that there are thefirst four phrases… because, if not, they’re just a mangle of sounds…I’m not sure whether you’re singing the sixth phrase or the seventhphrase, or the first phrase

Member B That’s fine. So, it gives some structure.

The above conversation intends to illustrate the nuances of pedagogical moves,taking into account that learners are unfamiliar with the music tradition. Whilst theteam generally agreed that music should first be learnt through oral–aural meansrather than through written notation, the team also reflected upon whether moreformal approaches in Indian music instruction as well as notation could makelearning more accessible, and whether how and what notation (in this case, the hand

Lost in Translation and in Transmission 35

gesturing) would hinder or support the music experience at the initial stage oflearning. Necessary consideration was also given to how the song could be “brokendown” and presented so that the oral-aural learning experience was made moreaccessible to participants. Certainly, the team was aware that these departed frommore traditional, non-formal transmission practices, but felt it necessary to facilitatethe learning more efficiently in the workshop.

Working with Culture Bearers

As defined in the previous chapter, “culture bearers” are practitioners who are ableto provide an insider perspective of the music tradition under study. Balancing thepedagogical needs in the classroom, which might have taken the teaching–learningof music traditions away from traditional transmission processes, one strategy inworld music pedagogy is to bring culture bearers into the classroom, which lendsgreater authenticity to students’ learning. The strategy also allows students toexperience and listen to the voices of others. Unfortunately, the strategy is notwithout its difficulties.

First, artists and culture bearers might not be familiar with the classroom setting,or in handling different profiles of students. Additionally, their presence had to becarefully managed. One teacher explained, “Because they are musicians” who were“very wrapped up in their own art forms”, she found the experience to be difficultwhen the musicians became upset with her students when they were less cooper-ative (Meeting, 14/03/2014).

Second, Hess (2013), for example, pointed out that it is problematic to identifyone person as a cultural representative and translator for an entire culture and is alsoconcerned about culture bearers presenting essentialised versions of the cultures,which might lead to stereotypical views.

Third, culture bearers might have other objectives when they embark on apartnership with music educators. For example, one Malay music practitioner sawthe partnership with STAR on the Teaching Living Legends programme as anopportunity to work with the Ministry to create a more systematic and formalisedinstruction for Malay music which was perceived to be lacking due to the lack ofinstitutionalised Malay music training. The collaboration thus made him think abouthow the different Malay rhythms should be represented in their basic and simplifiedforms that could form somewhat “textbook examples” of these various rhythms.Due to the diversity of practices, it was not immediately clear to most Malay musicpractitioners what the rhythms in their most basic forms should sound. Thus, suchpartnerships might impact practitioners’ thinking about their own art form andconsequently change their musical practices.

On a more positive note, working with culture bearers could extend the peda-gogical thinking of teachers and teacher educators and grow their musical exposureand understandings as both parties negotiate through the process of co-designingand/or co-conducting the lesson. At least in the work of developing resources for

36 3 Tensions and Resolutions: Professional Development Considerations

Teaching Living Legends, the identification and conceptualisation of the types ofvideo excerpts that should be produced, in consultation with the music practitionersfor several of the resources, enhanced the quality of materials for teachers andstudents as they were more authentic and accurate. Bringing in musicians to theworkshops, either to perform and demonstrate musical passages, or to share abouttheir experiences and music practices in their lives, tended to be inspiring, as seenby the largely positive feedback from participants from both runs of the TeachingLiving Legends workshop in 2014 and 2015.

Partnerships between artists and teachers took on different forms and dynamics.In one example, Clarence, a pop musician, was asked to share at the workshop forteachers in 2015, on how he developed into a professional musician. The intent ofthe sharing was for teachers to see how learning about musicians and their practicescould be an access point for the teaching–learning of a different music tradition.Although there was a meeting prior to the session between the facilitator and themusician to discuss how the session could be conducted, much of the developmentof the workshop session was an improvisatory process, for both the musician andthe facilitator alike (Facilitator, 21/04/2015).

As Clarence shared his story, participants were asked to make notes of musicalpractices in the popular music scene, how popular musicians learn, and the creativemusic processes involved. Clarence related how he started learning guitar at achurch, joined the school band at Junior College, and claimed expertise for musicareas, which he did not have so as to be included into musical groups and thecommunity, but later working himself to a standard where he could fulfil thecommitment required of him. Like other pop musicians, he learned by listening tothe music many times rather than reading from notation. His subsequent profes-sional learning grew through meeting and playing with other musicians in gigs, andwith occasional mentors who gave him inspirational advice for his work. Sharingabout his internship experiences in industry projects, his processes of composing,and the different valuing of musical processes in pop music, gave participants, whowere largely Western classically trained, an insight into a different world of music.For example, in a description of his compositional process when working in astudio to compose music for a video, he described:

There are very big, giant monitors playing through the video. And what happens is that he(the music director) says, “maybe you need to have an intro”, “maybe at this time code,there should be a change and all that”, so I will look at the video, and then in terms of thecompositional process, I am thinking of what style, what kind of genre to place the music infirst. And then, after I decide the style, I will think of how can I contribute to this style‘tonally’. He (the director) has a lot of equipment, a lot of pedals and amplifiers, so there area lot of choices. So, I will take a guitar…and put it through a bunch of effects coz I knowhow certain effects would sound and should sound with each other. Go to the amp, play thetrack and I will start to play. I will compose the riff. The riff is very important. And then,play once through from beginning to end, to see how it sounds like, whether it contributesto his direction. So, I will do that once or twice, and then when the director says, “that’svery good, I feel something and the vibe is there”, then we will say, “ok, keep that part”,then once that basic part is done, I will start to layer the other parts, and then I will think of

Working with Culture Bearers 37

a drum part for him to play, I will think of a bass part to play and all that. Eventually, themusic will take shape.

The learning continued to become more engaging with the ensuing dialoguebetween Clarence and the participants. One of the participant’s questions was howstudents could be taught to write better melodies in an informal learning context.Clarence’s response was:

I think that question, because of my grounding in pop and in this kind of production work,melody alone is not the prime consideration. The melody is contingent upon what kind ofinstrument is played with, I feel. So if you play the same melody, maybe on guitar, samemelody on flute, the melody on the guitar might sound wrong but on the flute it soundsokay…. The prime consideration is vibe. It is something that is very hard to teach… Vibe,to me, is a combination of tone and how you play the tone.

On his learning process, the personal experience he shared threw light on therigours of his musicianship development in the absence of note-literacy skills:

Because of the journey I have gone to, because there is so little notation, I feel that I have acertain method now, is very much to observe very carefully, and to make very detailednotes about what the musician is doing, what I am hearing from the musician, and I have togo beyond that. In a sense that when I hear a musician play, I am trying to go into histhinking and I try to feel what he is actually feeling, what is making him feel good. The wayI learn is observation…. And once I can replicate the same good feeling right, then I knowthat technically, I am not very far off.

The role of the facilitator, in this respect, was to help draw attention to specificareas of musical practices and make connections with teaching–learning processes,which would be useful points for participants’ discussion. For example,

Clarence:This is the one thing I learn from CS. He taught me one thing about pop music, and the

difference between pop music and maybe classical music, and maybe some other forms ofmusic. In pop music, dynamics is an illusion…. Because of the nature of audio recordings,if it is too ‘dynamic’, the audio recording will sound very soft. So, everything is verycompressed. So, if you think there is dynamics in pop music, it is actually an illusion. Thereare many tricks to do it. Instead of making music from softer to louder, to give the sameimpression, we can make the sound from darker to brighter…Facilitator (to the participants):So, when we teach popular songs, what do we teach? Is it just to sing the song? Then, in asense, you are teaching it like a folk song. But the appreciation behind the creative pro-cesses in that song is actually very critical too. It gives the context and new meaning to thesong, like the sound, the colour that is involved, so now having that awareness of what isgoing on that is hidden from us, is very important, when we think about how we teach thesong to our students.

Clarence’s sharing was so rich that the facilitator decided, at that moment, toextend the session for another hour, to have a generative discussion with partici-pants, on how these insights—musical practices, learning processes, and creativeprocesses—could inform how such music could be approached and taught in the

38 3 Tensions and Resolutions: Professional Development Considerations

General Music Classroom. The generative conversation brought forth the followingconsiderations:

• Compositional processes are varied and not necessarily linear, thereforeopen-ended compositional tasks which allow space for exploration, and whichgives emphasis to improvisation and allow room for different kinds of notation(guitar tabs, chord charts), could be more authentic.

• Empathic creativity (Burnard, 2012), which is the idea of empathy in creativemusical interaction, such as getting into the thinking and feelings of musicians,might have been a process less experienced in school music. Hence, gettingstudents involved more emotionally in the composition processes, interactingwith musical material, and making it sound musical, could help develop a moremusical child.

• In the spirit of how pop musicians learn, students could be facilitated to be moreself-directed, and perhaps with some peer-teaching, to surface music materialsthat interest them, and seek out resources outside of school (such as YouTube,the Internet, and leveraging on technology).

The above considerations would not have been surfaced without the personalsharing of the culture bearer. The facilitator in one of the internal meetings made thefollowing reflection:

For me, as a facilitator, collaborating with the culture bearer in conducting the segment ofthe workshop, and having an open discussion with participants, was a process ofco-construction of knowledge about teaching. Unlike most other workshops, we did notstart with a pre-conceived list of items that we wished to draw from participants and havethese as participants’ takeaways. Instead, we intended for the discussion to be generative, toco-create with participants, where pedagogical ideas that could be informed by popularmusic practices is drawn from the sharing. We did not know how it would turn out. It was arisk we took. (Facilitator, 24/4/2015)

Navigating Through Identities

For the team, the big idea in the design of the workshop was identity. Thus, therewas a need for teachers to reflect on what Singapore music and music practices are,the extent to which identity evolves, and what makes a tradition living. As onemember mentioned in her interview,

I think it wasn’t just Singapore identity. I think right from the onset we were talking aboutthis big notion of identity and precisely we want the students and teachers to understandthat identity as a concept is actually multifarious; we wanted the teachers and learners toknow that we’re talking about identity as a teacher, student, global citizen, all sorts…(Team member, interview, 10/10/2014)

The attempt to nurture identity had an uncertain start where some traditions wereconcerned. For example,

Working with Culture Bearers 39

I had that struggle in me, at least, at first when I was thinking about this PD (professionaldevelopment) curriculum and how it relates to Indian music. It’s how do I even start thediscussion on identity, when the majority of the community of teachers who are going to bethere, don’t even know the music. (Team member, meeting on 30/5/2014)

Fortunately, there were some resources the team had developed that providedstimulus for rich discussion at the workshop. For example, a video-recordedinterview with a Singapore composer, Kelly Tang, featured his discussion on howhe mediated his own identity as a Singaporean composer through his music:

Now the question is always asked, what is the Singaporean style? For example, we have theGerman six, or a French six, but is there a Singaporean seven? And that’s hard to say. But Ithink the beauty of being a Singaporean composer is the fact that there isn’t any fixed style,that it is something very dynamic, that it is something always growing, just like whatSingapore is, and new parts are always added with the entire picture of what the Singaporeidentity is…. As far as being a Singaporean composer is concerned, I think I’m very muchinfluenced by the environment that I live in, in a sense inspired by the energy that we enjoyhere in Singapore, the energy of people, and also you can hear it in terms of the energy inthe music that I try to express…. And you could also say that the music reflects themulticultural climate that we enjoy here in Singapore. There’s no one particular influencethat you can hear in my music, but rather you hear the coming together of many differentstyles because you could turn on the television in Singapore, or turn on the radio, you mighthear a piece of Indian classical, you might hear a Chinese opera, you might watch a Malaydance on TV, and then you get the latest hits from… pop hits from America. And also wehave the strong sense of our connection with Europe as a colony of England…and I thinkthat’s what I tried to do in my music, to bring together all these very separate and disparatethings that don’t seem to belong together in a new way that makes sense, and that hopefullyis very uniquely coming from Singapore.

So, every new piece is a struggle to reinvent my identity, and to be able to offer theaudience something he or she has never heard before. I think the worst thing a composercan do is to basically echo himself. (Kelly Tang, Interview for Resource Kit)

The topic on Singapore composers thus became a leverage to explore personalidentity and how it is shaped. Envisioning a discussion in a classroom context, theteam suggested,

Member E For me, if I were a teacher, my intent would really be, if I want to putthese all into my classroom, I want my students to explore forthemselves, what does it mean for me to be an artist or composer?When I perform the music, when I write even a simple piece, who amI as a composer?

Member A If your focus shifts to that—your identity as a composer, not just aSingapore composer. Because there is a slight difference there

Member D Which one do you see comes first? Do you see yourself as aSingaporean composer, or a composer who is Singaporean?

Member E It doesn’t matter, but because as long the teacher teaches the studenthow to find his or her own voice, I think that is very powerful

How was this translated to professional development? Members felt that teachershad to experience the thinking processes related to the issues on identity.

40 3 Tensions and Resolutions: Professional Development Considerations

Member C But to do that, the teacher himself must know where he or she iscoming from

[The team then examined the list of names signed up for the course to have abrief sense of their profile.]Member A I guess if they experience it themselves, the thinking process and the

struggle they themselves have to go through, then, they will be moreconvinced that this is new, and this is the kind of engagement in theclassroom that can take place. Right? And then they bring it to theirclass.

Similarly, for the topic of the national anthem, the team debated on how dis-cussions and activities with teachers could be used to engender thinking aboutidentity.

The national anthem today is a shortened version of a theme song originallycomposed for the City Council by Zubir Said in 1958. As there are two versions ofthe song—the City Council song and the national anthem, one potential activitywas to have teachers sing the two versions, then do a comparison of these versionsat the workshop so as to bring forth a message about how the song changed due tothe change in the function they play. At first, the team was divided over whetherthere could be any meaningful comparisons of the versions following the singingactivity, since the team was unable to explain the composer’s intentions withrespect to specific musical changes. The team later reasoned that although they wereunable to explain the specific music differences, there was value in experiencing themusic through singing as a way of understanding, and articulating that the twoversions are two songs that represent Singapore at the highest level, and recognisingthe similarities between the two.

Further to the activity, it was suggested to the teachers that different arrange-ments of the song could also be played in class and reference be made to theguidelines on how the anthem could be used, as stipulated on the National HeritageBoard’s website. At the workshop, there was also opportunity to facilitate a criticaldiscussion with teachers on whether the anthem should be changed, so as to inspirefurther critical thinking about the issue of identity.

For the five-day workshop as a whole, many questions on identity were workedinto different points of the workshop. Starting with the topic on the national anthem,the discussion was centred on the contexts of the birth of the national anthem as asymbol of identity of the nation. For the Malay rhythms, the differences in thevariations of Malay rhythms served to spur thinking about the character and identityof these rhythms through different cultural lenses, and how the five core Malayrhythms have developed a different identity in Singapore, compared to Malay musicin the rest of the Malay Archipelago. Through the dikir barat, the role identities ofthe singers (awok awok [the chorus], tok juara [soloist taking on a melodic andexpressive role] and tukang karut [soloist taking on a creative and comic role]) aredistinguished by, amongst others, their singing styles. The distinctiveSingapore-style dikir barat, which has evolved through the performing contexts,was extensively discussed. For Indian orchestra, discussion was held on the

Navigating Through Identities 41

integration of the northern and southern Indian styles as a characteristic that dis-tinguishes the Indian orchestra in Singapore. Finally, for the topic on Singaporecomposers, participants were asked to think about what makes one a Singaporeancomposer, and to reflect on matters of national and personal identity. Overall, therewas recognition of the need to build perspectives on identity through reflections anddiscussions, facilitated with critical thinking strategies and visible thinking tools,such as Socratic questioning.

Teacher Efficacy and Teaching Confidence

With only five days to cover the various music genres in the workshop, and with theaim of providing teachers with the confidence to deliver these to their students,there was a need to think about developing competencies in an efficient manner.One key question was, “how could we inspire in teachers the confidence to teachand not feel overwhelmed by information?” The team explored the idea usingsimilar repertoire to thread the different genres or topics together. For example,Rasa Sayang was introduced as a folksong sung in Singapore, and the song wasrevisited with body percussion using Malay rhythms, and later, as a fusion piece forthe Indian orchestra and finally as a Western orchestral piece by a local composer.The team also set up the environment to facilitate learning, such as printing newterminologies on cards and hanging them on the walls of the room to help teachersremember the new terms.

Along with developing content knowledge and skills, the team also placed apremium on pedagogical development for the workshop by modelling differentteaching approaches across different topics. In addition, there was emphasis onperspective building and hence, thinking routines were used throughout the five-dayworkshop to encourage constant reflection and critical thinking. The team alsomade the effort to model how the multimedia resources developed by the teamcould be used so that teachers would not be too reliant on the video clips in theirteaching. Labels such as “Orff approach” were deliberated upon when using thesestrategies, as there were larger considerations whether the strategies were unique tothe approach and whether such labels confused participants and conveyed unin-tended biasness or preferences when the team really wished to support the use ofeclectic approaches. Nevertheless, the team decided to speak of these approaches atthe workshop, and at different points of the workshop, to inform teachers howvarious approaches could be used. Since these approaches were also offered aspedagogical workshops at STAR, teachers could develop a common language whenthey referred to the approaches and deepen their pedagogical understandings.

To facilitate teachers’ application of their learning, a micro-teaching session wasalso included at the end of the workshop in 2014 to allow them to plan lessons insmaller groups and discuss how they could deliver the teaching. However, thefeedback from teachers on the usefulness of micro-teaching had been mixed, andfor the workshop in 2015, the teacher educators decided to replace the component

42 3 Tensions and Resolutions: Professional Development Considerations

and have participants trial a strategy in their own lessons instead, when they returnto their classes after the third day of the workshop. Participants were to return aftertwo weeks to share their experiences at the last day of the workshop. At the heart ofthe professional development journey was the intent to empower the teachers tomake decisions about their pedagogical practices so that they could emerge asreflective practitioners, confident of their teaching abilities.

Conclusion

The issues discussed above illustrate the multifarious considerations in planningand implementing professional development in the area of teaching different musictraditions and could offer insights for future professional development matters. Thisdiscussion looked at how the team investigated the content, balanced issues ofauthenticity and pedagogy, and designed a workshop that aimed to nurture identity,and develop teacher efficacy and teaching confidence.

With the benefit of a team discussion to moderate the professional developmentcurriculum and pedagogical moves, the team was able to put together a workshopwith some positive impact that would be described in the later chapters. For thetypical music teacher in Singapore who might not have the benefit of team dis-cussions for their curriculum and lesson design, opportunities for co-planning oflessons at these workshops and platforms to encourage their constant reflection onwhat is important content and pedagogical moves for their teaching would be aconsideration for professional development moving forward.

Teacher Efficacy and Teaching Confidence 43

Chapter 4Practice and Pedagogy

Within the key aims of the Singapore General Music Programme (GMP) syllabus(2015) is an emphasis on developing in students an awareness and appreciation ofmusic in local and global cultures. Through a wide exposure to different musics,“students will be able to gain insights to other cultures and be open to the differenttypes of music available. They will have an understanding of the different rolesmusicians play in society as well as the role of music in different cultures. It isthrough this knowing about the music, musicians, its role and value in culture, thatmusical understanding is deepened and contextualised for the students” (MOE,2015, p. 6).

This chapter focuses on the processes in the five-day Teaching Living Legendsworkshop employed by the STAR team to enhance teachers’ music practices andpedagogical knowledge in the teaching of living music traditions. Guiding ques-tions include the following:

(a) What pedagogies and practices do facilitators employ in engaging musicteachers and aiding their understanding of living music traditions?

(b) What are the responses of music teachers to these pedagogies and practices?and

(c) What are the implications of such pedagogies and practices towards currentthinking within world musics in education?

Findings

At the beginning of the workshop, the facilitator explained to participants that theSTAR team subscribes to an eclectic mix of pedagogies and practices as long asthey allow for a student-centric orientation and meaningful learning experiences.

© The Author(s) 2016C.-H. Lum and S.L. Chua, Teaching Living Legends,SpringerBriefs in Education, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1482-6_4

45

Approaching Local Living Music Traditions in Practiceand Pedagogy

As the five-day Teaching Living Legends workshop focused on different livingmusic traditions within the Singapore context (dikir barat, dondang sayang, Indianorchestra, Malay rhythms, National Anthem, Singapore songs, Singapore com-posers, and xinyao), the facilitator began by posing a question to the participantsasking, “What do you wonder about when you study different musics and musictraditions?” Participants’ responses were varied as they spoke about the need to(i) understand the historical, social, and cultural contexts of the music traditions;(ii) locate resources for teaching these music genres and find alternative instrumentsto mimic instruments from music traditions that were not readily available in themusic classroom; (iii) figure out the meaning and pronunciation of songs ofunfamiliar languages; and (iv) understand what counts as music within particulartraditions and how the musicians within these traditions feel the music.

In response, the facilitator highlighted on PowerPoint slides significant questionsfor participants to ponder upon, which included the following:

• How are sounds organised and why?• How are musical styles distinguished?• The role of musicians and how do they learn?• The role of instruments and how are they played?• How is music realised (vis-à-vis a model)?• Is music a universal language?• Are we insiders or outsiders?• What is the purpose of notation?

The facilitator then proceeded to explain, in brief, considerations for eachquestion, which were linked to ideas on attentive, engaged, and enactive listening,and the creation, recreation, and extension of world musics as expounded byCampbell (2004) in conceptualising an approach to world musics in education.

Tuning-in activities were carried out prior to the introduction of each livingmusic tradition. The tuning-in activities took into account the music content thatwould be presented in the various segments and guided the participants in activemusic-making experiences prior to the learning of the music concepts. The fol-lowing are the two vignettes illustrating the active music engagement participantsgo through in these tuning-in activities:

Vignette 1—Tuning-in Activity for Malay Rhythms Segment

The facilitator began with the rhythmic chanting of the lyrics of a Malay folk song,Chan Mali Chan. The participants were then gestured by the facilitator to echophrase by phrase. This was followed with the singing of the song phrase by phrase.

46 4 Practice and Pedagogy

The facilitator then explained the meaning of the Malay lyrics to participants beforeeveryone sang the song in its entirety once more. The facilitator added in a rhythmicostinato (the Malay Inang rhythm) while everyone was still singing. When the songended, the rhythmic ostinato continued while the facilitator organised the partici-pants into two groups. One group sang the song, while the other continued with therhythmic ostinato. The groups then switched roles. A second rhythmic ostinato(Malay Masri rhythm) was introduced by the facilitator through verbal rhythmicmnemonics (dum tak tak dum tak), getting all participants to recite the mnemonicstogether before putting it to body percussion. The same sequence was repeatedwhere one group took on the rhythmic ostinato and another group sang the song andvice versa. At the end of this tuning-in activity, the facilitator mentioned to par-ticipants that the first rhythm they just encountered was called Inang and thesecond, the Masri. The facilitator told the participants that they need not worry ifthey could not remember the rhythms as they would be presented again in theMalay rhythms segment of the workshop.

Vignette 2—Tuning-in Activity for Singapore ComposersSegment

The facilitator organised the participants into groups and gave three known Malayfolk songs (Rasa Sayang, Bengawan Solo, and Di Tanjung Katong) for them tochoose from. Using music ideas learnt in the Malay rhythms segment, dikir barat,and the Indian orchestra segments of the workshop, each group was tasked to createan arrangement of one of the Malay folk songs and perform it for everyone. Afterthe performance, the facilitator introduced the topic on Singapore composers,telling participants that prominent Singapore composers such as Kelly Tang alsoused traditional folk melodies (like Rasa Sayang) in their music compositions,creating music from the social, cultural, and historical influences that surroundthem. The tuning-in activity, which was conducted in a hands-on manner, clearlyestablished a sense of creativity in context for the participants, allowing them totransition into the Singapore composers segment.

Malay Rhythms Segment in the Teaching Living LegendsWorkshop

Instrumental Substitutions

In the introduction to Malay rhythms that are typically heard and played within theSingapore community, the facilitator began the session by handing each participanta drum. Ideally, every participant should have a rebana with which the Malay

Findings 47

rhythms are supposed to be played on, but there were insufficient rebanas for allparticipants. The facilitator had made provisions for this and explained that otherdrums, such as the Malay hand-held kompangs, tubanos, congas, and djembes,were suitable substitutes, as long as the timbre resembled that of the rebana. AsVolk (1998) mentioned, matching timbral differences with actual instruments canbe rather challenging. She suggested purchasing copies of the original instrumentswhenever possible or substituting Western instruments that are already available inthe music classroom, matching closely the timbres with the actual instruments(p. 179).

Experiencing the Real Instrument

The facilitator enlightened the small group of participants with rebanas on how thedrum skin could be tightened by pushing in the rattan ring “in-between the skin andthe wood so that it is hidden from you”. The facilitator proceeded to teach the firstrhythm (Inang) by rote, verbalising the rhythmic mnemonic (dum taka tak dumdum) before demonstrating it on the drum for the participants to imitate. The rebanagroup was tasked with playing the rhythm a few times first, before the kompanggroup played their drums, and then finally the other drums. This allowed for par-ticipants to hear clearly how the rhythm should sound on the rebana and how theother instruments are close approximates. As the facilitator proceeded to teach someof the other Malay rhythms, participants were asked to switch drums, which gaveeveryone a chance to play on the rebana eventually.

Establishing a Safe Environment for Creative Work

The facilitator spoke about improvisation of the Inang rhythm to participants,showing them which essential rhythms to keep intact while improvising. She thendemonstrated a few examples, allowing participants to hear how it was done. Thefacilitator proceeded to let the participants improvise on their own, remarking, “Wecan hear everyone’s creativity”. The facilitator divided the participants into groupsof four and had each group play their improvised rhythms together, one group afteranother. She also suggested to participants, “If you are not comfortable (impro-vising), you can just do the original” (basic Inang rhythm which was taught at thebeginning). The activity allowed for individual “voices” to be heard through agroup setting, building confidence within a safe environment for participants toexplore without making them feel vulnerable.

Use of Technology: Introducing Culture Bearer and Practitioners

After the creative activity, the facilitator played a video clip from the TeachingLiving Legends resource kit showing musicians performing traditional Malay

48 4 Practice and Pedagogy

repertoire with the Inang rhythm. The participants were encouraged to play on theirdrums with the video clip so that they could feel “like musicians”.

Getting at the Nuances of the Music Tradition

The facilitator asked participants how they felt playing along with the videoclip. Some participants expressed feelings of joy and satisfaction, while some othersfelt pressured as they were rushing parts of the Inang rhythm as they played along.The facilitator picked up on the responses and remarked, “Do you feel that you are alittle bit out of phase? In Malay music, they are not so strict about the tempo buteventually it will come back. I can play the singing part so that you can hear theliberties that they take in the rhythm”. The nuances of the music genre were touchedupon here by the facilitator, which is a crucial step for the participants to gaining adeeper understanding of how the music should sound and be played.

Introducing Music Concepts Through Notation

The facilitator termed all the activities that the participants had just undergone as“experience”. Experiencing the music through listening, performing, and creatingallows participants to embody the concept of the Inang rhythm. The facilitator thenwent on to formally introduce the Inang rhythm concept visually to participants bywriting a simple quaver notational representation of the rhythm on the whiteboard.A participant also suggested a familiar aural chant (Chan mali chan hoi hoi) torepresent the Inang rhythm. Improvisations of the Inang rhythm were thenexplored, with the facilitator providing music notation on the whiteboard.

Using Alternative Transmission Modes to Experience and Learn MusicConcepts

The facilitator introduced the next Malay rhythm, the Asli rhythm, using bodypercussion phrase by phrase for the participants to imitate each step. Once theparticipants had mastered the rhythms through body percussion, they were asked totransfer the rhythms onto the drums. The facilitator qualified the use of this teachingstyle by explaining, “…this is not the way traditional musicians learn, but we aredoing this because we want to show you another approach to teach traditionalmusic… to help you remember something as complicated as Asli, because this isnot an easy pattern compared to the other Malay rhythms”. The facilitator essen-tially talked about the possibilities and flexibilities in using different pedagogicalapproaches to assist the learning of music concepts, particularly if one feels theirstudents might face difficulties in grasping more complicated concepts within thelimited amount of music class time and feels hard-pressed to go with the traditionaltransmission mode that musicians from the culture might have learnt it.

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Feasibility of Teaching Concepts Learnt in Actual General MusicClassrooms

The facilitator proceeded to show participants video examples from the TeachingLiving Legends resource kit on how the concept of the Inang rhythm and otherMalay rhythms could be used in the teaching of General Music classes at theprimary and secondary school levels. The facilitator commented on the actualclassroom examples of how teachers had asked secondary school students to “createa group composition with different variations (of the Malay rhythms)”, created theirown body percussion from the Malay rhythms, and engaged primary school stu-dents in working out the dance steps associated with the various Malay rhythms.Showing such actual examples from the resource kit on how to apply music con-cepts and genre in the music classroom helped to concretise the learning for par-ticipants and evidenced to them the viability of teaching the traditional music genreto their own students in student-centric and creative ways.

The facilitator reiterated what pedagogical considerations were experienced anddiscussed within the Malay rhythms segment of the workshop, highlighting that inmusic classes one should “give the experience first. Through the experience weinfuse the concepts we want to teach”. The facilitator further emphasised the creativeaspects in music learning, giving “space for improvisation. Gives voice to the child toempower and build the musical child”. The issue of assessment was also touchedupon as the facilitator highlighted how, as students played individually or in groupsduring the drum circle activities, the teacher should be able to assess students’learning in a non-threatening environment. The use of culture bearers through thevideo and audio clips of repertoire and interviews in the resource kit lets “childrenlisten to an authentic voice from someone who is a practitioner (of the art form)”.

Written Reflections of Participants

Reflections by many participants at the end of the Malay rhythms segment about thestructuring and delivery of the music activities pointed to an appreciation of thehands-on experience of engaging with the various rhythms and the various peda-gogical ideas suggested for use in the music classroom:

It was hands-on, which gave us an experience of playing the rhythms, and stimulated ourcreativity and ideas for planning meaningful world music lessons for our students.

As a Malaysian, I have been exposed to the different rhythms, instruments… However, Ididn’t quite know in detail how the rhythms work by trying out for myself. The hands-onclapping of the Inang, Asli andMasri rhythms was very very helpful. Trying out the rebanaand kompang was very good too. I hope to try out interlocking the different rhythms likewhat we did today.

Strategies for introducing Malay Rhythms through rhythmic group activities such aslayering and body percussion and improvisation over a basic Malay rhythm.

The possibilities of taking songs that the class already knows and then re-arrangingthem using the Malay rhythms sounds fun and would be very rewarding for the students.

As a non-Singaporean… when it comes to teaching ethnic music in Singapore, one ofthe problems I encounter is that I always have more things to teach for Chinese music

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compared to Indian and Malay music… I feel more well-informed and am looking forwardto transferring the information I have learnt today to my students through various activitiesand also showing the videos to widen their knowledge and perspectives about Malay music.

We (teacher and her Secondary school students) are learning the Malay pop song UntukDia to perform for an assembly program. It will be good to listen to it again in light of therhythms I have learnt today to see if I can recognise any.

It lifted my feeling when I played the kompang/rebana with a big group of people andthat was great!

Learnt some practical tips on how to teach Malay rhythms in classroom with andwithout (Malay) instruments.

It feels good to actually be able to hear the rhythmic patterns of the drums whilewatching the video clip.

Participants also reflected on how their perception of Malay music had changeddramatically because of the workshop experience:

I used to think Malay rhythms were messy and [had no discernible patterns]. I was quitecertain they improvised everything, now I feel like a fool! It won’t be [the same] listening toMalay wedding music anymore!

Students in school have always been playing these rhythms and I always thought thatthey all sound the same and is something that comes very naturally to them. Now, I am ableto distinguish the rhythms and perhaps would even help them contextualise whatever thatthey always have been playing.

It has given me a new appreciation of Malay music which I thought before was boring.Be more sensitive next time when coming across Malay and Indian traditions. Try to

distinguish and identify musical style.

Some participants were surprised by the fact that the use of Malay rhythms andmusic in Singapore is quite different from other parts of the Malay Archipelago:

Before this, I thought that Malay music/rhythms were the same across Singapore,Indonesia, and Malaysia. I am pleasantly surprised to learn that we have our very ownSingapore sound and are keeping the five traditional Malay rhythms alive.

Malay rhythms evolved and adapted to local culture.

Some participants were curious about how the rhythms learnt could be applied toyounger students whom they teach:

It may not be an easy task to get pupils at the Primary school level to internalise the variousrhythms if they learn more than two, for example. It can get quite confusing as the rhythmssound similar but yet are different at the same time.

How do I transmit and engage the younger ones?

Indian Orchestra Segment in the Teaching Living LegendsWorkshop

Inviting a Culture Bearer

Before the session began, the facilitator introduced a culture bearer of the Indianorchestra music tradition, Ghanavenothan Retnam, who is a renowned composer

Findings 51

for the Singapore Indian orchestra repertoire and professional Indianmusician. Ghana was brought into the workshop to provide participants with afirst-hand encounter, as a living culture bearer of the music tradition. The facilitatortalked about how Ghana would provide invaluable insights into the traditionthroughout the session and guide the facilitator along as she conducted the session,to ensure that the information and knowledge provided was accurate and repre-sentative of the tradition. True to what Volk (1998) has advocated, “authenticityand accurate cultural representations are of prime importance” (p. 187). Thefacilitator, through her inclusion of the culture bearer at the workshop, has as Volk(1998) pointed out, “share(d) their classroom with community culture bearers, asresources, as teacher-demonstrators, and as mentors” (p. 188).

Beginning with Rote Learning of Repertoire and Creating Visualsof Pitches Sung

The session commenced with the facilitator singing phrase by phrase, a Carnaticcomposition, Varaveena, in which participants were to echo after her by rote. Oncethe participants completed the song, they were asked to sound out the syllables thatwere being sung (Sa Ri Ga Pa Da) and arrange them in ascending pitch order as shewrote out the syllables on a whiteboard.

Tapping on Prior Knowledge

Referring to the written out syllables (Sa Ri Ga Pa Da), the facilitator then high-lighted greater details about the new topic by asking, “It is [akin] to our Do Re MiFa So La… These we call solfa. Anyone knows what the equivalent is [in Carnaticmusic terminology]?” From here, the facilitator introduced the term swaras andthen continued by putting the solfège alongside the swaras on the whiteboard, toallow participants to make a direct comparison. The facilitator then remarked, “Wecall this a pentatonic scale. In Indian Carnatic terms, it is Mohanam raga”. Shewent on to explain, “It is a pedagogical decision for us to [use the] pentatonic [scalefirst], rather than what is traditionally practiced at beginning introductory Indianmusic classes…we want to contextualise for our students…because we want to startwith the familiar…to gain access to the music first…then more things can follow”(Facilitator’s Reflections, Day 5—Teaching Living Legends workshop).

Using Appropriate Music Terms for Particular Music Cultures

A brief explanation was also provided, that in Indian music, there is a distinctionbetween the Hindustani (North Indian) and Carnatic (South Indian) schools ofthought. The Indian orchestra in Singapore uses mostly terms from the Carnaticschool. The facilitator reminded participants that there should be “a deliberate

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choice to use these terms [Carnatic musical terms]…can be overwhelming [for theteacher and students at the beginning] but for students to know them, you will haveto use it so that students can be familiar with it”.

Encouraging Music-Making Despite Difficulties in Encountering a NewMusic Genre While Attempting to Introduce New Music Concepts

A curious participant asked, “Are the ragas directly equivalent to the Westernscale?” The facilitator invited participants into a circle, played a drone on a srutibox,1 and started singing Varaveena phrase by phrase again, but this time with thetala2 shown with angam and gamaka3 included in the singing. The participantsechoed the facilitator phrase by phrase. After a few attempts, the facilitator con-gratulated the participants for their commendable attempt and encouraged them tolisten carefully as they worked through the nuances in the gamaka. As the facilitatorassured them, “Don’t worry, I had the same challenges [when I first learnt it]. Soonin time it will come to you”. The facilitator then explained the use of the angam aspart of the music practice, “It is something that the audience do as well. The Indianmusicians and the audience participate by keeping the tala”.

Changing Practices Through the Advancement of Technology

The facilitator was all smiles as she showed the participants the sruti box,remarking “I share with you about this fascinating culture. This little thing is calledthe sruti box; it will set the tone for the entire concert…the sruti has more than onenote…two notes to make up the sruti [typically the notes are a fifth or a thirdapart]”. The facilitator continued to explain that the sruti was traditionally playedby the instrument, tambura, but it had become common for the sruti box to be usedinstead. Sruti apps were also available on mobile technology.

Using Alternative Pedagogical Approaches to Experience and LearnMusic Concepts

The facilitator, in attempting to help participants understand the concept of thegamaka, drew a stepladder (similar to the solfège ladder associated with the Kodály

1Sruti is a background drone usually played on the instrument tambura. In recent years, with theadvancement of technology, sruti boxes (run on electric power) have been created as an alternativeto playing on the tambura. More recently, sruti apps have also become available on mobiletechnology.2Tala is the rhythmic cycle in Indian music. The hand gestures that help musicians keep the talaare called Angam.3Gamaka are decorations or ornamental notes added on to the swaras.

Findings 53

approach) on the whiteboard and demonstrated the singing of the gamaka inascending and descending order, asking participants to identify where the inflexionsmight be. The facilitator also played a video clip from the resource kit of a Carnaticsinger demonstrating the Mohanam Raga with and without the use of gamaka. Theparticipants were asked to listen intently and attempt to identify the gamaka bymarking out on a piece of paper and subsequently with volunteers indicating on thestepladder, where the inflexions were in ascending and descending order. Theconstruction of such video clips within the Teaching Living Legends resource kitwas a deliberate pedagogical decision made by the facilitator in consultation withculture bearers like Ghana, to help facilitate the learning of the music genre withinthe General Music Classroom.

After the participants had sorted out the gamaka, the facilitator returned to theoriginal question posed by the participant earlier who wanted to know whetherragas were different from Western scales. The facilitator explained, “The notion ofa raga is more than just the notes. There are more aspects of the music embedded inthe raga”, further explaining that the raga includes the different gamaka inascending and descending swaras, with considerations of time of the day andmoods.

Considerations in Creating the “Teaching Living Legends”Resource Kit

Using the Teaching Living Legends resource kit, the facilitator pointed to usefulIndian orchestra video clips to help students in the classroom with the learning ofVaraveena. The variety of video clips used featured the Singapore Indian orchestraand choir singing Varaveena, a Carnatic singer teaching Varaveena phrase byphrase, and also a karaoke version of Varaveena where the Indian orchestra plays,while the swaras are highlighted in green on the screen as the melody progresses.Participants consulted Ghana, the culture bearer, in the creation of such pedagogicalresources for use and he did not appear to have any objections to these new ways oflearning the song by students in the General Music classes.

In creating the pedagogical resources for the Indian orchestra, the facilitator tookseveral factors into consideration. She wanted the resources to supplement themusic experiences (which was her key pedagogical consideration) of teachers withtheir students as they begin their exploration into the music genre. After furtherreading and understanding, and having had intensive practical sessions learningabout the music genre, the facilitator in consultation with musicians and practi-tioners of the Indian Orchestra and a group of music teachers who joined her in theexploration started work on putting pedagogical ideas together for the resourcepackage. The facilitator visited three schools where Indian orchestra was aco-curricular activity and delved into how different pedagogical ideas could besuggested for introducing the genre into the General Music Classroom. The facil-itator had this to say at the end of the five-day workshop:

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…the greatest milestone is visiting the three schools where Indian Orchestra was taught [asco-curricular activity]…we learnt how it is done with students… We fused a way thatwould be meaningful in the classroom setting…what is authentic and what would work inthe classroom… It is a fine balance…you might lose the students or the culture com-pletely…once you get the essence of the tradition… Hopefully the package will help…wetrialled [ideas from the resource kit on] Indian Orchestra in schools and kids love thegamaka… They are fascinated by how the gamaka give character.

A lot of hard work was put into the creation of the Teaching Living Legendsresource kit. Partnering and consulting with practitioners in the field and otherstakeholders played a significant role in ensuring accuracy and respect for the musictradition involved. As the facilitator declared:

You’re writing history when you do this… you’re writing how this genre is like and howteachers all over Singapore can use [this resource]…. Yes, you’re writing history…de-veloping reliable resources… It is very significant work…all contributing to musicdevelopment in Singapore…in the process we will all learn and deepen our pedagogicalknowledge.

The facilitator encouraged teachers to “move out of your comfort zone and thestudents will appreciate it…the students will catch your enthusiasm from it… It’sthe way you teach it…some things are caught rather than taught… Don’t beafraid…your enthusiasm and sensitivity to the culture will gain the students’appreciation for sure… Of course we do [the] homework [first] but that will be goodenough”.

Introducing Indian Music to Young Children

Our culture bearer, Ghana , shared with participants some possibilities of engagingyounger children with the swaras in Indian music. He talked about stories and theassociations of animal sounds with each swara. For example, “Sa” is linked to thepeacock on a cloudy day spreading its wings and giving out a high shrill; “Ri” is themooing of a cow; “Ga” is the bleating of a goat; “Ma” is the serene sound of thenightingale; “Pa” is the sweet sound of the cuckoo bird; “Da” is the coarse sound ofthe horse; and “Ni” is the majestic note from the trumpet of the elephant. Ghanasuggested that participants use these images and metaphors to help children learnswaras. He also introduced an Indian children song to participants while playing itsaccompaniment on the bansuri.

Creative Music-Making with Solkattus (Rhythmic Patterns)

In teaching about the tala, the facilitator demonstrated several phrases of rhythmicpatterns (solkattus) and asked participants to echo after her. The facilitator thenencouraged participants to get into groups to create body percussion to accompanyan 8-beat solkattu that they created themselves. The activity ended with a perfor-mance by the groups in call-and-response format with one group performing their

Findings 55

solkattu and other groups echoing after in succession. Participants were very cre-ative in their approach, with one group even using the Malay Zapin dance steps toaccompany their solkattu. The facilitator talked to participants about the possibil-ities of classroom adaptations in learning a new world music genre, moving fromfamiliar grounds (like beginning with the Mohanam Raga in association with thepentatonic scale) to working out new music concepts. The creative activity is yetanother example of possible engagement with students in helping their under-standing the construction of solkattus in a student-centric way, without necessarilyfollowing traditional means with which the concept is typically transmitted.

Interestingly, at the end of the Indian orchestra segment, Ghana spoke to par-ticipants about the facilitator’s knowledge and dedication in creating the peda-gogical resource for the music teachers, working through basic concepts of Carnaticmusic and information about the Singapore Indian orchestra. Ghana exclaimed,“She was like a full-time Indian music instructor. I was amazed…she’s so into it…Ireally appreciate and salute to you”, affirming the successful partnership betweenthe culture bearer and the facilitator, knowing that the resource kit and the work-shop would not only benefit the music teaching fraternity, but also help in fur-thering of education of Indian music in Singapore.

Written Reflections of Participants

All participants admitted in their written reflections how complicated and difficult itwas to access Indian music. The workshop clarified some basic Carnatic musicconcepts for them and provided useful pedagogical ideas for them to engage stu-dents in an introduction to Indian music and the Singapore Indian orchestra.Participants also spoke about the usefulness of the Teaching Living Legendsresource kit in providing information for learning basic Carnatic music conceptsand understanding the Singapore Indian orchestra. Many participants pointed out,however, the need for them to first put in more effort in grasping the basic conceptsbefore attempting to teach it in their music classroom. Here are some examples ofreflections from participants that spoke on these viewpoints:

Possible to simplify [the teaching of Indian music], using body percussion to make itapplicable for our students.

I used to think it is very difficult to teach Indian music in class especially if we are notequipped with the skills and do not possess the instruments required. Now I think at least Ihave better knowledge and perhaps able to infuse some tala and singing of swaras inintroducing Indian music to my students.

If we break down the system into small parts it is possible to learn and impart ourknowledge to students.

There are actually a lot of fusion and modern elements that can make it more accessibleto students.

I am able to explain and elaborate on ragas and talas with examples and use thevideos/audio from the resource kit, as well as having methods to teach them.

I will try to practice the solkattu and tala so that I can teach it to my students! I reallydid not know that the Singapore Indian Orchestra was so amazing (or that it existed for thatmatter).

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Through careful scaffolding and guidance, it is possible [for students] to learn the funda-mentals of Indian music.

Children are able to learn Indian music with structured lesson planning.I know a little more and am slightly more confident about teaching Indian music in my

classroom.I need lots of support in teaching Indian music. Thank you for the package.

Xinyao Segment in the Teaching Living Legends Workshop

Creative Music-Making Through Informal Learning

After a Chalk Talk (visible thinking routine) activity to gather participants’ initialthoughts about xinyao, the facilitator jumped right into a music-making activityemploying informal learning strategies (Green, 2008). The participants wereorganised into groups. Each group was given a voice recorder with two recordedtracks of popular xinyao songs (the voice recorder served essentially as a listeningreference for participants). Each group was tasked with creating an arrangement ofone of the xinyao songs using any available instruments in the workshop rooms.The facilitator also provided lyric sheets for participants.

Some groups, as they discussed about arrangement possibilities, worked inmusic ideas learnt from the earlier workshop segments, including the use of someMalay rhythms like Inang and Masri, and the call-and-response mode of thedondang sayang. Some groups even chose to put in a tango or mambo feel to thexinyao song. Participants also googled on their phones and tablets for chord chartsof the songs and proceeded to use them on melodic instruments, like the piano andthe Orff xylophones. Some other groups changed the lyrics of the song to makecommentaries about their daily lives and experiences (which was very much theessence of xinyao).

Assessing Informal Learning

The facilitator led participants to set up rubrics and criteria for assessing their ownperformances before they continued their group work. The facilitator asked par-ticipants what would make a good performance and the participants responded withideas, such as “Engaging”, “Strong Rhythmic Drive”, “Choice of tempo that allowsthe group to be comfortable”, “Playing in time”, “Contrast”, and “Fluency”. Thefacilitator talked to participants about discussing criteria with their students in theirGeneral Music Classroom and the process of reaching a consensus. In the end, itwas agreed that students’ contribution ought to be valued so that students can bemore objective about their co-construction. As the facilitator remarked, “If they aremotivated, it will be very self-directed. And they value each other’s contribution.Every individual contributes towards this co-creation. This discussion (on creating

Findings 57

rubrics and criteria) helps to make visible what went on”. The facilitator alsoreminded participants that as teachers in the classroom, after each group perfor-mance, they would need to relate the performance back to the criteria set andcritique based on the set criteria.

Benefits of Informal Learning

Prior to the group performances, the facilitator spoke about the benefits of theinformal learning approach, giving “students a lot of scope to explore…there’schoice and a lot of student independence and self-directedness”. A participant alsoresponded that:

It’s a very inclusive activity and important for pupils [to be working together tapping oneach other’s musical strengths].

The facilitator added that, “regardless of your musical level or where you comefrom, whatever race, whatever language you speak. Not just a classroom activity,[but an] opportunity to be in contact with a full song and be authentic and beinvolved in it”. The facilitator rounded off the activity by reiterating a few keypoints about the informal learning approach:

• Oral–aural learning is a musicianship skill. You want to develop such musicskills in pupils. That is what a lot of musics do.

• Social learning is part of 21st Century Competencies. Cooperation andself-directedness are values that students can learn from. It will be good ifeveryone learns. It builds a sense of enjoyment, so they want to come to school.

• Authenticity, as it is familiar to them [students] in their lives… the musicallanguage and the styles. Popular music is very much part of their lives.Authenticity is an ensemble setting. Everyone needs to contribute and the senseof enjoyment. They feel it is important… Differentiated learning and takinglearning at their own pace.

• [Informal learning] can [be] framed with other formal routines to help youmanage [a large class of students].

• Give space [and provide] some guided tools (oral kits for example and leadsheets).

Written Reflections of Participants

The participants responded well to the informal learning approach in engaging withthe xinyao songs. The group activity reminded some participants of the excitementfound in performing and they reflected about how students might feel in a per-formance situation:

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Honestly, I felt quite out of my league after looking at some of the performances andgeneral skills of some groups. But it made me realise all the more the importance ofcreating a safe environment for my pupils to perform, especially for those who do not haveas vast a skill set as others.

I know how my students feel when I did the group performance of xinyao today…students can learn a lot during the informal learning, such as how to work with other groupmembers, brainstorm and respect others’ ideas.

The performance helped me to be more empathetic towards students’ feelings whencalled to perform.

It was fun, engaging but stressful when we had to perform.The ensemble performance was engaging and it helped me internalise the tune. I must

remember how much I enjoyed performing because my pupils will feel the same way.

The group activity also allowed participants to think through the scaffoldingneeds in conducting such informal learning activities and the feasibility of doingsuch activities with younger children:

I like the bit where we had to form groups to perform a song of our choice, using alsoinstruments of our choice. However, this process may take a lot more time with primaryschool pupils and we may not have the time to cover what is set out in the syllabus. Shouldassessment criteria also be set with the pupils?… Different classes in the same level gets agrade using different sets of criteria then?

Important to take note of logistics and routines [in organizing informal learningactivities].

Participants also expressed their concern about the relevance of the music tra-dition with younger students born decades after the original xinyao movement:

Xinyao is part of my life and we truly enjoyed [the songs]. However, many of the studentsnow are unable to connect with it. So how can we ignite the love for our youngergeneration?

I worry that children nowadays won’t be interested in learning about xinyao as theyhave zero relations to it.

Micro-Teaching

Micro-teaching, in this discussion, refers to a teacher development technique whereteacher participants enact a lesson that they have planned with fellow teacherparticipants, for the purpose of critique and reflection. For the micro-teachingactivity on the final day of the workshop, participants were tasked to design a20–30-min lesson plan based on the music traditions encountered. To facilitate thelesson design, participants formed groups, with primary and secondary schoolteachers working and presenting in separate rooms. Each group had to present thelesson to other participants and the STAR team for comments and suggestions.

It was interesting to note that after the micro-teaching session, participants fromprimary schools reflected on the design of their lesson plans in terms of:

Findings 59

…a lot of deliberate use of other pedagogies like Orff and other engaging pedagogies…soeven though it was different topics, there was purposeful use of pedagogies… I would sayscaffolding to attain what you want students to attain…careful planning of time and beingrealistic… [Need to remind ourselves that we are] adult learners…we should think aboutthe children…careful planning so that objectives can be achieved. (Participant’s verbalreflection, Day 5 - Teaching Living Legends workshop)

The secondary school teachers reflected on their unanimous use of the ECA(experience, concept, and application) idea: “we do it with the girls or the boys inmind…cater to our own students… ECA is common but strategies we will have tocustomise according to students” (Participant’s verbal reflection, Day 5—TeachingLiving Legends workshop).

The STAR facilitators reiterated that pedagogical decisions are needed to bemade in adapting the learning of particular music genres into the General MusicClassroom and that there would be departures from traditional practices in trans-mission, in order to achieve particular learning outcomes within a limited timeframe, yet without necessarily losing the essence of the music culture in question.

Concluding Thoughts

Volk (1998), almost two decades ago, cautioned that, “Our job as music educatorsremains the teaching of music. Multicultural music education is not a musicalsupermarket. If there is no growth in the understanding of music, then time spent inmulticultural music education activities, chosen merely to provide a touch of thisand a taste of that, is not time well spent” (p. 194). From the intense preparationstaken by the STAR facilitators in developing and presenting the workshop and theprovision of the Teaching Living Legends resource kit to participants, there wasobservable growth in the participants’ understanding of living music traditions, notjust in terms of content knowledge to further their personal music practice but alsopedagogical knowledge for them to bring back to their music classrooms. Theparticipants, as a result of many hands-on activities throughout the five-dayworkshop, were able to explore music concepts and repertoire of the living musictraditions by listening, singing, creating, and performing on body percussion andmusic instruments. The participants were, however, cognisant that they would needto put in a great deal of effort into their music practice to hone the music skills andconcepts learnt, in order to feel more confident in introducing the music traditions totheir students. Pedagogically, the facilitators showed the participants a range ofpossibilities in engaging students with living music traditions in meaningful andcreative ways that are respectful to the fundamentals of the music traditions, but yettaking into account the changing nature of their repertoire and practice in context.

Because the workshop and the resources were developed in close consultationwith culture bearers and practitioners of the music traditions, the practice andpedagogical suggestions are in a sense validated. The presence of live culturebearers sitting in at the workshop and sharing their music experiences, at least for

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the dikir barat and Indian orchestra segments, attests to this partnership. The factalso that the resource kit consists of numerous video clips of interviews withpractitioners speaking about their music traditions and performances of repertoire inthe music traditions, all “approved” for use by the culture bearers and practitionersin the music classroom, reflected the trust and respect the STAR team had gainedwith the practitioners.

Summarised from the findings above, pedagogically, the STAR team had con-sidered within the workshop several strategies that were deemed useful by partic-ipants. These include (i) demonstration and playing of repertoire of the musictraditions by the facilitators and participants and making suggestions for instru-mental substitutions to be used within the music classroom if the real instrumentsare not readily available; (ii) tapping on students’ prior knowledge and using aneclectic mix of pedagogical approaches to help students experience and understandmusic concepts that are not necessarily in line with the traditional transmissionmodes of the music genre. This would include strategies like providing visualnotation or group creative activities to explore concepts learnt; (iii) approaching theteaching of living music traditions with a student-centric orientation using strategiesthat focus on the creative, giving voice, and empowering students; (iv) using musicterms appropriate to the music tradition in question and encouraging participants tocontinue using them; (v) getting at the musical nuances of the living traditions;(vi) encouraging participants to persist in practising and learning more about themusic practices of the living music traditions, particularly ones that seem morecomplicated and difficult to master like Indian music; (vii) using technologythrough the resource kit to supplement the teaching of living music traditions; (viii)establishing a safe environment for creative music-making within the frame of theliving music traditions while also encouraging cross-cultural and fusion work;(ix) making aware changing practices of the living music traditions particularly withthe influx of globalisation and technology; and (x) showing participants the feasi-bility of applying these pedagogies in the General Music Classroom through videoand audio examples within the resource kit and the micro-teaching exercise.

Volk (1998) advocated that if multicultural music education were well taught, itwould give “students the ability to understand musical thought—their own andothers…It is also about providing options and opening doors” (p. 194). Thus, theteaching of world musics in education, be it in local or other global cultures, shouldbe a celebration of and respect for cultural diversity and inclusion. It should involve“carefully design[ed] strategies for instruction and transmission that instil in stu-dents the belief that all people have equally important and meaningful musical andcultural values, and that lead them toward respect and responsibility, care andcompassion for all peoples and their musics” (Krüger, 2011, p. 300). In this respect,the Teaching Living Legends workshop seems to have opened doors for the par-ticipants as they worked towards improving their music practice on the diverserange of living music traditions and taking on the pedagogical suggestions into theirmusic classroom.

Concluding Thoughts 61

Too often, however, while the multicultural movement aims to diversify andbroaden music classes in terms of repertoire and pedagogical base, “there is littlerecognition that cultural groups are dynamic entities that are constantly changing inresponse to both local and global pressures and social interactions, that so-calledworld music has been commodified and sometimes deliberately distorted forcommercial purposes, and that these create formidable ethical and practical prob-lems for music educators” (Woodford, 2005, p. 77). Woodford (2005) furthercommented that “The aim of multicultural music education is usually only toacculturate children to existing cultural and group practices—that is, to developtheir musical and cultural literacy—and not to prepare them as individuals who canintelligently participate in the shaping and hybridization [sic] of musical values”(Woodford, 2005, p. 77). Ideally, at least from an ethnomusicological point of view,music teachers should be passing on music without canonising:

We should be helping our students to discover their own paths… with an underlyingbedrock philosophy that all values, just like all people and all musics, have equivalentmeaning to someone, somewhere… teaching them a new set of values that will enable themto know their own music well, but also to become good musical citizens in [the] world… Ifwe teach our students these values… ultimately it will not really matter what musics weteach (Koskoff, 1999, pp. 558–559).

The Teaching Living Legends workshop provided glimpses of encouragingparticipants to shape and hybridise the local music traditions through some of thecreative group work suggested by the STAR facilitators. Many pedagogical sug-gestions have already been made by the STAR facilitators in approaching livingmusic traditions, but might there be more experiential ways within a jam-packedfive-day workshop to catalyse an even greater discovery of participants’ ownmusical pathways and values in encountering these living traditions beyond someof the creative group music-making strategies suggested?

62 4 Practice and Pedagogy

Chapter 5Perspective Building

Within the structure of the Teaching Living Legends’ five-day workshop focussingon six different topics (dikir barat, Indian orchestra, Malay rhythms and dondangsayang, national anthem and singapore songs, singapore composers, and xinyao), adeliberate attempt was made by the STAR team to include various activities thatwould require participants to articulate their perspectives in concrete ways forthemselves and with others. Project Zero’s visible thinking approach, wherelearners are asked to speak, write, or draw to deepen their understanding of par-ticular ideas or concepts (Ritchhart & Perkins, 2008), was a key pedagogical framethat most of the thinking routines were set up with for this workshop, to explore andfurther notions of identity and music understanding within the context of livingmusic traditions.

The “perspective” segment was also designed using tools from “Understandingby Design” (Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). Understanding by Design (UbD) is acurriculum design model created by Wiggins and McTighe (1998), based on theconcept that curricular content should focus on student understanding and learningtransfer (as opposed to coverage of content), and be developed using a “reverseengineering” or “backward design” approach. The UbD framework was used as acurriculum organising tool in designing the professional developmentworkshop. The team decided that the big idea was “identity”, since the purpose ofthe workshop was to develop understandings of the diverse living music traditionsin Singapore. The essential questions, which were intended to be provocative andrequire uncovering, were as follows:

(a) What is Singapore music or music practices?(b) To what extent does identity change/evolve?(c) What makes a tradition living?

The enduring understandings which the STAR team hoped participants wouldtake away and which the team recognised might be counter-intuitive and requiredeeper probing were as follows: (i) diversity fosters identity; (ii) change preservesidentity; and (iii) identity is a social construct (this would dwell on inherent and

© The Author(s) 2016C.-H. Lum and S.L. Chua, Teaching Living Legends,SpringerBriefs in Education, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1482-6_5

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delineated meanings, outsider–insider perspectives, and culture is a shared identity).The “perspective” segment served to provide examples for music teachers toencourage engagement in their students; to make music more relevant to themselveswith an understanding of the world around them.

This chapter focuses on the processes in the five-day Teaching Living Legendsworkshop employed by the STAR team facilitators to gain perspectives from themusic teachers on notions of identity and music understanding within the context ofliving music traditions. Guiding questions include the following:

(a) What activities for gaining perspectives on notions of identity and musicunderstanding within the context of local living music traditions have beendesigned by the STAR team?

(b) Why were these activities chosen and how do they contribute towards fur-thering in-service teachers’ personal knowledge about the relationshipbetween identity and music in the local context and their pedagogicalknowledge in implementing such activities in the music classroom?

Findings

Dialoguing About Identity Through Thinking Routines

What Are Singaporean Music and Musical Practices?

On the first day of the workshop, shortly after some initial music warm-ups, par-ticipants went through a visible thinking routine (see–think–wonder) to gather theirresponses to the question, “What do you wonder about when you study differentmusics and music traditions?” After which, they were asked to interact in smallgroups and write down their thoughts on large pieces of butcher paper about thefundamental question, “What is Singaporean music and music practices?”

Each group presented their responses, with some key viewpoints arising. Somegroups pondered on the music content and what might be considered uniquelySingaporean. Groups talked about the heavy influence of the music styles andelements of popular music, ranging from American to Chinese pop music, K-pop,and Bollywood repertoire. Out of this popular culture influence, more specificallyTaiwanese Chinese pop music culture, emerged xinyao, a Singaporean Chinesepopular music song genre created in the 1980s and written by local students andyoungsters to depict their lived experiences in Singapore. The Euro-Americanclassical music system, which influenced the works of local classical composerssuch as Kelly Tang and Leong Yoon Pin, was also mentioned. Attempts at fusion ofthe different traditional musics that exist within the Singaporean space weresounded out. For instance, there are local musicians and composers exploringvarious combinations of music elements, instrumentation, and stylistic genres ofChinese music, Malay music, and North or South Indian music traditions. Music

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traditions that exist within the Singapore soundscape, including the Malay dikirbarat, the Indian orchestra, and the Chinese orchestra, were mentioned as repre-sentations of living music traditions in Singapore.

The other key response from the groups was linked to the lyrical content ofsongs. Some participants talked about Singapore music, having content that speaksabout lived experiences, that resonates with the people in Singapore. It is “about thelife of Singaporeans and the language (like Singlish1) that makes our identity asSingaporeans” and “Singapore music sings about life in Singapore…increasesawareness about our traditions…tied to our practices, culture and religious cere-monies…. [The way traditions and musical traditions have evolved in Singapore] sowe can call it our own” (Participants’ viewpoints, Workshop, 02/07/2014).

One participant articulated that it was difficult to define what Singapore music isas “our children are used to different types of music”. Participants talked about howmusics in Singapore have been influenced by the surrounding regional music tra-ditions and various global musical flows. And because the independent nation-stateis only barely 50 years old, unlike other countries with a long history of establishedand strong musical identity, it is difficult to pinpoint particular music characteristicsthat are uniquely Singaporean. Other participants saw the need to cultivate a senseof patriotic identity and belonging to the nation through the creation and singing ofnational songs, and considered these songs as Singapore music.

The sharing of ideas opened up more questions as participants pondered uponthe following: whether the music must be written by a Singaporean for it to beconsidered Singapore music; whether the initial fundamental question is aboutSingapore music or musics in Singapore; and whether, without specific lyricalreferences that link to the culture and context of Singapore, if there are any originalmusic elements that can be considered Singapore music.

The facilitator exited the activity open-ended, allowing participants to reflectupon everyone’s responses as they proceeded to the next stage of the workshop.

Make a Stand: Changing the National Anthem

A segment of the workshop was devoted to the Singapore National Anthem, wherethe facilitator introduced to participants various resources (available on the Internetand created specifically for the resource kit) to illuminate the context of the nationalanthem, from the genesis of its creation to the biographical history of Zubir Said, thecomposer of the national anthem. This segment began with an initial listening of thenational anthem and the facilitator asking participants to write down “3” thoughts,“2” questions, and “1” image as they listened. 3–2–1 was again a visible thinkingroutine that allowed for participants’ initial thoughts to surface for discussion.Participants’ responses articulated a further probing into notions of national identity.Responses included: “Language is in Malay… I wonder how many Singaporeans

1Singlish can be defined as a common form of colloquial English spoken in Singapore.

Findings 65

know the meaning of the anthem”; “Are we proud to sing our national anthem?Whatinspired Zubir Said to compose our national anthem?”; and “They should change(the language of the national anthem) to English so that we can understand it easily.The lyrics should be richer in content”. These responses were taken up by thefacilitator and incorporated into a subsequent thinking routine (Make A Stand),where participants were asked to literally make a stand regarding the statement, “Acountry’s national anthem should be changed according to the times”. Participantscould make one of four choices—strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly dis-agree—and were asked to congregate according to their choice and to articulate theirreasons before sending a representative from each group to present their viewpoints.Here are two opposing viewpoints:

Strongly Agree:

Nothing remains the same. There are always changes. Even as we speak now, we areevolving. Who is defending this national anthem? It was composed before we gainedindependence. That explains why it is in Malay. And now, it is 50 years old. As a Chinese,I’ve been singing it since I was in primary school. I wonder if the Malays feel more strongly(resonate with) about it. To make more Singaporeans resonate stronger, really pullSingapore together, a new national anthem needs to be composed. There needs to be a rightcomposer to do it who can command respect. Zubir Said can be remembered as the firstcomposer and next year should be the right time to change (celebration of 50 years ofnation building). We are not suggesting we are not loyal. We need to modernise, we feel itis a bit old fashioned. Education is going through change. Why can’t we change thenational anthem?

Strongly Disagree:

I do agree that change is the only constant… Not all Singaporeans understand the languagebut I think that is where education comes in and that’s where social studies and historycomes into bridge the lack of understanding of the language to the meaning of the song.What doesn’t change is ‘Majulah Singapura’ - the title and the meaning of the song will notchange. We need to remember to move forward in any generation that comes…. Childrendon’t know how old Singapore is. Many children do not know what is it they are learningabout Singapore. The song could make a point about language and why we must respect it.That is what makes us unique. Without that history of who we were, how would you knowabout our history? New generation don’t feel rooted, so we need to give them the story ofwho we are… It’s something that can be passed on from generation to generation and if youthink about the lyrics, there’s no good reason to change it. If you change, then onegeneration will identify with (the new anthem and another generation, the old), so thatdivides. There are other things that can be changed. This [the national anthem] helps us tobe rooted to Singapore. (Transcript from Workshop Day 1, 02/072014)

The atmosphere could be described as intense as the activity proceeded, withparticipants passionately articulating each of their viewpoints as others offeredalternative positions, while the facilitator listened intently without disrupting theflow. Once again, the facilitator exited the activity in an open-ended manner, fin-ishing up the segment of the workshop with a short documentary clip on thenational anthem, “Soul of the Nation”, allowing participants to reflect on theirearlier articulations as they watched the video clip. The segment concluded withparticipants writing down further thoughts on a reflection sheet.

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Highlighting Uniquely Singaporean Featuresof Particular Music Genres Explored

Teaching Living Legends Resources—Interviews with MalayMusicians (Shifting Musical Identity)

At the end of the sharing on the Malay rhythms segment of the Teaching LivingLegends workshop, the facilitator showed the participants a video clip from theresource kit of an interview with Riduan Zalani, the artistic director of NADISingapura, about the rhythms of Malay Music in Singapore. In the video clip,Riduan spoke about the evolution of Malay rhythms in Singapore and shared on theMalay musicians’ devotion to the art form as the genre continued to evolve.

The music itself is being shaped by the pushers and the peddlers who choose to ignite thisstyle. And everywhere around, whether it is the Riau islands, or Johor, or Palembang, orpeople of Brunei, they have their distinct sound, even in Singapore. We are a people ofmany different generations who still carry and take upon this tradition whole-heartedly.Therefore, the influences and the product that came out from this melting pot are unde-niably intense and immense… we are also sensitive to the fact that this has to come alongthrough time, and we do not push this. Fostering a certain practice requires time. And tocreate the awareness that the tradition belongs to us, and we are the one that is responsible,is also a step. And through all these years and years and generations of musicians, they havelived and are recognised by the people around the archipelago that Singapore has our veryown signature sound and I think we have to give it up to all those who were before us,trying to create that awareness, which has in turn become a tradition to the youngergeneration… I can’t explain in one word what the sound is but I think an amalgamation ofvarious minds, and a heart that is pure in preserving this wonderful medium of expression,is the only way to go. And that’s the sound of Singapore. (Teaching Living Legendsresource, interview with Riduan Zalani, from the Malay Rhythms segment)

The facilitator asked for responses from participants after viewing the videoclip. Participants were surprised to learn that within the traditional music genre,there were unique Singaporean elements that had already evolved. This uniquenesswas linked not so much to the transformation of Malay rhythms, but rather thewidespread use of the five core Malay rhythms within the Singapore context, atwedding celebrations and other festive occasions particularly. Observations alsopointed to the use of Malay rhythms in Chinese, Indian, and pop music repertoire.The facilitator ended this segment reminding participants of how they might engagestudents in talking about the shifts and evolution of musical identity that “As the artevolved, music practices evolved, there’s a diversity in the Malay music practices.We can share these with students so that it makes sense to them as well”.

Chalk Talk with Xinyao

In the segment that explored the music genre of xinyao, the facilitator began with avisible thinking routine termed chalk talk. The participants were divided into seven

Findings 67

friendship groups and given a large piece of butcher paper per group, together witha marker for each participant. The facilitator then played a series of audio and videoclips of xinyao repertoire and interviews with artists/producers of xinyao, and askedparticipants to pen down on their butcher paper anything that came to mind fromwhat they heard and watched. The facilitator placed emphasis on participantsputting down “insights… in relation to the topic of xinyao” (July, Workshop 3,xinyao segment). Participants were requested to just think and write but not talk orinteract with their group members throughout the duration of the audio and videoclips. Participants were asked to keep in mind what they had written down as theycontinued with a music activity that involved them creating an arrangement of axinyao repertoire using the informal learning approach (Green, 2008). At the end ofthe music activity, the facilitator returned to the chalk talk activity and askedparticipants to pen down further thoughts they had gleaned after being involved inthe creation and performance of their xinyao repertoire. Participants were thenencouraged to share their written thoughts with each other and to further dialogueon the topic.

Some visual examples of teachers’ thoughts for the chalk talk activity are givenhere:

Looking closely at Figs. 5.1 and 5.2, one would notice that some teachers hadpenned down thoughts linking xinyao to national identity, such as “part of

Fig. 5.1 Image of Group 1’s work

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Singapore music”, “uniquely Singapore”, “themes of songs related to…family,school life”, and “the pride of Singapore”. Unfortunately, the short informal con-versations between the teachers in their groups were not clearly recorded andfurther insight into this discussion was not possible. However, from the dailyreflections of participants at the end of the workshop day, the participants’ per-spectives on identity through the xinyao experience were noted. The xinyao seg-ment reminded participants of the need for Singapore youths to articulate theirpersonal experiences, expressions, and dreams through the musical idiom of song.The xinyao segment also sparked the participants’ creative juices in having theirpersonal voice heard through the group music-making activity:

Arrangements were simple and lyrics were close to the hearts of citizens.The history and evolution of Singapore’s music scene and especially the trials and

tribulations that people of the past have gone through in order to bring forth the music. Itteaches people not only about music, but more importantly, the passion for it. I feel thatonly through understanding the passion behind these can pupils appreciate music.

It is an evolving art form bringing on the memories and common identity ofSingaporeans.

Xinyao does not only promote the retention of Singapore memories, but also serves as atool for other countries to learn about us.

I could better appreciate how these are the expressions of youths in Singapore.

Fig. 5.2 Image of Group 2’s work

Findings 69

Provocative Questions to Prompt Critical Dialogue

In the workshop segment on dikir barat, the facilitator began by teaching WauBulan (a typical song heard in the dikir barat sequence) to participants and hadparticipants break into groups to create their own versions of Wau Bulan bychanging the lyrics and movement to the song. The facilitator challenged the par-ticipants as she asked, “Can we do it in English? Does it have to be in Malay?”(Dikir barat is a Malay music tradition, and the lyrics are typically sung in theMalay language).

After showing participants a video clip (from the resource kit) of a dikir baratperformance, the facilitator prompted a discussion, asking participants to respond tothe provocative question, “What is good singing style/technique?” Responses fromthe participants were varied. The following responses captured the essence of thediscussion:

Good singing depends on location, culture and origin. Different cultures have differentdefinitions.

Dikir barat is used for joyous occasions. The combination [dikir barat ensemble] usesinstruments so the singing ensemble needs to be loud.

Traditionally we think about SYF choir [singing in the Western choral tradition]. Forcesus to question what good sound is. In this video, they are moving around. They are notpitch perfect but they are singing together. The team spirit they are trying to convey andsense of togetherness and that is considered good singing style.

The definition of singing is the expression of the human soul…. I rarely seeSingaporean kids who can sing from the heart and soul.

The participants came to terms with the fact that good singing is very muchdefined by the culture and context. The facilitators reminded participants furtherabout their teaching practices, “Do our biasness come through when we are teach-ing?”When we speak to students about good singing, “Whose standards are those?”

Going into the specifics of the dikir barat ensemble set up, the facilitatorhighlighted to the participants that within the Singapore context, “there are usuallytwenty people [in the dikir barat setup]. You have fourteen in the chorus, twosoloists and four musicians”. The facilitator also pointed out that in Singapore, thestructure of the dikir barat performance was usually done in the Kelantan style, butwith some departures.

Inviting a Culture Bearer

At this point of the workshop, the facilitator invited Hamid Osman, a pioneer of thedikir barat movement since the 1980s, to speak with the participants about thedevelopment of this music genre in Singapore. Within the Malay Archipelago,“Dikir barat is not an art [form] taken seriously; it is a folk tradition”. Hamidpointed out that “at one point, dikir barat was banned in Kelantan because ofpornographic lyrics” as the improvisatory nature of the soloists got out of hand.

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Interestingly, dikir barat was initially used more for a functional purpose ofpromoting the use of the Malay language in Singapore. As Hamid half-jokinglymentioned, “We are the only people in the world who are taking dikir barat soseriously”. Singapore is, according to Hamid, also the first in bringing the dikirbarat genre into the formal space of the school environment. This created uniquecontextual features of the music genre in Singapore, which included the burgeoningof dikir barat competitions at the school national level as well as within thecommunity, where competitions were held in community centres and performancevenues around Singapore at different times of the year. As Hamid put it, the dikirbarat culture in Singapore “is more of a competitive basis”.

It would also seem, from Hamid’s point of view, that the dikir barat genre inSingapore had a lot of creative freedom, as long as the rhythmic accompaniment wereon drums and that some of the main features of the rhythmic patterns and structurewere captured within each performance. As Hamid remarked, “We did the first dikirbarat album in Singapore in 1991. Why can’t we put in the guitar?…. This is notreligion, we can change. I performed with the Chinese drum and Indian drum…. Noneed to stick toWau Bulan. We can talk about theMerlion2 and a lot of other things”.Hamid thus suggested to participants that they could just play with the structure andmusic elements of dikir barat tomake it their own.At the end of the day, for Hamid, hehoped that the dikir barat genre in Singapore would not be confined to a particularformat or structure and advocated for a more innovative and creative approach andthat educators and practitioners of the genre would have to take the lead.

Tradition (Provocative Dialogue)

At the end of day two of the workshop, the facilitators concluded with a thinkingroutine, posing a statement, “Traditions should not change with time”, for partic-ipants to decide which end of a continuum they would stand at. As participantsgathered along the continuum (indicated by a string in the shape of a horseshoe),they were tasked to speak with others next to them to decide whether their positionwould remain unchanged or otherwise. Through this activity, some useful responseswere articulated by participants, which gave all participants ideas to mull overbefore they left for the day. Responses included:

Tradition will change whether you like it or not. You don’t have a choice because the nextgeneration will decide, it’s not up to us.

Tradition shouldn’t be connected to time. Putting a time limit is a bad thing. Musicalstyles and genres shouldn’t be framed by time.

Some content can be changed but the structure should stay.If we change tradition, we change history.

2The Merlion is Singapore’s national icon depicting a head of a lion and the body of a fish.

Findings 71

See–Think–Wonder: Indian Orchestra in Singapore

On the third day of the workshop under the segment of Indian orchestra, thefacilitator began by introducing Ghanavenothan Retnam, a renowned composer forthe Singapore Indian orchestra and professional Indian musician. As mentioned inthe previous chapters, Ghana was brought into the workshop to provide participantswith a first-hand encounter, as a living culture bearer to the music tradition.

Following an introduction of basic Carnatic music concepts such as raga, tala,and sruti to the participants, the facilitator played an audio clip of the SingaporeIndian orchestra and asked participants to “listen and note down what you hear. Allthe sounds that you hear and write them down”. As the participants wrote downtheir thoughts after listening, the facilitator spoke about the use of the audio clip asa pedagogic process, “This is something you can use with your students. Studentsmight jump into judgement… this routine pauses that interpretation… just statingfactually what they hear”.

As the participants verbalised what they heard, the facilitator started to writetheir responses on a large white board:

Drone, strings (violin), female voices, woodwinds (flute), clapping, tabla, mridangam,strings playing in unison with voice, plucked string (veena), chorus, harmonium…

The facilitator then proceeded to show the video clip of the audio that theparticipants just heard which generated more responses:

I see a pot!… A score. Some kind of lead sheet?… microphones, carpets, backdrop…Musicians are seated according to North and South Indian traditions… tanpura, the lady inthe middle is playing the drone.

As participants responded, Ghana chipped into the discussion providing usefuland immediate information to participants:

Ghatam (the pot), used for cooking those days. No refrigeration. It was used to keep icycool water. Those days, [only] men [were] allowed to play [on the instrument]. They had tobe bare bodied for musical ornamental purposes.

The tanpura has to be set to ‘C’ or ‘G’ (Sa and Pa). Mostly girls (who play the tanpura)‘doll up’ for the concert. Tanpura starts and ends the concert…. Nowadays with electronicversions (sruti boxes and tanpura apps), [the tanpura] may not be used (even in a concertsetting).

(Use of microphones). Because they (some instruments) are soft [and thus need to beamplified].

(Carpet). Musicians should not sit directly on the floor…form of respect for theinstrument and the practice.

After the flurry of participant responses and some information by Ghana, thefacilitator prompted the participants further about what they might think andwonder about the music genre. Here are some queries from the participants:

Is this a normal performance? I noticed there’s not much gamaka. Do all Indian musicperformances have gamaka?Is there a conductor or a leader?

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What tradition is this song in?Why did they choose this background? Is this closely linked to religion?

Are there always children in the performances?

The facilitator and Ghana responded to participants’ questions enthusiastically.Pedagogically, the see–think–wonder routine allowed a structured way for thefacilitator and Ghana to dialogue with the participants about what they were curiousto know about the music genre.

After this dialogue session, the facilitator proceeded to show participants theresources on Indian orchestra in the resource kit, highlighting particular videosegments that spoke about the beginnings of the Singapore Indian orchestra and theunique music characteristics of the genre.

The facilitator, who also designed the resources for Indian orchestra, highlightedin the resource that:

Singapore is one of the few countries in the world with a permanent and established Indianorchestra. To add on to the uniqueness is how both North and South Indian instruments arereadily found in the Indian orchestras here. The practitioners share their hopes and dreams asIndian Orchestra continues to evolve and develop as a living music tradition in Singapore.

The resources included interviews with Ghana and other practitioners, whospoke about these aspects of uniqueness, including ideas of fusion with other musicgenres prominent in Singapore, like the Chinese orchestra and Malay music:

In Singapore, what’s more common, is that North and South Indian instruments cometogether. But the more flavoured element here, is the Carnatic element because more peopleare learning that. Of course there are influences from both.

That’s why the young composers now have to learn not only this Indian orchestralIndian style, but of course, the other styles. Other styles means, just like, learn some niceclassics of, Chinese, Malays or Western. Get them incorporated in your compositions. Youknow how beautiful it is to play [a Chinese melody] on an Indian instrument, it soundsbeautiful.

When you do gamaka, it sounds different, ‘Mo Li Hua’… when you drink with a glasswith a beautiful decoration, like stylised tasting. You have a stylised kind of approach tothat flavour of Chinese or Malay, incorporated into the Indian Orchestra.

At the workshop, Ghana also spoke to participants about cross-cultural worksthat the Indian orchestra plays which, according to him, defines the uniqueness ofthe Singapore sound. Ghana emphasised the uniqueness of the North–Southinstrumental combination in the Singapore context:

Each instrument has their own timbre…so nice to listen to pipa and guzheng…the Indianinstruments playing Chinese and Malay repertoire with gamaka…now there are manyWestern pieces and new works and cross-cultural works… now there are (inclusions) ofkeyboard, saxophone, vocals (within the Indian Orchestra)… distinctive Singapore flavourbecause of these cross-cultural genres.

In India, they won’t allow the combination of Hindustani and Carnatic…it is distinctiveto Singapore that you can combine (both Indian musical traditions).

Findings 73

Use of Video Clips from Teaching Living Legends Resource

On the fourth day of the workshop, under the segment of Singapore composers, thefacilitator, in continuing her discussion about the works of Kelly Tang (a prominentlocal composer), showed a video clip of an interview with the composer to theparticipants, urging them to note down reasons the composer had included themelodies of three folk songs within his string quartet composition. The following isa snippet of the transcript of the interview clip:

Something that we all share as a common heritage…makes us come together asSingaporeans…have to speak to Singaporeans that is meaningful…something that wassacred to Singaporeans…do honour to the melodies…bring it to another level of sophis-tication…everybody knows these songs but I wanted to give a fresh perspective…a highlevel of textural sophistication…. Bring the 3 songs that will be communicated that is freshand exciting…important because music needs to hook into people…people can connectto…having these popular songs would be able to induce (the listener) into the music….Once they are in, they are in for a ride… unexpected and elaborate…bring all of us asSingaporeans and be even more proud of what we can do.

The facilitator had a discussion with the participants about the video clip beforesharing other pedagogical ideas about how they might approach the teaching ofworks by local composers.

A second video clip of an interview with Kelly Tang was shown, and partici-pants were asked to note down what the composer said about his works “beingSingaporean”. A snippet of the transcript of the interview is shown below:

What is Singaporean style?…hard to say…beauty of being Singaporean composer… there isno fixed style…always growing…new parts always added…very excited…. As aSingaporean composer…influenced by the environment…the energy of people and also theenergy in the music…the fast-paced…the concentration of the architecture and landscape—make us of every inch…economic and efficient way of using…rather than lack…. Musicreflects multicultural climate that we enjoy…no one particular influence rather the comingtogether of different styles…because on TV, media…Malay, Chinese opera…latest pop hitsfrom America…strong sense of connections to Europe as colony of England…at first doesn’tseem to fit…. How do you put together Malay with Tchaikovsky…mind is intriguing…wetry to piece things together so that it makes sense…. What I tried to do…bring together thesethings…which hopefully makes sense… That is very uniquely Singapore.

A discussion followed where participants and the facilitator talked about whatcould be defined as Singapore music through the eyes of Kelly Tang.

A second facilitator then stepped in after the discussion and asked participantsfor some quick responses to “things that are very Singaporean”. Participantsenthusiastically mentioned:

Singlish, Food, Ah Beng, Mr Brown, Jack Neo, Kiasuism, Chilli Crab, Stomp, Void Deck,HDB, MRT, ERP, Acronyms, Singapore Flyer, COE, tissue paper (“chope”), Merlion,…

The facilitator then asked the participants to break up into their groups to create afour-beat rhythmic ostinato using some of the words they had suggested. Once theostinati were created, the facilitator led the participants in singing the Malay folk

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song, Rasa Sayang, as she accompanied them on the Malay kompang whileinterjecting the ostinato creations.

The facilitator then played a video clip of Dick Lee’s (a contemporary local popcomposer) take on Rasa Sayang and explained to participants about Dick Lee’spursuit of the Singaporean musical voice throughout his life career. In another videoclip, Dick Lee is seen recounting:

So there was no interest…. The government decided to introduce National Songs… around1984… ‘Stand up for Singapore’, composed by a Canadian and an advertisement agency…played at National Day Parades…public listened to it and oh, quite neat…. Then ‘Count onme Singapore’ (another composed National song)…. By 1987, there was a feeling ofsomething when you watch National Parade…sense of national pride, national identitystarted to blossom…. When I wrote Beauty World (musical)…there was an audience…aSingapore idiom planted on stage…revived by sense…. ‘Mad Chinaman’, an album aboutSingapore songs in ‘Singlish’ became a platinum seller…. When the album came up,Singapore Broadcasting Corporation (SBC)…they banned the song…. I asked why…im-proper use of English.

Fifteen years later, same reason…our journey has been full of these kinds of obsta-cles…. This time the media backed me…. This is ‘Singlish’, this is who we are…. SBClifted the ban and the album became a big success…. A Japanese ethnologist got hold of itand promoted it in Japan…getting my career to Japan….

In 1989, I was offered (a position in) Warner in Japan…it has been a long journey….took the Japanese to recognise…something that was unique and different andSingaporean…even I didn’t realise…. taken outsiders to see that…we have to see it forourselves…. Don’t be afraid to sing about it…It’s not going to be in my lifetime…aSingaporean culture…. Now it’s a good position…we are in a position to create thisculture…an evolution of this culture…everything we can to promote it…have this angleand plant it in kids’ heads that we have to be Singaporean…first is to explore our roots….We have different roots…. There is a generation now…whose roots start from 1980sSingapore songs…. This is a wonderful starting point.

Allowing participants to slowly take in the information from the video clipwithout further discussion, the facilitator then suggested to participants to read “TheAdventures of the Mad Chinaman”, a book written by Dick Lee, to further theirthinking and reflect upon Dick Lee’s view on his music and his continual search forthe Singapore identity.

Socratic Questioning

One of the final perspective building exercises for participants was structured as adebate on the issue, “We can define and identify what Singaporean music is”. Somechairs were placed in a circle facing each other, and the participants were dividedinto groups of four, with one representative from each group sitting on a chair. Therest of the group members discussed their stance on the statement posed, articulatedtheir thoughts to the person sitting on the chair, before this person addressed the restof the participants. Only those seated were allowed to speak, either raising ques-tions or responding to questions. This was the Socratic questioning activity.Speakers spoke about the following: (i) particular lyrical content of songs

Findings 75

(landmarks, local languages such as Singlish, etc.) as identity markers; (ii) particularmusic styles that have emerged from traditional Malay, Chinese, and Indian musicforms that are identifiable as Singaporean; (iii) particular blends of musical culturalmix as another identifier; and (iv) giving time for Singaporean musical voices toemerge as it is too early in history to seek out an identifiable soundscape thatoutsiders can easily identify (although there are early signs of this happeningthrough examples of works by local composers and music groups). The participantstook turns sitting on the designated chairs to continue the debate on the topic. Thefacilitator wrapped up the session with some summary points and implicationspicked up from the debate:

We started with music elements…is there an idiom…lyrics…. Music is not just withlyrics…then how do you define that?… difference between identifying and defining…. ideaabout taking a step back…the outside and insider perspective…. Dick Lee also wonderedwhat it is…Japanese told him…so it is the outsider…. Would you be able to identify if youare not from that culture?…. That music is not just combination of sound…but dependenton context…so you have to be an insider as well….tension between whose music does itbelong to…going back to the roots…. Rasa Sayang belongs to the Malay Archipelago….When Dick Lee says it’s Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia had an uproar…the Ministersays it belongs to the Malay Archipelago…. Singapore is tricky because of its diversity…Even Malay music…can you say what is Malay music (in Singapore)?…. Rhythms camefrom different parts of the world…influences from Arab and Indian and Malaysia…. Thereare a lot of influences shaped by the context. If you hear a rhythm, it is just a rhythm…because of the sound and the variation…the realisation that goes away from the character…so many influences that shape…there isn’t a clear-cut answer…more important to know theissues that surround these…. Music is culture, it is about ourselves…. Singaporean music iswhat others define as Singaporean.

Participants’ Responses to the Applicabilityof Perspective-Taking Activities for the Music Classroom

Some primary school teachers felt that perspective building on issues of identity canbe a good “tuning in activity that arouses pupils’ interest in the topic”, particularlyin repertoire that students are familiar with but have not given much thought toregarding their origins and contexts within Singapore. Probing questions could stirup discussion and “get them thinking about their own identity in Singapore”.A primary school teacher pointed out that perspective building is significant inhelping students develop “self-awareness” and also for teachers to find out “whatSingapore means to children nowadays”. Some teachers talked about approachingany discussion on the Singaporean identity with care. As there were a number offoreign students in their classes, discussions needed to be mediated by teachers suchthat the topic could be approached sensitively.

The secondary school teachers saw perspective building as a means of engagingwith students’ critical thinking in a student-centric way through discussion andvisible thinking routines. They saw perspective building on issues of identity as a

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way to “allow students to see for themselves how music and culture shape a largeportion of their identity in the society that they live in”, “to help them think deeperinto the issues that Singapore is facing”, and “explain to them that there will neverbe one definite answer to the questions because the answers lie in their own per-ception and (future) contribution of music to the society”. One teacher evenmentioned how she would work with her students:

…encourage students to research into music that makes them feel that they are Singaporecitizens…. These are music and songs that when brought into another country and context,will be deemed out of place. Areas to be looked at include famous Singaporean composerslike Iskandar Ismail, Zubir Said, Er Yenn Chwen… Events that can be considered include,but are not limited to National Day Parades, various religious festivals celebrated in school.

(Responses were taken from the final survey for Secondary school teachers conductedonline four months after the workshop)

Some primary school teachers felt however that their lower primary schoolstudents were too young to understand and approach the topic with maturity. Mostwould only consider such discussions at the Primary 5 or Primary 6 levels. Even ifthey did take on ideas on perspective taking with upper primary school students, itwould be interspersed with other music-making activities as teachers felt that timewas insufficient, since there was only a half-hour period per week of music for themany music concepts and elements they had to go through. One primary schoolteacher, who had tried out a perspective building idea taken from the workshop, feltthat her Primary 2-level students gave explanations that were more “simplistic”,while the Primary 5-level students “were able to get more in-depth… to substantiatetheir explanations”. This perhaps reflected the lack of competency in facilitatingperspective building at lower primary level and hence an attitude that perspectivebuilding was more effective at the upper levels. Another secondary school teacherwho attempted to work in perspective-taking through written reflection for studentsmentioned that “The reflection didn’t work very well as the questions might havebeen too general”. This perhaps also reflected a lack of competency in engagingstudents in critical reflection.

Likewise, some secondary school music teachers were resistant to conductingperspectives building on issues of identity as they felt that their secondary studentswere too young to engage with the topic. One teacher felt that perspective buildingis not as significant as music-making, and since there was limited time in musicclasses, time could be better spent on other music activities rather than having“critical discussion about something that won’t be changed in the near future”.Another teacher remarked, “Not until I figure out our identity—currently I think weare still in the identified unidentified stage”, hence reflecting her discomfort infacilitating a topic she deemed ambiguous.

This then leads to considerations on whether engaging in perspective building atthe lower primary and even lower secondary school levels need to be better scaf-folded and guided, and perhaps larger questions on identity could somehow besimplified to allow the younger students to engage with the topic more effectively. Itwould seem from the teachers’ responses that a few of them felt that primary and

Findings 77

even secondary school students are not ready or mature enough to engage withcritical thinking about issues of identity.

The facilitators in the five-day workshop, while giving many pedagogical andcontent examples of how perspective-taking activities in discussing issues ofidentity could be executed in the music classroom, had not explicitly talked toparticipants about the different ways these activities could be catered to differentprimary- and secondary-level students. Time taken during the workshop in exe-cuting some of the perspective building activities was also rather long, which mayhave prevented the teachers from seeing how they could practically apply theseactivities in their time-constrained music lessons. The facilitators, furthermore, hadnot made any explicit mention of how the perspective building activities could beinterspersed between other music activities to allow for a more balanced musiccurriculum. Perhaps what is more significant is the fact that some of these primaryand secondary school teachers might not value the need for engaging their studentsin such perspective building activities. The fact that “other music-making activities”and the “lack of time” were cited as reasons for not including perspective buildingactivities, points to the hierarchical nature of their responses, deeming perspectivebuilding activities as less crucial compared to other music activities.

In the next iteration of Teaching Living Legends for music teachers, the STARteam might need to consider the observations above to take into account teachers’buy-in on the significance of perspective building as a crucial part of music lessons.It might be necessary to explicitly work out practical ways of letting teachers knowhow to engender perspective building activities within the limited time frame oftheir music lessons and how to scaffold perspective building activities that wouldcater to different levels of students.

Summary Thoughts

The implementation of the perspective building activities by the STAR teamthrough various visible thinking routines, interspersed between other music-makingactivities in the five-day workshop, enabled the participants to engage in numerouscritical dialogues about identity and musical understanding within the context ofliving music traditions. It is necessary to consider, in the planning of musicactivities, the thrust towards using music as a social tool to help students constructand refine their identities because oftentimes, arts “are key rallying points foridentity groups and central to representation of identity” (Turino, 2008, p. 106). AsMans (2009) pointed out, “Seldom is [music curricula] focus overtly placed on theeffect on learners’ responses to music in the social sense—how they feel thisbenefits them as human beings, how this makes them “better” in the sense of bettereducated, better able to get along with others, better able to appreciate their ownstrengths and weaknesses, and understand where and how they fit into society”(p. 186). Folkestad (2002, p. 160) further asserted, “[by] obtaining security in one’sown identity whilst simultaneously achieving knowledge and understanding of

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others, the possibilities of and prerequisites for a genuinely multicultural societymight be created”.

The practical activities utilising different visible thinking routines ranging fromsee–think–wonder to Socratic questioning techniques also broadened pedagogicalideas for teachers in terms of engaging students in critical thinking through thesestudent-centred approaches. The various ways with which perspective building inidentity and music were being examined in each music genre presented also gaveconcrete ideas to teachers about how they could approach the subject. The partic-ipants, through these activities, engaged in discussions about the following: (i) thesignificance and uniqueness of music content ranging from pop to Euro-Americanclassical influences, and the fusion of Chinese, Malay, and Indian traditionalmusical elements found within the context of Singapore; (ii) whether there is a needto change music traditions according to the changing times; (iii) unique features oftraditional Chinese, Malay, and Indian music that exists in Singapore; (iv) lyricalcontent of songs that are indicative of the life of Singaporeans; (v) Singaporecomposers’ perspectives about Singapore music that indicates no fixed style but isdependent on the influences of the environment ranging from architecture tolandscape, to the economic efficiency and energy of its people and the multiculturalspace, and an emergent outside-looking-in perspective defining particular lyricaland musical nuances that could be uniquely Singaporean; and (vi) the difficulties indefining Singapore music because of the youth of the nation and the multipleinfluences from the region, coupled with changing global migratory and techno-logical flows.

From these critical dialogues, it would seem that to gain identity and musicalunderstanding within the context of living music traditions, a historical and mul-ticultural perspective needs to be considered, of lived and living music practicesthat exist within the current Singaporean context, focussing mainly on the Chinese,Malay, and Indian musical traditions. Living music traditions denote that they arenot static but an evolving process towards transforming and fusing these Asiantraditions and/or with Euro-American classical and popular music genres,approaching the intercultural. At this point, there are only beginning trends ofidentifiable musical and/or lyrical content that can be discerned. The participantsand the STAR team are hopeful for an organic evolvement of more identifiablemusical trends in Singapore through time and space.

A complexity brought about through the need for economic growth in thisswiftly globalising young nation is the emergence of several music identities thatresonate or draw from global flows, which almost denounces the national andembraces cultural diversity. A global city music identity can often run counter to thearticulation of the national, which in Singapore is further complicated by the factthat neither an inside-looking-in nor outside-looking-in national perspective hasbeen firmly established.

Research scholars (Folkestad, 2002; Hebert & Kertz-Welzel, 2012) cautionedagainst an overemphasis on national identity in music education as it tends to movetowards the inclusion of musics deemed historically and politically significant andomits others, particularly minorities, going against the grain of cultural diversity

Summary Thoughts 79

and inclusion in an increasingly global world. Folkestad (2002) instead proposes analternative emphasis on music more as cultural rather than national as “it has moredirect bearing on the music itself and on musical experiences, rather than on thevalues it represents” (p. 159). Decades of work within world musics in education(Schippers, 2009; Campbell, 2004; Volk, 1998) have also advocated for opening upminds, theorising, and encouraging perspectives, pedagogies, and practices towardscultural diversity which run almost counter to the active and artificial framing ofmusics within a national agenda. The cultural should, as suggested by McCarthy(2009), be dynamic as “creative energy moves a tradition forward, and improvi-sation is at the heart of musical development. By their direct participation in atradition, students can add to it, even direct its course of development… they cansee themselves as creative musicians and their actions as interconnected with thelarger world of music making” (p. 35). What is crucially important is perspectivebuilding towards reminding students that “music is something that emerges fromsocieties, influences behavior, and is an integral part of our identities” (Mans, 2009,p. 12). Music educators must be mindful in developing students’ perspectives thatbegin with the self, for only when the individual is cognisant and has been givenopportunities to explore and examine the self in relation to his or her multiplecontexts, can there be a deep understanding of identity and culture that comes fromwithin.

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Chapter 6Professional Learning Experiencesfrom Participants’ Perspective

Recapitulating the research purpose, the study has sought to understand profes-sional development considerations for the teaching of music traditions, the pro-cesses in a workshop that could enhance teachers’ pedagogical knowledge andperspectives, and how the integration of “pedagogy”, “practice”, and “perspective”increases teacher efficacy and teaching confidence in teaching local music traditionsin the General Music Classroom. Approaches to the Teaching Living Legendsprogramme and the research methodology were described in Chap. 2. The docu-mentation of the planning processes led to the discussion of professional devel-opment considerations in Chap. 3. Chapter 4 looked at how the workshopprocesses developed teachers’ practice and pedagogy, while the teachers’ per-spectives were covered in Chap. 5. This chapter presents and discusses the findingson the participants’ professional learning experiences, especially in terms of theirself-efficacy and confidence.

Self-efficacy is about one’s belief and perception of one’s competence; whetherone can produce certain actions. It is distinct from other conceptions of self, such asself-concept, self-worth, and self-esteem, in that it is specific to a particular task(Bandura, 1997; Tschannen-Moran, Hoy & Hoy, 1998, p. 210). One’s perception oftheir efficacy influences the types of anticipatory scenarios they construct andreiterate. Those with a high sense of self-efficacy visualise success scenarios thatprovide positive guides for performance (Bandura, 1990, p. 403). Hence, the higherthe perceived self-efficacy, the longer individuals persevere on difficult andunsolvable problems before they quit. In addition, teacher efficacy influences stu-dent achievement, attitude, and affective growth (Tschannen-Moran et al. p. 215).This is therefore an important disposition that teacher educators at STAR wish tocultivate in teachers as they teach different music traditions, since they work withless familiar music materials.

© The Author(s) 2016C.-H. Lum and S.L. Chua, Teaching Living Legends,SpringerBriefs in Education, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1482-6_6

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Research Instrument

A questionnaire was administered to all 40 participants at three points of the firstrun of the workshop in 2014: first, before the workshop; second, just after theworkshop; and finally, about 4 months after the workshop. The questions comprisethe Teacher Efficacy and Teacher Confidence Scales (Hoy, n.d.) and responses weremeasured as a composite of all the topics in Teaching Living Legends. The list ofquestions is listed in the Appendix.

Teacher Efficacy

As researchers have argued, self-efficacy is best measured within contexts regardingspecific behaviours (Pajares, 1996, cited in Henson , Kogan, & Vacha-Haase, 2001,p. 405; Tschannen-Moran et al. 1998, p. 215), and the teacher efficacy instrumentfor this project was developed specifically to measure teachers’ beliefs in theircompetence in teaching music traditions. For example, two statements which par-ticipants had to rate were, “I understand local music traditions well enough to beteaching them in General Music lessons”, and “I find it difficult to explain tostudents how the music works in local music traditions”. The first statementrequires participants to indicate their belief in their competence to teach local musictraditions. The second statement is negatively worded to find out participants’perceived competence to explain the local music traditions to their students. Byindicating the extent they agree or disagree with the statements, they are making astatement about the efficacy of their own teaching.

In the questionnaire, all 25 items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale rangingfrom 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Negatively worded items werereverse scored. Cronbach’s alpha was used to measure the internal consistency ofthe scale item. Results indicated a high reliability of 0.840 and an adequate andappropriate sample size for factor analysis.1 As anticipated, factor analysis2 sur-faced two factors—“personal teaching efficacy” (11 items, α = 0.870) and “generalteaching efficacy” (6 items, α = 0.752), corresponding to Bandura’s “self-efficacy”and “outcome expectancy” dimensions, respectively, grounded in social cognitivetheory (cited in Henson et al. 2001, p. 405). The former is the “individual’s con-viction that he or she can orchestrate the necessary actions to perform a given task”,

1KMO test registers a value of 0.736 and the Bartlett’s test rejects the null hypothesis that thecorrelation matrix is an identity matrix, p < 0.001.2The Exploratory Factor Analysis is used with Principal Axis Factoring extraction method. Twofactors were identified from the scree plot and they explained 23.0 and 12.1 % of variance,respectively. Using Promax with Kaiser normalisation, the factors are 0.266 indicating that thefactors are correlated. 11 variables load highly on factor 1, and 6 variables load highly on factor 2.8 others do not load on either factor.

82 6 Professional Learning Experiences from Participants’ Perspective

while the latter is the “individual’s estimate of the likely consequences of per-forming that task at the expected level of competence” (Bandura, 1986, cited inTschannen-Moran et al. 1998, p. 210). The variables3 for each of the two factors arelisted below.

Factor 1: Self-efficacy

• Explain the students how the music works in local music traditions• Help the students understand a concept in local music traditions• Interest students in local music traditions• Teach local music traditions effectively• Know the steps necessary for teaching local music traditions effectively• Understand local music traditions well enough to teach them in General Music

lessons• Monitor students’ creative work in local music traditions• Have the necessary skills to teach local music traditions• Welcome student questions when teaching local music traditions• Teach local music traditions as well as other music genres• Invite Reporting Officer to evaluate teaching of local music traditions

Factor 2: Outcome Expectancy

• Students doing well in music are likely due to effective music teaching• Students’ learning in local music traditions is directly related to their teacher’s

effectiveness in teaching local music traditions• Parents’ comment of child showing more interest in local music traditions at

school is probably due to the performance of the child’s music teacher• The music teacher is responsible for students’ learning in local music traditions• When a child progresses in music, it is usually due to extra attention given by

the music teacher• The music achievement of some students is attributed to their music teachers

Teaching Confidence

The Teaching Confidence Scale is also a programme-specific measure of efficacy;to find out from the participants how confident they are in their ability to accom-plish each skill. For the questionnaire instrument, teachers are required to rate theirabilities in demonstrating specific music skills, such as playing Malay rhythms orsinging Indian tala, or facilitating discussions or students’ learning. These state-ments are closely related to the learning objectives of the workshop. The instrumentis comprised of 20 items with a 5-point Likert-type scale and tested for its

3Variables with coefficients less than 0.4 are not considered since they indicate cross-loadings andthese items were dropped from further analyses.

Research Instrument 83

reliability.4 The total average score was then calculated for each respondent. Factoranalysis5 extracted only one factor from the scree plot, which explained 59.7 % ofvariance, indicating that all the questions measured the same construct; in this case,the teaching confidence.

Qualitative Responses

In addition to the quantitative dimensions, a few open-ended questions were alsoprovided in the questionnaire to learn about the participants’ reasons for attendingthe course and the learning they had from the course. Other qualitative data includeparticipants’ reflections on their learning on a daily basis during theworkshop. These qualitative feedback from participants were coded to find out ifthere were patterns from their responses. These reflections, together with earlierdiscussions with teachers involved in developing the resources and trialling thelessons prior to the workshop, contributed to the data for the research, which wereanalysed for the purpose of this study.

Results and Findings

The 40 participants were asked just before the commencement of the workshop,through two open-ended survey questions, why they were interested to attend theworkshop and their own strengths and weaknesses on the teaching of local musictraditions. Half of the teachers (20 out of 40) expressed that they were interested inthe pedagogy. 11 out of 40 respondents wrote about valuing the teaching–learningof culture, heritage, and identity. And six indicated that they were motivated byknowledge and skills acquisition. If specific areas were mentioned, they were in theMalay and Indian music traditions. This might be attributed to 90 % of participantsbeing ethnic Chinese. Only four participants indicated their interest in the resources,which was a surprise to the team as the team had expected more participants to bemotivated by resource needs.

4Measured for its reliability, the results indicated a reliability of greater than 0.89 for all categories:demonstrating and explaining music (five items; α = 0.90); facilitating music-making and learning(eight items; α = 0.90); and facilitating discussion and critical thinking (seven items; α = 0.92).The overall reliability of the instrument was high (20 items; α = 0.963).5The KMO test registers a value of 0.914 (which indicated an adequate sample size for factoranalysis) and the Bartlett’s test rejects the null hypothesis that the correlation matrix is an identitymatrix (p < 0.001). The factor analysis is conducted through SPSS using Principal Axis Factoringextraction method.

84 6 Professional Learning Experiences from Participants’ Perspective

Changes in Reflections

The participants completed open-ended reflections at the end of each day for thefirst 4 days of the workshop. Their responses were coded to find out the emergingpatterns and themes of their thoughts.

Observations from the 4 days of open-ended reflections show that participantsreflected mostly on the teaching–learning of music traditions. The larger extent ofreflection on teaching–learning was expected as teachers already expressed thatthey were interested in the pedagogy when they applied for theworkshop. Participants also largely reflected on the content (knowledge of musictraditions) and the perspectives acquired at the workshop. There were also articu-lations of their responses to the workshop and expressions reflecting their attitudesand values. To a lesser extent, there were critical reflection as seen in their reflectionquestions, extensions that they made, and reflections on their music-making.

It was also observed that participants’ reflections changed over the 4 days, andthe change is closely related to the workshop content and design. From thereflections gathered regarding the music content garnered, participants increasinglyengaged more deeply with descriptions of what they learnt, rather than just makinga list of what they learnt. This suggests that the routine of reflections, and perhapsthe infusion of critical thinking in the workshop, encouraged participants to givegreater thought to what they acquired. Over the 4 days, there were also anincreasing number of participants reflecting on teaching–learning matters, namelycontextualising what they had learnt for their classrooms, applying the pedagogicalapproaches, and lesson planning. From the third day, there were reflections thatexuded a pride to be in Singapore, perhaps due to the discussions on Singapore’smusic composers. Most critical reflections took place on the fourth day, withadditional new comments evaluating the use of pedagogies, perhaps due to themicro-teaching activity and pedagogical discussions at the workshop. There wasalso a sudden spike of reflections on identity issues on the fourth day, perhaps dueto the Socratic questioning activity, which centred on these issues, at the workshop.

From the responses, it was observed that there were some realisations and shiftsin thinking about the content, pedagogy, and perspectives in teaching music tra-ditions. For example:

I used to think Malay rhythm was messy and (had) no pattern. I was quite certain that theyimprovise everything, now I feel like a fool. It won’t be the same listening to Malaywedding music anymore! [Primary school music teacher’s reflection, Workshop Day 1]

I realised that a lot of thought is needed to go into designing a lesson plan. That includesthe activities and questioning techniques used in the lesson. And I feel maybe morethinking needs to go into a music lesson. To make sure that the music lesson does not turninto a history or social studies period. [Primary school music teacher’s reflection,Workshop Day 4]

Participants’ reflections on the music practice activities in the workshop illus-trated the importance of music practice and the music experience in developingtheir own confidence for classroom teaching.

Results and Findings 85

Dikir Barat – I wished there were more time in “music-making” than the talk itself. I don’tthink I’ve the confidence to “teach” in school. [Secondary school music teacher’s reflection,Workshop Day 2]

…music practice was useful and beneficial in allowing me to understand more about thecomplexities in the music practice, as well as appreciate the beauty of it. [Secondary schoolmusic teacher’s reflection, Workshop Day 3]

Changes in Teacher Efficacy and Teaching Confidence

Paired-sample t tests and ANOVA were used to compare participants’ responses tothe questionnaires administered at the three phases (before the workshop, imme-diately after the workshop, and 4 months after the workshop) to find out if therewere increased levels of teacher efficacy and teaching confidence.

Teacher Efficacy

Paired-sample t tests between the first (N = 40) and second phases (N = 40)revealed statistically significant positive differences in nine variables between thefirst and the second phases. When the paired-sample t tests were administeredbetween the first (N = 40) and the third phases (N = 36) of participants’ responses,seven of the variables continue to yield statistically significant positive difference,suggesting a sustained change in teachers’ self-efficacy. The results are summarisedin Table 6.1.

We have previously established that there are two factors from the teacherefficacy questionnaire—Self-efficacy and Outcome Expectancy. The overallexperiment was tested with ANOVA as the assumptions for the Self-efficacy andOutcome Expectancy scales were met. The results showed that there was a statis-tically significant effect of the workshop on participants’ self-efficacy ratings,F (2, 113) = 18.48, p = 0.00, r = 0.50, although there was no statistically signifi-cant difference in the outcome expectancy scale. This indicated that the workshophad a positive impact on participants’ conviction that he or she could teach thedifferent music traditions under a variety of circumstances, but had no significantimpact on participants’ anticipation of the consequences, such as students’achievement in music or parents’ positive feedback.

Teaching Confidence

In terms of teaching confidence, results from paired-sample t tests between the firsttwo phases indicated a statistically significant positive difference in all 20 items.When paired-sample t tests were administered between the first and the third phases

86 6 Professional Learning Experiences from Participants’ Perspective

of participants’ responses, all the items above, except for the facilitation of students’composing processes, continued to yield statistically significant positive differ-ences, suggesting a sustained change in teachers’ confidence. The results aresummarised in Table 6.2.

Overall, results revealed a statistically significant positive difference between thepre- and post-workshop overall teaching confidence ratings: (a) immediate effectafter the workshop, t (39) = 8.91, p = 0.00; and (b) 4 months after the workshop,t (35) = 7.67, p = 0.00.

Teachers’ open-ended responses also support these findings, suggesting that theyare confident of their abilities to effect change, hence providing evidence of theirself-efficacy. For example:

I am more confident now to teach Indian music to my pupils and to share the lesson ideaswith my colleagues. Many things that I once thought as too complicated for Primary schoolpupils are actually possible now. The key as a music educator is to use suitable pedagogiesand resources to make Indian music easily understood and learnt by our pupils. Todayalready has put my mind into motion a number of things I may do: a local song book,lesson package, sharing sessions with colleagues, and maybe! activity booklet for thepupils. [Primary school music teacher, Workshop Day 3]

I am also better able to explain to the school leaders, the approaches I use during musicteaching and how I deliver the learning objectives to the pupils. I am better able to explainthe importance and significance of music teaching. [Primary school music teacher,4 months after the workshop]

Table 6.1 Comparison in teacher efficacy in the three phases

Variables Between first andsecond phases

Between firstand third phases

Know the steps necessary for teaching local musictraditions effectively

t (39) = 9.52,p = 0.00

t (35) = 8.20,p = 0.00

Monitor students’ creative work in local musictraditions

t (39) = 2.91,p = 0.01

t (35) = 3.01,p = 0.01

Students’ doing well in music is likely due toeffective music teaching

t (39) = 2.02,p = 0.05

Understand local music traditions well enough toteach them in General Music lessons

t (39) = 8.60,p = 0.00

t (35) = 7.26,p = 0.00

Parents’ comments of child showing more interest inlocal music traditions at school is probably due to theperformance of the child’s music teacher

t (39) = 2.91,p = 0.01

t (35) = 2.45,p = 0.01

Explain to students how the music works in localmusic traditions

t (39) = 4.22,p = 0.00

t (35) = 5.07,p = 0.00

Have the necessary skills to teach local musictraditions

t (39) = 6.03,p = 0.00

t (35) = 4.14,p = 0.00

Invite Reporting Officer to evaluate the teacher’steaching of local music traditions

t (39) = 2.06,p = 0.05

t (35) = 3.11,p = 0.01

Interest students in local music tradition t (39) = 6.11,p = 0.00

*Only statistically significant figures are reported

Results and Findings 87

Table 6.2 Comparison in teaching confidence in the three phases

Variables Between first andsecond phases

Between firstand third phases

Demonstration for students the singing ofSingaporean songs

t (39) = 2.40,p = 0.02

t (35) = 2.33,p = 0.03

Demonstration for students some Malay rhythms t (39) = 8.79,p = 0.00

t (35) = 7.36,p = 0.00

Demonstration for students at least one Indian tala t (39) = 7.65,p = 0.00

t (35) = 6.18,p = 0.00

Demonstration for students the singing of at leastone Indian raga

t (39) = 7.92,p = 0.00

t (35) = 7.31,p = 0.00

Explain the structure of dikir barat to students t (39) = 9.80,p = 0.00

t (35) = 7.81,p = 0.00

Facilitate students’ learning of Malay rhythms t (39) = 8.75,p = 0.00

t (35) = 5.98,p = 0.00

Facilitate students’ learning of Indian tala t (39) = 7.34,p = 0.00

t (35) = 5.15,p = 0.00

Facilitate students’ learning of Indian raga t (39) = 8.41,p = 0.00

t (35) = 6.81,p = 0.00

Facilitate students’ singing of Singapore songs t (39) = 2.58,p = 0.01

t (35) = 2.05,p = 0.05

Facilitate students’ singing of Xinyao songs t (39) = 3.32,p = 0.00

t (35) = 2.35,p = 0.03

Facilitate students’ performance of the dikir barat t (39) = 8.32,p = 0.00

t (35) = 4.66,p = 0.00

Facilitate students’ learning of at least one of theworks of a local composer

t (39) = 3.58,p = 0.00

t (35) = 3.55,p = 0.00

Facilitate students’ composing processes t (39) = 2.11,p = 0.04

Facilitate discussion on the Indian Orchestra inSingapore

t (39) = 7.82,p = 0.00

t (35) = 6.52,p = 0.00

Facilitate discussion on the contexts of the coreMalay rhythms

t (39) = 8.88,p = 0.00

t (35) = 7.89,p = 0.00

Facilitate discussion on the context in which theNational Anthem was developed

t (39) = 3.85,p = 0.00

t (35) = 3.80,p = 0.00

Facilitate discussion on the contexts in whichXinyao was developed

t (39) = 3.89,p = 0.00

t (35) = 4.26,p = 0.00

Facilitate discussion on the contexts in whichcomposition develops for local composers

t (39) = 5.19,p = 0.00

t (35) = 5.39,p = 0.00

Discuss issues relating to identity when teachinglocal music traditions

t (38) = 4.49,p = 0.00

t (34) = 4.21,p = 0.00

Facilitate critical thinking when teaching localmusic traditions

t (39) = 6.33,p = 0.00

t (35) = 5.31,p = 0.00

*Only statistically significant figures are reported

88 6 Professional Learning Experiences from Participants’ Perspective

The results above illustrate that the workshop had not only impacted teacher’sself-efficacy and teaching confidence, the impact was also mostly sustained for atleast 4 months when the last measurement was taken.

Positive Interactions of Pedagogy, Perspective, and Practice

Correlation tests indicated that self-efficacy (and not outcome expectancy) is pos-itively correlated with perceived ability of teachers to demonstrate musical ideas(r = 0.70, p < 0.001), facilitate various music-making activities in these musictraditions (r = 0.71, p < 0.001), and facilitate discussions in these music traditions(r = 0.71, p < 0.001), as well as overall confidence to demonstrate musical ideas orteach these music traditions (r = 0.74, p < 0.001). In fact, these five variables werehighly correlated with one another. The correlation matrix is presented in Table 6.3.

The high correlations between self-efficacy and perceived abilities inmusic-making, facilitation of music-making, and discussions suggest that devel-oping teachers’ music practice along with enhancing their skills in facilitating musicpractice and teaching, and broadening their perspectives and skills to handle dis-cussion, may interact positively with their perceived abilities in music teaching.

Post-Workshop Learning and Application

Immediately after the workshop, participants were asked what they saw as theirstrengths and weaknesses in the teaching of local music traditions. 15 of the writtenresponses exuberated positivism such as being inspired, having more confidenceand readiness to try, and “cannot wait to experience and try it out with my class”.One participant wrote:

I used to think that teaching local music traditions is difficult because I was not very surehow to go about doing it. I have a clearer understanding of the elements and the teachingapproaches in the teaching of local music traditions. [Secondary school music teacher]

Six of the responses were more tentative, recognising that they did not knowenough, but there was still a sense of self-efficacy and knowing what they needed todo to teach these music traditions. Three examples below reflect the sentiments ofthis group:

I feel more confident in crafting introductory lessons for such topics now and givingstudents a taste of these local traditions. However, I still largely feel like an outsider whohas learnt some basics and it will take more learning and immersion to feel more com-fortable in these traditions. [Primary school music teacher]

I have a deeper understanding of our local music and its intrinsic relation with ourculture and history. With exposure to the different music, I am more equipped to teachmusic from the different ethnic groups of Singapore in my music lesson and to ultimately

Results and Findings 89

Tab

le6.3

Correlatio

nmatrix

Outcome

expectancy

[Practice]

Dem

onstrate

musical

ideas

[Pedagog

y]Facilitate

music-m

aking

[Perspectiv

e]Facilitatediscussion

Overall

confi

dence

Self-efficacy

Pearson

correlation

0.17

50.69

8**

0.71

1**

0.71

2**

0.74

1**

Sig.

(2-tailed)

0.06

00.00

00.00

00.00

00.00

0

N11

611

611

611

611

6

Outcome

expectancy

Pearson’s

correlation

0.17

00.14

20.14

10.15

2

Sig.

(2-tailed)

0.06

80.12

90.13

20.10

4

N11

611

611

611

6

Dem

onstrate

musical

ideas

Pearson’s

correlation

0.90

8**

0.80

0**

0.92

6**

Sig.

(2-tailed)

0.00

00.00

00.00

0

N11

611

611

6

Facilitate

music-m

aking

Pearson’s

correlation

0.87

5**

0.97

1**

Sig.

(2-tailed)

0.00

00.00

0

N11

611

6

Facilitate

discussion

Pearson’s

correlation

0.95

0**

Sig.

(2-tailed)

0.00

0

N11

6

Note

1.“D

emon

strate

musical

ideas”

includ

esdemon

stratin

gthesing

ingof

Sing

aporesong

s,Malay

rhythm

s,at

leaston

eIndian

tala,andon

eIndian

raga

2.“Facilitate

music-m

aking”

includ

esfacilitatingthelearning

ofMalay

rhythm

s,Indian

tala,Indian

raga,sing

ingof

Sing

aporesong

sandXinyao,

stud

ent

compo

sitio

nprocesses,andperformingof

dikirba

rat

3.“Facilitate

discussion

”includ

efacilitatingdiscussion

son

Indian

Orchestra,contexts

ofcore

Malay

rhythm

s,contexts

ofNationalAnthem,contexts

ofXinyao,

contextsof

localcompo

sers,anddiscussing

issues

relatin

gto

identity

90 6 Professional Learning Experiences from Participants’ Perspective

facilitate performances of these music. I need more time to perfect my Malay rhythms andto be more familiar with the Indian tala and raga. [Primary school music teacher]

More in-depth studies are needed to not just understand, but be a part of the rich historyof local music traditions. Indeed, this local genre is still evolving and we want the nextgeneration to keep the passion of local music alive. [Secondary school music teacher]

17 out of 40 participants, in their responses, wrote about teaching these musictraditions such as “facilitating their discussion on the questions about our identity ofSingapore music”, having “many teaching ideas in my head”, “apply variouspedagogical ideas”, “teaching it in a student-centric manner”, “encourage experi-ential learning”, and “applying the Experience-Concept-Application framework”.14 participants briefly mentioned their learning in the content areas such as having“a deeper understanding of our local music”, and only four on the music practicesuch as needing to work on rhythms.

About 4 months after the workshop, the teachers were asked further questions:

• Which part(s) of the resources they had used or intended to use?• Whether they intended to engage students in critical discussions of the theme of

identity through their music lessons and how they would go about doing this• Whether they had changed their pedagogy and practice to include more

student-centric activities and the Experience-Concept-Application (ECA, anapproach which was introduced by the STAR team) and to share their students’responses and successes in the classroom.

This time, teachers’ responses were much richer. All teachers indicated that theyhad used or were intending to use the resources. The most popular resources wereMalay rhythms, followed by National Anthem and Singapore Songs, and then byIndian orchestra. The most used resources were the Malay rhythms with 13 teachersconfirming their use. Six teachers confirmed they used the resources on NationalAnthem and Singapore songs. Five teachers confirmed the use of Indian musicresources. The other responses were less clear whether they had started to use theresources or were intending to use these resources.

On the teaching of local music traditions, 28 out of 36 (78 %) who respondedshowed evidence of having taught at least one of these traditions in theiropen-ended responses to the survey. Out of these, 18 showed evidence of teachingMalay rhythms, followed by seven who taught the National Anthem and Singaporesongs, followed by five each for Indian music and local composers.

All except one (97 %) described that they had facilitated or would be facilitatingdiscussions on these musics in their lessons. One teacher wrote:

Because there are no definite answers to Singapore music, allowing students to put forththeir ideas and views would help them to form their own understanding and beliefs of thetheme. It also discourages frontal teaching and promotes critical thinking in students.[Secondary school music teacher]

The teacher who was not keen to facilitate discussion indicated her priority infacilitating music-making and cited the lack of time for discussion. 10 of therespondents were more inclined to facilitate discussions only for students in the

Results and Findings 91

upper levels. But at least one participant was able to discuss these issues withdifferent levels of students:

I have tried to discuss the same issue of identity (‘whether the Singapore Anthem should bechanged according to the times’) with both a P5 and P2 class just to see the direction inwhich the different levels of maturity will lead us to. It both started with learning the lyricsof the National Anthem and the attitudes we should have when singing the song. Then,using the ‘horse-shoe method’, pupils were encouraged to voice their opinions according towhere they stood. With the P2’s their explanations were more simplistic - mostly textbookanswers. With the P5’s, they were able to get more in-depth into the music they hear, anduse it to substantiate their explanations. [Primary school music teacher]

In the discussion of pedagogy, 15 (42 %) indicated that they now paid moreattention to introducing the music experience first, of which eight articulated theECA approach, an approach introduced by the team. 11 wrote about experientiallearning, such as attention to hands-on activity and music-making. Five articulatedusing critical thinking strategies. One participant, a music teacher for the primarylevel, wrote that, “It has influenced my practice outside of the living legendsproject”. Another felt more empowered:

I am also better able to explain to the school leaders, the approaches I use during musicteaching and how I deliver the learning objectives to the pupils. I am better able to explainthe importance and significance of music teaching. [Primary school music teacher]

There were descriptions of student-centric practices, for example:

I’ve realised that even for classes of the same level, I will have to tweak my lessons tomatch their interest. For example, I had intended to teach my P3’s the Masri rhythm. Whilethe activities to introduce the Masri Rhythms remain largely the same, some classes preferto dance as an extension of their learning. Some pupils prefer to play with instruments as anextension. So, I did have to learn to tweak my lessons on the spot, depending on what mypupils are more inclined towards. [Primary school music teacher]

Opportunities have been given for the students to make decisions on their music cre-ation in a student centric lesson. They also have the opportunity to lead others inmusic-making. [Primary school music teacher]

Being a part of the workshop has allowed me to open up my view of teaching,specifically to reduce the use of a top down approach, and to adopt a more horizontal twoway communication perspective. I believe that with this as my basis of teaching philoso-phy, it will develop activities and teaching materials that are not only student centric, peerfriendly, and also allows every student who experiences the process feel like they own theknowledge. [Secondary school music teacher]

In terms of student responses, 23 teachers (64 %) described their students’engagement and interest in the topics. Of these, 3 observed that their students wereasking more questions:

The pupils are interested in the lessons being taught and will even ask me questions outsidecurriculum hours. [Primary school music teacher]

Students have expressed their interest to learn beyond what was taught in the classroom,as evident in their questions and interest level. Many have also expressed that they wouldlike to take Music in [sic] Upper Secondary. [Secondary school music teacher]

92 6 Professional Learning Experiences from Participants’ Perspective

The ECA approach has been effective, I have applied it in other topics in my Music lessons.The ECA approach has proven to be successful in terms of engaging and captivatingstudents’ interest in music. Through the experience, it enhances a student’s strong sense ofefficacy and therefore intrinsically motivated. This spurs them on to challenge themselveswith more complex tasks during music lessons. [Secondary school music teacher]

Some teachers expressed surprise at their students’ responses:

We had a good discussion on the Singapore National Anthem and pupils gave me theirperspectives on whether the National Anthem should be changed. Pupils gave me per-spectives that we adults never thought of. [Primary school music teacher]

Students were surprisingly receptive to the Malay rhythms, willing to explore, performand improvise. [Primary school music teacher]

I have gotten students to discuss about defining what Singapore music is to them andwas surprised to know that some students were able to identify what is Singapore music isto them. One of them pointed out to me the $1 tissue auntie. [Secondary school musicteacher]

Teachers also quoted their students:

What a cool way to sing traditional songs! I need to practice on [sic] my rhythms so that Ican get to play the kompang too. [cited by a Primary school music teacher]

We created music as a class and it was very fun! [cited by a Secondary school musicteacher]

Six teachers described their students’ improvement in music learning, with onestating:

The approaches have improved students’ understanding of the musical concepts and helpedsustain their memory of the concept. [Secondary school music teacher]

Only three teachers reported certain challenges, namely getting students toappreciate why they were learning music of other races, managing large class sizes,and difficulty in engaging students in singing the raga. However, two of thesedemonstrated optimism and a sense of teacher agency in dealing with the chal-lenges. One teacher highlighted:

I find difficulty in engagement and prolonging students’ interests when it comes to certaintopics such as singing Indian Ragas, or to learn how to sing a local song. We must still finda link between the old (our roots) and the new (recent trends) to bring about studentengagement, which is still a challenge. [Secondary school music teacher]

The qualitative responses provided a more nuanced view of the actual imple-mentation of these lessons in teachers’ respective classrooms. It was encouragingthat many teachers put into practice what they had learned at the workshop withshifts towards greater student-centric practices and demonstrated teacher efficacyand confidence in conducting lessons on local music traditions.

Results and Findings 93

Conclusion

In summary, the following observations could be made about the professionallearning experiences of the participants.

First, participants’ shift of thinking and types of reflection in the course of theworkshop were shaped and influenced by the cumulative processes and content ofthe workshop. Their shifting perspectives and critical reflections were also shapedby the interactions of pedagogy and practice at the workshop. The institution ofdaily reflective processes in the course of the workshop helped make participants’thinking visible and explicit, and the iterative process of self-talk with constantreflection about one’s pedagogy, facilitated by the provision of these criticalthinking moments, possibly contributed to the development of one’s self-efficacyand confidence in teaching.

Second, anecdotal qualitative reflections indicated the role of music practice inenhancing teachers’ confidence in teaching. The quantitative results illustrated thatself-efficacy is highly correlated with perceived abilities in music-making, facili-tation of music-making and discussions. This suggests that developing teachers’music practice along with enhancing their skills in facilitating music practice andteaching, and broadening their perspectives and skills to handle discussion, mayenhance teachers’ perceived abilities in music teaching.

Third, the workshop had made a positive change in teacher efficacy and teachingconfidence and these had been observed even 4 months after the workshop. 78% ofteachers showed evidence of teaching at least one of the music traditions throughtheir qualitative responses, with 97 % were able to facilitate discussions, 42 %suggested experiential learning and student-centric approaches, and at least 64 %reported students’ engagement and interest in the topics. Only 8 % reported chal-lenges but largely maintained optimism about teaching these music traditions. Thiscould be attributed to teachers’ continued application of the knowledge and skillsacquired at the workshop, which was able to enhance or at least maintain teacherefficacy and their teaching confidence.

94 6 Professional Learning Experiences from Participants’ Perspective

Chapter 7Conclusion

The main purpose of this book was to articulate a narrative about the developmentand delivery of Teaching Living Legends, from which experiences and insightscould be drawn for the professional development of music teachers, specifically inteaching music traditions that they were less familiar with. The first chapteraddressed the complexities in terms of considerations about the interactions amongidentity, ethnomusicology in music education, adult learning, 21st CenturyCompetencies, partnerships, and the community in professional development. Thesecond chapter gave an account of the approach and processes in the planning of theTeaching Living Legends programme, which flowed into the third chapter’s dis-cussion of the dilemmas and considerations that arose in the course of the pro-gramme. The fourth and fifth chapters traced the actual delivery of the workshopand participants’ responses at the workshop, and illustrated specific processes in theworkshop that enhanced teachers’ knowledge on the teaching of music traditions.The sixth chapter presented the quantitative and qualitative findings of the partic-ipants’ responses, addressing how the professional development curriculum whichintegrated “pedagogy”, “practice”, and “perspective” increased teachers’self-efficacy and confidence in teaching the music traditions in their General MusicClassrooms. It is the purpose of this final chapter to summarise the key insightsfrom Teaching Living Legends and to suggest directions in which professionaldevelopment of music teachers could be explored in the future.

Pedagogy, Practice, and Perspective

The 3Ps (pedagogy, practice, and perspective) professional development frameworkhas guided the teacher educators at STAR in the design of professional learningprogrammes, as seen in the Teaching Living Legends programme. The five-dayworkshop was guided by a combination of activities that allowed music teachers tobe actively engaged in the musical practices of the local music traditions, to

© The Author(s) 2016C.-H. Lum and S.L. Chua, Teaching Living Legends,SpringerBriefs in Education, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1482-6_7

95

experience various pedagogical approaches with which the music traditions couldbe brought into the General Music Classroom, and to have critical dialogues aboutissues of identity/music identity through the perspective building activities. As seenin the findings in Chap. 6, it was suggested that the interactions between pedagogy,practice, and perspective in music teachers’ professional learning could positivelyimpact the development of their self-efficacy and confidence to teach music tradi-tions initially unfamiliar to them.

Practice

The workshop programme, which incorporated direct experiences withmusic-making to develop the musical understandings of the varied music practicesand traditions, was found to be useful in developing teaching efficacy and confi-dence, as reflected in the findings detailed in Chap. 6. These music-makingactivities experienced by participants at the workshop had given them some ideasand insights into how they could similarly facilitate such activities in their GeneralMusic lessons. In this respect, being involved in the music practice is a process ofknowledge creation, engendering “embodied understanding” (Alba & Sandberg,2006), and appreciating music as discourse (Swanwick, 2011), articulated in Chaps.1 and 2.

The experiences from the Teaching Living Legends programme also revealedthat an understanding of the musical practices in the separate music traditions couldinform and shape pedagogical thinking on how these music traditions could betaught. For example, the pop musician’s sharing of his musical experiences in theworkshop as detailed in Chap. 3 was a useful launch pad for discussions, whichtriggered a re-thinking about classroom music teaching in compositional and cre-ative processes.

Pedagogy

Pedagogically, the workshop revealed several strategies used by the STAR team inengaging music teachers with the local music traditions. These primarily includedideas that are linked to the following: (i) encouraging the development of criticaland creative thinking, and collaboration and communication; (ii) the use of tech-nology; and (iii) world music pedagogy.

The various pedagogical approaches used are reiterated here:

(i) Demonstration and playing of repertoire of the music traditions by thefacilitators and participants, and making suggestions for instrumental sub-stitutions to be used within the music classroom if the real instruments arenot readily available;

96 7 Conclusion

(ii) Tapping on students’ prior knowledge and using an eclectic mix of peda-gogical approaches to help students experience and understand music con-cepts that are not necessarily in line with the traditional transmission modesof the musical genre. This would include strategies such as providing visualnotation or group creative activities to explore concepts learnt;

(iii) Approaching the teaching of living music traditions with strategies focussingon the creative, giving voice, and empowering students;

(iv) Using music terms appropriate to the music tradition in question andencouraging participants to continue using them;

(v) Getting at the musical nuances of the local traditions;(vi) Encouraging participants to persist in practising and learning more about the

music practices of the living music traditions, particularly those that seemmore complicated and difficult to master like Indian music;

(vii) Using technology through the resource kit to supplement the teaching ofliving music traditions;

(viii) Establishing a safe environment for creative music-making within the frameof the living music traditions, while also encouraging cross-cultural andfusion work;

(ix) Making aware changing practices of the living music traditions, particularlywith the influx of globalisation and technology; and

(x) Showing participants the feasibility of applying these pedagogies in theGeneral Music Classroom through video and audio examples within theresource kit and the micro-teaching exercise.

In Teaching Living Legends, participants were also presented with the idea of theextent to which pedagogical practices in the classroom should be authentic totraditional transmission practices. As already set out in Chap. 1, the debate onauthenticity could possibly have no resolution. Teachers had to consider theirstudent profile and student motivation, and to adapt and contextualise musicalmaterial for classroom needs, at the same time considering how insiders in theculture would have transmitted these materials. Teachers also had to considerresourcing, such as how modern technology could be harnessed to enhance theirmusic lessons, and to cater for the needs of a large class size of students.Encouraging participants to dialogue on these issues had helped develop theircriticality and pedagogical thought.

Perspective

As seen in the articulation of the “seven wonders of studying the world of music”,as described in Chap. 1, it was the intent of teacher educators at STAR to integratethe ethnomusicological perspectives in professional learning. The perspectivebuilding activities also leveraged on various visible thinking routines to enable theparticipants to engage in numerous critical dialogues about identity and musical

Pedagogy, Practice, and Perspective 97

understanding within the context of living music traditions. In this way, theseactivities at the workshop become examples of how they could be used in theGeneral Music Classroom to develop students’ perspectives and open their mindsabout the world of music.

Music teachers engaged in discussions about the following: (i) the significanceand uniqueness of music content ranging from pop to Euro-American classicalinfluences, and the fusion of Chinese, Malay, and Indian traditional musical ele-ments found within the context of Singapore; (ii) whether there is a need to changemusic traditions according to the changing times; (iii) the unique features of tra-ditional Chinese, Malay, and Indian music that exists in Singapore; (iv) the lyricalcontent of songs that are indicative of the life of Singaporeans; (v) Singaporecomposers’ perspectives about Singapore music that indicates no fixed style, but isdependent on the influences of the environment ranging from architecture tolandscape, to the economic efficiency and to energy of its people and the multi-cultural space, and an emergent outside-looking-in perspective defining particularlyrical and musical nuances that could be uniquely Singaporean; and (vi) the dif-ficulties in defining Singapore music because of the youth of the nation and themultiple influences from the region coupled with changing global migratory andtechnological flows.

It is significant to note that the professional development programme on livingmusic traditions also considered the evolving contexts of musical cultures,emphasising to music teachers the changing nature of the musical practices of eachmusic tradition and providing music teachers with the opportunities to experiencethe possibilities of shaping and hybridising the music traditions through some of thecreative group work in the workshop.

Critically, the perspective building activities allowed for deeper reflection aboutissues of identity linked with the local, global, and glocal in the context of musictraditions that exist within the Singapore soundscape. Brought into the GeneralMusic Classroom, these ideas will benefit students in their critical thinking towardsthe fluidity of identity and culture, giving them a richer sense of understanding ofmusic traditions beyond simple musical skills and concepts.

Engagement with the Community

Understanding the terrain of living music traditions in Singapore required the helpof a team of experts. As seen in Chaps. 1 to 3, the project involved a largercommunity besides teacher educators—curriculum planners, music teachers, per-sonnel from ministries and organisations, and arts practitioners—to put togetherresources and a shared curriculum for professional learning. The entire project wasa co-constructive process with the community and engendered a sense of passionand ownership for all involved. Partnering with practitioners in the field and otherstakeholders also contributed to the authenticity and accuracy of representation indeveloping the resources.

98 7 Conclusion

Vital to the partnership or collaborative process is also the building of trust andrespect, particularly between the teacher educators at STAR and the artsgroups/practitioners, which was subsequently validated through the practitioners’presence at the workshop and sharing of their musical experiences with the musicteachers. In addition to this, the fact that the resource kit, consisting of numerousvideo clips of interviews with practitioners speaking about their music traditionsand performances of repertoire in the music traditions, was “approved” for use byall the local practitioners in the music classroom and attests the trust and respect theSTAR team had gained with the practitioners. From Chap. 1, we saw how prac-titioners’ involvement could range from “presenting artist” to “interacting artist”, to“collaborating artist”, and to “master instructional artist” in arts partnership settings(Gradel, 2001). In some ways, the Teaching Living Legends programme managedto successfully explore various partnerships in that continuum, from the STAR teaminvolving artists only in the recordings of their performances for inclusion in theresources to working closely with artists in shaping the workshop’s professionaldevelopment curriculum in the relevant areas. Perhaps one might consider an artsteacher educator continuum that puts the teacher educator at the core, describing therange of functions that the teacher educator can provide for artists, teachers, andstudents as well.

This book also acknowledges that partnering stakeholders might be challenging.Chap. 3 discussed the tensions in including culture bearers in the teaching andlearning process. Although culture bearers are able to offer an insider perspective ofthe music tradition under study, these practitioners may not always be familiar withclassroom pedagogy or accept pedagogical interventions that might be lessauthentic compared to the traditional modes of transmission. Besides, the culturebearers might present essentialised versions of the culture or promote particularperspectives that might not present a balanced view of the music tradition inquestion. Taking cognisance of these issues, music teachers could take on the roleof a mediator, and at the same time grow their own musical exposure and under-standings in the process of negotiation and the co-conduct of the lesson(s), and beready to improvise in the lesson(s) as they draw on the deep expertise of thepractitioner(s).

Taking a step beyond the artists’ partnership descriptions, the STAR team feltthat in collectively (teacher educators, curriculum planners, music teachers, per-sonnel from ministries and organisations, and arts practitioners) working throughthe issues of content and the balancing out of pedagogy in designing TeachingLiving Legends, the eventual consensus based on the moderation of various viewpoints proved useful as a necessary step in curriculum and lesson planning. Byextension, music teachers in Singapore who typically work in isolation in theirlesson and curriculum design could reap benefits from getting together as a team todiscuss curriculum and lesson design within a structured framework like a work-shop, thereby having opportunities to co-plan lessons, and having the space andtime to critically reflect on content and pedagogical balances.

Engagement with the Community 99

Implications for Music Educators in the 21st Century

Teaching about living music traditions in a multi-ethnic space is laced with com-plex decisions about the choice of musical practices and pedagogical approaches tobe used in the music classroom, and perspective building with regard to music andidentity. Similarly, music teacher educators are confronted with dilemmas of theprofessional development modes, constraints of time, and issues that influenceteacher beliefs and perceptions of self-efficacy. The teaching of living music tra-ditions, and the pedagogy to support teacher development in this area, will thereforerequire a critical conversation to rationalise and negotiate priorities, and an openmind towards different perspectives, practices, and pedagogical interventions.

This study has revealed how the interactions between pedagogy, practice, andperspective have been able to enrich teachers’ experiences at the workshop andmake for a powerful professional learning that has improved participants’ teacherefficacy and confidence. We have found how the interactions of these 3Ps can createnew knowledge and experiences for teaching. On the one hand, the teacher edu-cators modelled the use of various teaching approaches and strategies (i.e., peda-gogy) in the workshop to develop competencies in music-making in different musictraditions (i.e., the practice). On the other hand, we also saw how an examination ofmusical practices in these various traditions, with an ethnomusicological perspec-tive, could inform pedagogical thinking and inspire a re-thinking of teachingpractices. The interactions between pedagogy, practice, and perspective for pro-fessional learning have been shown to be a useful framework for the professionaldevelopment of music educators and deserve further investigation with the differentprofessional development programmes.

In education, just as we recognise that “it takes a village to raise a child” (anAfrican proverb), adult learning and professional development can benefit fromleveraging the involvement of a community, as seen in the Teaching LivingLegends experience. Perspectives on the social dimensions of learning, such as thenotion of a community of practice, give emphasis on the relationship betweenlearning and identity formation. It would be beneficial to do a further study on howteachers and teacher educators alike can shape their pedagogical thinking, practice,and perspectives, through partnerships and working with the community. Therecould also be more practitioner studies on the different models and partnershipswhen working with culture bearers or artists and musicians in the community tobring greater value to teaching–learning processes.

Finally, we ought to recognise that the professional development is beyond skillsdevelopment, and attention should be given to the nurturing of a professionalidentity. One of the incidental outcomes of the Teaching Living Legends pro-gramme was the growing of an emerging musical identity and a germination of anational awareness since many participants, for the first time, seemed to have founda certain connection with music that had existed in their lived experiences inSingapore. As music teachers in Singapore are generally Western-classically-trained, a workshop that provided a way into understand aspects of the musical

100 7 Conclusion

heritage in Singapore rekindled, in many participants, a desire to understand one’sroots, one’s identity. Hence, the Teaching Living Legends experience was able totug at participants’ heartstrings and connect with participants, beyond the cognitivelevel, to the affective and emotional level. How teacher educators can design theprofessional development programmes that touch participants—physically, intel-lectually, and emotionally—and nurture their professional identity would be aworthwhile pursuit in future studies.

Implications for Music Educators in the 21st Century 101

Chapter 8Epilogue

Lessons in Teacher Development in Singapore

Graham F. WelchProfessor & Chair of Music Education, UCL Institute of Education, London

One of the perennial challenges for teachers in schools is how to make sense of anddraw on a wider variety of music traditions, especially (but not only) where theseare represented in the home or non-school cultures of the pupils. Music teachers areoften ill prepared to lead such learning because of biases in their own musicalbiographies. Although all cultures embrace the practice of many different musics,we know from research evidence that teachers are often likely to have limitedprofessional or personal experience of diverse genres and music practices outsidethe Western classical tradition (cf. Hargreaves & Welch, 2003; Welch Purves,Hargreaves, & Marshall, 2010; Welch, 2012).

Consequently, this is a very useful and topical text not least because it is basedon the authors’ extensive and successful experience of seeking ways to address sucha professional need. The contents draw on a research project hosted by theSingapore Teachers’ Academy for the aRts (STAR) that was linked to the devel-opment and enactment of a professional development programme designed toenhance teachers’ understanding of different music traditions in Singapore.

Although the narrative is infused with the expert Singaporean experience of theauthors, the text has a much wider usefulness for an international audience becausethis is a global issue in music teacher development. If contemporary music teachersare to be effective, they need to develop a conscious, effective, and ethnomusico-logically rich knowledge base. The proposition is not based solely on a need tocelebrate the diversity of musics that exist within any one culture, nor primarily togive voice within the school music repertoire to the musics of under-representedgroups (although this is laudable and ethically appropriate), but essentially to ensurethat our music education practices are grounded in a diverse range of musics that,

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collectively, will promote a deeper understanding of the nature of music and of howit works. Such an approach will also be more likely to provide children and youngpeople with the appropriate musical tools and vocabulary that they need to fashiontheir own musical products, while—at the same time—extending and deepeningtheir knowledge of music in the surrounding world.

Nevertheless, the authors do well to remind us that our music heritage is not (andshould not be seen as) confined to a specific dominant music genre, but is broadlybased. Such heritage is also embodied in living music practices and not just limitedto a “museum” of musical artefacts. Providing appropriate access to wider musictraditions allows younger generations to explore, make sense of, and transform theirheritage, to make it their own and ensure that it is more likely to continue. Themoral and ethical basis of such a broad-based repertoire approach should alsoreduce the likelihood of young people feeling marginalised or isolated by theirmusic experiences in school. Yet for these benefits to accrue, it is essential that ourmusic teachers gain and exhibit mastery over music material that they are able touse sensitively and differentially in the classroom with their pupils.

There is no point in neuro- and social scientists providing us with empiricalevidence of the ways in which sustained music experience can bring aboutlong-lasting and positive changes in brain structure (e.g. Putkinen , Tervaniemi,Saarikivi, & Huotilainen, 2015), while having wider benefits on other aspects ofdevelopment (such as on children’s vocabulary, reading, numeracy, attentional andemotional regulation, and prosocial skills—Slater et al., 2014; Williams, Barrett,Welch, Abad, & Broughton, 2015) if we allow social, economic background andbiography (and biases in cultural identity) to create barriers to musical access by ourchoice of music repertoire.

Therefore, the Singaporean project experience provides us internationally withclear pointers of how to support music teacher development in order to promote anincreased likelihood of pedagogical effectiveness. Participant teachers were pro-vided with workshop-based sustained professional development that allowed themto explore and reflect on their values, competencies, and knowledge. They werealso encouraged to feel part of a learning community, with shared goals andchallenges. This provided them with space to learn from each other, as well as fromexperts, while engaging more deeply and critically with relatively unfamiliar musicgenres and practices. The evidence of improved self-efficacy and teaching confi-dence demonstrates how an intensive workshop programme can bring about sig-nificant changes in self-perception and provide the basis for a more expansive andcritically aware pedagogy.

The book is a wonderful combination of theory, empirical evidence, and criticalreflection, with an extensive referencing to a wider research literature as well asextensive craft knowledge. It is informative and thought-provoking and should beread by all of us concerned with music education, whether policy makers, practi-tioners, or researchers. It is not often that we have the opportunity to gain such anextensive insight into teachers’ professional development.

104 8 Epilogue

Music, Pedagogy, and the Shaping of Identities

Tong Soon LeeProfessor & Music Department Head, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

At an international conference in Seoul in October 2000, our small group of del-egates were hosted to a welcome dinner, where each of us was asked to sing a songrepresenting our country. I panicked, not because I had to sing in front of others, butbecause I could not think of a song that represents Singapore. Would it be one ofour school assembly songs—“Munneru Valiba”, “Pack Up Your Troubles”,“Geylang Sipaku Geylang”? Songs from our National Day celebrations such as,“We are Singapore” or “Stand up for Singapore”? Our National Anthem? I have avague recollection of a Japanese delegate happily singing a Japanese folk song, YuSiu-Wah from Hong Kong confidently singing a Cantonese opera excerpt, and allof us sang “Arirang” at some point that evening.

My turn finally came. “Singapore is a very young nation”, and I stood up andmuttered something along these lines, “we are still in the process of finding oursong”. Bonnie Wade, who was seated close by, chuckled and said something to theeffect of, “I like that, Tong Soon…still searching….” Ten years later, at theInternational Gugak Workshop in Seoul in October 2010, I was slightly betterprepared. At the farewell dinner, I led my fellow delegates in a call-and-responserendition of “Chan Mali Chan”.

I have replayed these two scenes countless times in my head. Music in Singaporeis not the crux—music of Singapore is.

Teaching Living Legends tackles the question of “What is Singapore?” head-on,using music and music pedagogy as its frame of reference. With the objective ofenhancing teachers’ familiarity with local music, its efficacy lies precisely indefamiliarising it in two ways: (1) the teaching and learning of relatively unfamiliarmusic using recognised pedagogical approaches and (2) reversing the teacher–student roles and perspectives for the workshop participants.

The professional development programme on which this book is based engagescutting-edge perspectives in music education to conceptualise, implement, andevaluate teaching and learning. Led by music practitioners from the respectivecultural communities, the symbiotic relationship between school music teachers andcultural “insiders” not only builds upon the synergies of town-and-gown collabo-rations, but creates shared discourses on music—any kind of music—based oncommon knowledge denominators (Wade, 2004; Campbell, 2004). It is in suchshared discourses that the unfamiliar is demystified and internalised through edu-cation. Along these pathways of teaching and learning of, and familiarising withmusic, lies the propensity of music to reflect and enact identities.

Framed by the ethos of practice–pedagogy–perspective, the participants’ anxi-eties, curiosities, bewilderment, and moments of realisation are all part of theliminal and transformative impact in this learning process. Indeed, to paraphrase

Music, Pedagogy, and the Shaping of Identities 105

Terry Miller’s discussion of learning patterns in Thai music and ballroom dancing(Miller, 2002), learning how to learn is itself a strategic and effective pedagogicaltool.

Learning how to learn inherently entails reflexivity. In this way, the diversemusic traditions in Singapore become a context for us to realise ourselves by way ofunderstanding the other (cf. Bohlman, 1991: 142–144). In this realm of interper-sonal and intercultural learning lies the intersection of ethnomusicology and edu-cation, where music is the catalyst for us to negate, affirm, or transcend ourselves inthe process of “becoming” Singaporean (cf. Hall, 1991).

Was I somehow more Singaporean in 2010 than I was in 2000 because I wasable to stand up and sing “Chan Mali Chan” in front of other fellow nationalities inSeoul? Does “Chan Mali Chan” represent Singapore? Perhaps the question may berephrased as, how did “Chan Mali Chan” become representative of Singapore,through me, in that particular setting? An English song was too mundane to be“authentically” Singaporean, whatever that means; singing a Chinese song was alittle awkward in front of my Chinese and Taiwanese colleagues; an Indian songwas a little beyond my comfort zone; a Malay song was sufficiently “exotic” in thatcontext. The language is fairly iconic of Southeast Asia—after all, Malay is ournational language, I thought to myself. To be sure, “Chan Mali Chan” soundsfolksy and is fun and potentially engaging to a lay audience.

Subjective and fuzzy as it may be, it is perhaps the ephemerality of music thatenables each one of us to find ourselves—even momentarily—and by extension, tounderstand one another a little more. It is at the juncture of teaching and learningmusic from the social scientific and humanistic frameworks that Teaching LivingLegends serves as an exemplary model in music education.

106 8 Epilogue

Appendix

Questionnaire Items

Participants are to indicate their response to each statement based on a 5-pointLikert-type agree/disagree scale:

1. Strongly disagree2. Disagree3. Neither agree nor disagree4. Agree5. Strongly agree

A. Teacher Efficacy

1. When a student does better than usual in understanding local music traditions, itis often because the teacher exerted a little extra effort.

2. I am continually looking for better ways to teach local music traditions.3. Even when I try very hard, I do not teach local music traditions as well as I

teach other music genres.4. When students improve in their music, it is often due to their teacher using a

more effective teaching approach.5. I know the steps necessary to teach local music traditions effectively.6. I am not very effective in monitoring students’ creative work in local music

traditions.7. If students are not doing well in music, it is likely due to ineffective music

teaching.8. I usually teach local music traditions ineffectively.9. The lack of a student's music background can be overcome by good teaching.

10. The low music achievement of some students cannot be attributed to theirmusic teachers.

11. When a child progresses in music, it is usually due to extra attention given bythe music teacher.

12. I understand local music traditions well enough to be teaching them in GeneralMusic lessons.

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107

13. Increased effort in music teaching produces little or no change in some stu-dents’ music learning.

14. The music teacher is responsible for students’ learning in local music traditions.15. Students’ learning in local music traditions is directly related to their teacher’s

effectiveness in teaching local music traditions.16. If parents comment that their child is showing more interest in local music

traditions at school, it is probably due to the performance of the child's musicteacher.

17. I find it difficult to explain to students how the music works in local musictraditions.

18. I am usually able to answer students’ questions on local music traditions.19. I wonder if I have the necessary skills to teach local music traditions.20. Effectiveness in the teaching of local music traditions has little influence on the

achievement of students with low motivation.21. Given a choice, I would not invite my RO to evaluate my teaching of local

music traditions.22. When a student has difficulty understanding a concept in local music traditions,

I am usually at a loss as to how to help the student understand it better.23. When teaching local music traditions, I usually welcome student questions.24. I do not know what to do to interest students in local music traditions.25. Even teachers with good music teaching abilities cannot help some students

learn music.

B. Teaching Confidence

I am confident in my ability to:

1. Demonstrate for students the singing of Singaporean songs.2. Demonstrate for students some Malay rhythms.3. Demonstrate for students at least one Indian tala.4. Demonstrate for students the singing of at least one Indian raga.5. Explain the structure of dikir barat to students.6. Facilitate students’ learning of Malay rhythms.7. Facilitate students’ learning of Indian tala.8. Facilitate students’ learning of Indian raga.9. Facilitate students' singing of Singapore songs.

10. Facilitate students’ singing of xinyao songs.11. Facilitate students’ performance of the dikir barat.12. Facilitate students’ learning of at least one of the works of a local composer.13. Facilitate students’ composing processes.14. Facilitate discussion on the Indian orchestra in Singapore.15. Facilitate discussion on the contexts of the core Malay rhythms.16. Facilitate discussion on the context in which the national anthem was

developed.17. Facilitate discussion on the contexts in which xinyao developed.

108 Appendix

18. Facilitate discussion on the contexts in which composition develops for localcomposers.

19. Discuss issues relating to identity when teaching local music traditions.20. Facilitate critical thinking when teaching local music traditions.

C. Other Open-ended Questions

Phase 1: Pre-Workshop Survey

• Why are you interested in attending this milestone programme on the teachingof local music traditions?

• What are your strengths and weaknesses in the teaching of local musictraditions?

Phase 2: Post-Workshop Survey

• What do you see as your strengths and weaknesses in the teaching of localmusic traditions after the workshop?

• Any other remarks:

Phase 3: The Final Survey

• Which part(s) of the resource have you used and intend to use?• In the workshop, issues of identity were discussed. Do you intend to engage

students in critical discussions of this theme through your music lessons? Why,or why not? If so, how do you think you will go about doing this?

• Through the workshop, ideas of (a) student centricity and (b) ECA(experience-concept-application) were used. How have you changed yourpedagogy and practice to include more student-centric activities and the ECAapproach?

• Please share some of your students’ responses and successes in the classroom.• Any other sharing.

Appendix 109

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