CW-School of Visual and Performing Arts

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Building an anti-racist academy: Plotting a Pathway for Youth (the Next Generation of Academic)
(University of South Africa, 2013-07) Gitonga, P. N.; Notshulwana, Velile; Mugabe, Tanaka; Jama, Ngewalisa; Asisipho Petelo; Kudakwashe Muchene
South African academy is perhaps the most colonized space. It is a site for production and reproduction of a variety of discourses which keep in place certain colonial and apartheid structures which have as their intent the maintenance of Eurocentric hegemonies at the level of thinking, teaching and learning, research and the production, dissemination of knowledge and therefore dominate the larger material world. Implication of changes in the global scale to the universities of South Africa South African universities are under pressure to confront the complex transformation, currently taking place in the economic, political, scientific and social climate in the 21st Century, The university‘s response to the external challenges represented by knowledge-driven , global economy is increasingly contested in its quest to balance better the economic purpose of higher education with its cultural, moral and intellectual purposes. The apartheid legacy Which saw higher education in South Africa skewed in ways designed to entrench the power and privilege of the few. Higher education institutions established in the 20th Century were incorporated into a system which was subsequently shaped, enlarged and fragmented with a view to serving goals and strategies of successive apartheid governments.. It was in this context that the new higher education policies of South Africa’s first, and second democratic government sought to reshape the system into one that met the goals of equity, democratization, responsiveness and efficiency. The post 1994 saw unprecedented changes in South African higher education. The first two years were dominated by the massive, participatory drive towards policy formulations to address the issues of racism and equity that culminated in a report from the National Commission on Higher Education in 1996
Exploring Hip Hop Music through the Participatory Research Approach
(Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2013) Gitonga, P. N.; Delport, A.; Noluthando, T.
This paper discusses the use of hip hop as an important method for research in social and human sciences which aims to conscientise and transform the lives of female late adolescents. The paper was informed by research that utilised participatory research approaches, namely drawings and lyric inquiry, as a means to elicit stories of female late adolescents who identified strongly with hip hop music in South Africa. Hip hop music constituted an integral component of the research process, as it was used to stimulate the generation of data. The findings illustrate that the use of hip hop music in a research process facilitated empowerment and liberation of the participants. It was found that hip hop music has inherent attributes that provided the participants with spaces within which they could reflect on and articulate the continual, interactional and situational dimensions of their lives
Gender Education Liberation Agenda: An Art-Based Participatory Approach
(Mount Kenya University Annual research and Innovation conference, 2013) Gitonga, P. N.
Research in the social and human sciences requires methods and approaches that seek not only to interpret the social reality and experiences of the participants, but also to generate their empowerment. By so-doing, research moves from the confines of a research process to transforming societies and initiating development in communities. Although vision 2030 provides for political, economic and social pillars, this paper sought to demonstrate fundamental interventions possible in the social pillar through education and community development. Although several approaches and frameworks have been developed in the methods in participatory frameworks, this paper focused on an art-based approach that developed new frontiers in methodology that develop not only education but awareness critical to transforming utilization of individual and group local knowledge for socio-economic development. The art-based participatory approaches to research and engagement of communities for socio-economic development lie at the heart of the much needed development and transformation of communities in Kenya. From the findings of a doctoral research study that investigated the contribution of hip hop music to the construction of personal identity of late female adolescents through the utilisation of participatory visual methodologies, this paper reflected on the research process through the testimonies of the participations with regard to their empowerment and liberation during the process. The paper demonstrates the significance of an art based participatory research approach to conscientising and driving actions and agenda aimed at developing communities. This is done through enhancement of participation, development and utilization of local knowledge and facilitation of a conscientisation process towards identification of community-self strengths and weaknesses. By so doing, the process opens up critical spaces through which the participants can determine solutions to critical challenges and development of strategies aimed at advancing as well as mitigation of issues and challenges in community development education.
Reflections on an era: freedom songs and liberation movements in Africa: a case study of Kenya and South Africa
(The East Africa at 50 Conference, 2013) Gitonga, P. N.; Notshulwana, Velile
This paper argues for an interdisciplinary educational approach, towards an understanding of the African Liberation struggle and the recognition of the liberation songs as important historical documents. In order to allow these songs to be fully understood a link had to be found to move musicology towards an accommodation with cultural history. The work thus drew on the theory of Shepherd and Wicke (1997), which allowed for an analysis using both musicology and cultural history. The theory was especially suited to this presentation as it also allows for insights into the processes of affect and meaning as they operate in wider cultural-historical contexts, which can be gained through an examination of the music of a particular historical period. Since the beginning of resistance against Colonialism liberation songs by African liberation movements were used as a strategy to accelerate change in African societies. In order to understand the music of the African liberation struggle there has to be a departure in methodology, theory and content from the narrow paradigms of history. History has to take into account these songs as they reveal a spectrum of communal perceptions and responses to the unfolding events that faced Africans, for example, Miriam Makeba who, in relation to the South African Context, explains that “In our struggle, songs are not simply entertainment for us. They are the way we communicate. The press, radio and TV are all censored by the Government. We cannot believe what they say. So we make up songs to tell us about events. Let something happen and the next day a song will be written about it” (Makeba, 1988, record sleeve). This paper argues that the liberation struggle is more fully understood if the songs of the time are taken into account. It emphasises the importance of establishing links between cultural history and musicology, showing how each discipline can inform and enrich the other.
Strengthening Teacher Practice through Visual Methodologies
(ISME World Conference, 2014) Gitonga, P. N.; Wambugu, Duncan
Research reveals intricate and complex interaction between teacher identity and teachers’ practice, professional development, attitudes towards educational change, epistemological access by learners, learners’ outcomes, teachers’ receptivity to change, among others (Beijaard, Meijer, & Verloop, 2004; Smith & Fritz, 2008). It is an interpretive lens that illuminates into how teachers engage with curriculum, make judgments and ultimately act out teaching activities (Bullough, 1997; Knowles, 1992). Other studies on teacher identity have, among other aspects, focused on the relationship between teacher and social conditions, self-understanding aspect, and conceptions of professionalism. This proposed workshop is premised on the assumption that teacher identity has a direct implication on the teacher practice and the epistemological access of learners to the taught content and hence the learners’ outcomes in music education. This is grounded on Bourdiu’s theory of identity as an embodied practice. According to Bourdieu, there exists a system of durable, transposable dispositions, which predisposes individuals to act, to think, and to behave in particular ways. We therefore argue that a music educators’ sense of competence in their professional identity is intricately interwoven with the habitus in their profession as well as the status and other dispositions that are related to self and which constitutes their sense of teacher identity. Therefore, the purpose of the workshop is to create a forum in which music teachers at all levels could disrupt the status quo of his/her context, which informs his/her teacher identity and practice to enhance the status of music education. The workshop aims to expose the educators to selected participatory visual methodologies namely drawings and participatory videos to stimulate self-reflection through which the educator could explore her sense of identity
Trends in research and documentation of music in the 21st century: the Kenyan situation
(PASMAE East African Regional Conference, 2014) Gitonga, P. N.; Katuli, J.
Scholarship encompasses notions of research, publication, teaching and learning as well as the dissemination and application of findings. The proposed paper focuses on the research arm of scholarship in music. Research is an important tool for social development. It involves documenting innovations by the past generations and gives direction to the current generations to add its own. The paper seeks to evaluate and describe the status of music research in Kenya since the year 2000. Through an interrogation of the overall objectives, research approaches, the finding s and recommendation of existing postgraduate research in music, the paper aims to identify the achievement of music research in dealing with social issues and in attaining the overall ideals of research endeavors. The overall objective of this research is to offer useful recommendation to various stakeholders and consumers of music research and to offer insights to useful research in music scholarship, inform the research bodies and institutions involved in research of research gaps and their expected contribution to the overall scholarship and well as inform policy makers. Through a qualitative discourse analysis of sources, the study will interrogate the topics and abstracts masters and doctoral thesis of submitted for examinations and approved for graduation since the year 2000. Purposive sampling will be used to include public universities in Kenya that offer music at the master’s and doctoral levels

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