Integrated Music Education in Primary School: A Position Paper

Abstract

Owing to a number of reasons, including COVID-19, the life skills subject in South African primary schools, which includes music education, has been sent backstage to make space to accommodate the ‘more important’ subjects such as literacy and numeracy. This was not advocated by the Department of Basic Education but rather a way for teachers to ensure that they cover all their important work in reduced time. An important manner to reduce time spent on teaching in silo’s, is by using arts-integrated teaching, as with integrated teaching, various topics from different subjects can be covered simultaneously, albeit in a creative manner. This position paper is important as it can provide lecturers, teachers, and curriculum planners and implementers with a framework for the planning of integrated teaching. Integrated teaching in all its variances is known, yet very few teachers implement it owing to various reasons, including insufficient training. The author provides insight into the process of designing an integrated teaching programme. This study was executed using the appreciative inquiry model as a framework and provides feasible and interesting ideas for teachers for successfully using musical arts to enhance teaching and learning.