title: Facilitating Elemental Composition in an Orff Classroom

authors: Stewart, Celia Ann

subjects: Orff Schulwerk

abstract: This study sought to gain an understanding of how the programming and pedagogical decisions of an Orff teacher impact on the success of a group of children in composing in an elemental style. Orff-Schulwerk is a child-centred approach to music education, which uses songs, dances, rhymes, clapping games, poetry and stories from the child’s world as the basis of music and movement activities. Carl Orff, originator of the approach, called this music and movement activity “elemental” – basic, unsophisticated, concerned with the fundamental building blocks of music and movement. 

This self-study project focused on two questions: 1. What pedagogical decision-making facilitated student achievement of the music programme learning objectives? 2. What activity design factors facilitated student achievement of the music programme learning objectives? To answer these questions, a programme of work was planned and implemented with a group of sixteen Year 5 and 6 students. The students worked sequentially with a range of Orff processes and media before embarking on their own compositions. Data were collected through four methods: a personal reflective journal, video recordings of two sessions, the observations of two critical friends and a focus group made up of five students, randomly selected from the participants who were interviewed at the mid- and end-point of the programme. An inductive, thematic approach was used to analyse the data. Themes emerging from an analysis of journal reflections were compared and contrasted with themes emerging from an analysis of critical friend observations and focus group interviews.

This study found that the most successful pedagogical strategies that facilitated successful outcomes for this group of students were: creating a safe and supportive environment; facilitation of collaborative learning; encouraging and empowering the children to make connections to, and draw on, their previous learning; facilitating opportunities for in-depth reflection by the peer group and the students themselves; providing constructive feedback and feed-forward; the provision of sufficient time and opportunity; the use of humour; teacher modelling: ensuring the aims and expectations are clear and managing classroom behaviour.

In investigating the general nature of activities, this study found that the most successful were those that: explored Orff media and utilised Orff pedagogy; energised and focussed the participants; involved the children in practical music making where they were using their whole bodies to sing, move and play; were scaffolded and allowed children to enter at a level that was comfortable for them; had clear links to both the short and long-term goals; and made links to children’s lives and experiences. The specific activities that the students found most successful were those that explored the pentatonic scale and provided opportunities for improvisation and the playing activities, with both body and untuned percussion. 

The study was limited to a small group of children in a high-decile school that was well resourced. All students except one had a strong musical background with some instrumental skills. Results may have been different with a cohort of students from a lower decile school, who may not have had the musical background that this group had.

text: Facilitating Elemental Composition in an Orff Classroom This study sought to gain an understanding of how the programming and pedagogical decisions of an Orff teacher impact on the success of a group of children in composing in an elemental style. Orff-Schulwerk is a child-centred approach to music education, which uses songs, dances, rhymes, clapping games, poetry and stories from the child’s world as the basis of music and movement activities. Carl Orff, originator of the approach, called this music and movement activity “elemental” – basic, unsophisticated, concerned with the fundamental building blocks of music and movement. 

This self-study project focused on two questions: 1. What pedagogical decision-making facilitated student achievement of the music programme learning objectives? 2. What activity design factors facilitated student achievement of the music programme learning objectives? To answer these questions, a programme of work was planned and implemented with a group of sixteen Year 5 and 6 students. The students worked sequentially with a range of Orff processes and media before embarking on their own compositions. Data were collected through four methods: a personal reflective journal, video recordings of two sessions, the observations of two critical friends and a focus group made up of five students, randomly selected from the participants who were interviewed at the mid- and end-point of the programme. An inductive, thematic approach was used to analyse the data. Themes emerging from an analysis of journal reflections were compared and contrasted with themes emerging from an analysis of critical friend observations and focus group interviews.

This study found that the most successful pedagogical strategies that facilitated successful outcomes for this group of students were: creating a safe and supportive environment; facilitation of collaborative learning; encouraging and empowering the children to make connections to, and draw on, their previous learning; facilitating opportunities for in-depth reflection by the peer group and the students themselves; providing constructive feedback and feed-forward; the provision of sufficient time and opportunity; the use of humour; teacher modelling: ensuring the aims and expectations are clear and managing classroom behaviour.

In investigating the general nature of activities, this study found that the most successful were those that: explored Orff media and utilised Orff pedagogy; energised and focussed the participants; involved the children in practical music making where they were using their whole bodies to sing, move and play; were scaffolded and allowed children to enter at a level that was comfortable for them; had clear links to both the short and long-term goals; and made links to children’s lives and experiences. The specific activities that the students found most successful were those that explored the pentatonic scale and provided opportunities for improvisation and the playing activities, with both body and untuned percussion. 

The study was limited to a small group of children in a high-decile school that was well resourced. All students except one had a strong musical background with some instrumental skills. Results may have been different with a cohort of students from a lower decile school, who may not have had the musical background that this group had.

year: 2013

title: Libation and sacrifice in the Samoan ‘ava ceremony

authors: Refiti, Albert L.

subjects: Samoan ‘ava ceremony

abstract: This presentation is an analysis of Samoan oral stories connected to the ‘ava ceremony. These foundational stories have an important connection to the role blood sacrifice played in pre ‘ava and post ‘ava Samoa. Dr Refiti argues that the ‘ava ceremony replaced the actual killing of people in religious ceremonies that were required in former times to make sacred important communal spaces. This he shows relates to libation as an offering to the memories of the dead by spilling ‘ava on the ground as a sacrificial prayer or aso that mark and re-memorialise the past in honouring the bones of the dead and sacrificed victim.
‘Ava foundational stories also provide us with clues that the ‘ava plant was brought to Samoa by brothers from Fiti (Fiji) and later the ‘ava ceremony as we know it today was brought to Samoa by the Tagaloa clan which included the aumaga (kava chewers), the tauaga strainer and the use of the taupou (village maiden) as the stand-in for the old priest to distribute the ‘ava. The roles of the aumaga and taupou mirror that of the sacrificer and sacrificial victim.
Sacrifice and the ‘ava ceremony, Dr Refiti I contends, was required to mark, command and bring the passage of time and space to a stop so that people and roles can be redistributed allowing the community to grow and extend (tupu). The main role of sacrifice, as Valeri states, is “the transformation of the community from a lesser state which is indexed by disorder and pollution to a higher more complete state associated with order and purity” (Valeri, V. (1985). Kingship and Sacrifice: Ritual and society in ancient Hawaii (P. Wissing, Trans.). Chicago, ILL: University of Chicago Press).

text: Libation and sacrifice in the Samoan ‘ava ceremony This presentation is an analysis of Samoan oral stories connected to the ‘ava ceremony. These foundational stories have an important connection to the role blood sacrifice played in pre ‘ava and post ‘ava Samoa. Dr Refiti argues that the ‘ava ceremony replaced the actual killing of people in religious ceremonies that were required in former times to make sacred important communal spaces. This he shows relates to libation as an offering to the memories of the dead by spilling ‘ava on the ground as a sacrificial prayer or aso that mark and re-memorialise the past in honouring the bones of the dead and sacrificed victim.
‘Ava foundational stories also provide us with clues that the ‘ava plant was brought to Samoa by brothers from Fiti (Fiji) and later the ‘ava ceremony as we know it today was brought to Samoa by the Tagaloa clan which included the aumaga (kava chewers), the tauaga strainer and the use of the taupou (village maiden) as the stand-in for the old priest to distribute the ‘ava. The roles of the aumaga and taupou mirror that of the sacrificer and sacrificial victim.
Sacrifice and the ‘ava ceremony, Dr Refiti I contends, was required to mark, command and bring the passage of time and space to a stop so that people and roles can be redistributed allowing the community to grow and extend (tupu). The main role of sacrifice, as Valeri states, is “the transformation of the community from a lesser state which is indexed by disorder and pollution to a higher more complete state associated with order and purity” (Valeri, V. (1985). Kingship and Sacrifice: Ritual and society in ancient Hawaii (P. Wissing, Trans.). Chicago, ILL: University of Chicago Press).

year: 2017

title: Rangatahi and complex entanglements of sexuality, sexuality education and secondary school: A material-discursive exploration

authors: Chalmers, Jade

subjects: Rangatahi,sexuality,sexuality education,New materialisms,feminist poststructuralist,matter,discourse,ethico-onto-epistemology,secondary school,colonisation,diffraction,posthuman,postqualitative,entanglements,becoming,indigenous theorising

abstract: This research is an exploration with rangatahi (young Māori), of complex materially-discursive webs of sexuality education, sexuality, and secondary school education in Aotearoa. These research areas have commonly produced unfavourable outcomes, which include disparity statistics and other findings that position Māori as ‘cultural’ or ‘in need’ (Cooper, 2012; Green, 2011; Le Grice, 2014). To produce something different, in this work I engaged with concepts from the theoretical fields of Māori Indigenous Theories, Feminist Poststructuralisms, and New Feminist Materialisms to develop a framework for exploration.  Nine rangatahi participated in small hui (meetings) and individual interviews, focused on the areas of sexuality education, other sexuality topics, and experiences of secondary schooling. Transcripts from these meetings became part of the ‘data’. The approach to the analysis, termed Moving Through Entanglements, was informed by the whakaaro method (Mika & Southey, 2018) and diffractive approaches (Barad, 2007; Davies, 2014a, 2014b). The analysis explored a number of entanglements, using transcripts, theories, concepts, matter, experiences, colonisation, sensations, utterances and beyond (Davies, 2014c; Jackson & Mazzei, 2011). I did not attempt to produce ‘evidence’ or propose findings or truths about the ‘situation’ for rangatahi; instead I considered these well-worn research areas in different ways, honing in on ‘hot spots’ in entanglements (Taylor, 2013).
At the heart of this research are the lives of rangatahi. This research listened to and privileged their experiences in the materially-discursive webs of sexuality education, sexuality and secondary education, with the aim of contributing to further positive transformation in these areas (Allen, 2015b). The analysis suggested that confronting ‘gaps’ in what rangatahi learn in sexuality education and what they experience beyond the classroom remained. The contrast between the mundane topics or the “same old shit” (in the words of one participant) taught in sexuality education, which rangatahi recalled, and the complexities of two important and complex hot spots (Tayor, 2013) – ‘tap and gap’ and ‘relationship goals’ – demonstrated this gap. A need remains for sexuality education to be more connected with young people’s lives (Allen, 2001, 2005a, 2005b; Young, 2002). Other issues that became important included hickeys, hair and skin, the school stage, big bodies and health, boys’ breasts, and clothing. A material-discursive exploration of these topics was central to the analysis; this research has demonstrated their under-acknowledged importance in the daily existence of rangatahi, which should continue to be explored. Colonisation remained a lingering presence (Le Grice, 2018), and instances rangatahi shared highlighted not only this, but also their critical awareness of its functioning.
An innovative approach is the posthuman methodology experimented with in this research. As outlined above, this research was guided by a theoretical framework built with ideas borrowed from three philosophical fields. I applied a method of analysis that attempted to move beyond normative modes of qualitative analysis, unsettling dominant anthropocentric ways of doing research.  Taking this position, among other things, meant that the entanglements I worked through were materially-discursive. Thus, this research posits that non-human or more-than-human participants are active in the daily becomings of rangatahi, and their influence in shaping daily experiences for rangatahi and should not be overlooked in future research (Bennett, 2010). The ethical crises of the present mean that an ethical imperative to do things differently in every facet of our existence is needed now more than ever (St. Pierre, Mazzei & Jackson, 2016). Perhaps a change in the way research is conducted is one key approach to a fruitful and sustainable future for humans and non-humans alike.

text: Rangatahi and complex entanglements of sexuality, sexuality education and secondary school: A material-discursive exploration This research is an exploration with rangatahi (young Māori), of complex materially-discursive webs of sexuality education, sexuality, and secondary school education in Aotearoa. These research areas have commonly produced unfavourable outcomes, which include disparity statistics and other findings that position Māori as ‘cultural’ or ‘in need’ (Cooper, 2012; Green, 2011; Le Grice, 2014). To produce something different, in this work I engaged with concepts from the theoretical fields of Māori Indigenous Theories, Feminist Poststructuralisms, and New Feminist Materialisms to develop a framework for exploration.  Nine rangatahi participated in small hui (meetings) and individual interviews, focused on the areas of sexuality education, other sexuality topics, and experiences of secondary schooling. Transcripts from these meetings became part of the ‘data’. The approach to the analysis, termed Moving Through Entanglements, was informed by the whakaaro method (Mika & Southey, 2018) and diffractive approaches (Barad, 2007; Davies, 2014a, 2014b). The analysis explored a number of entanglements, using transcripts, theories, concepts, matter, experiences, colonisation, sensations, utterances and beyond (Davies, 2014c; Jackson & Mazzei, 2011). I did not attempt to produce ‘evidence’ or propose findings or truths about the ‘situation’ for rangatahi; instead I considered these well-worn research areas in different ways, honing in on ‘hot spots’ in entanglements (Taylor, 2013).
At the heart of this research are the lives of rangatahi. This research listened to and privileged their experiences in the materially-discursive webs of sexuality education, sexuality and secondary education, with the aim of contributing to further positive transformation in these areas (Allen, 2015b). The analysis suggested that confronting ‘gaps’ in what rangatahi learn in sexuality education and what they experience beyond the classroom remained. The contrast between the mundane topics or the “same old shit” (in the words of one participant) taught in sexuality education, which rangatahi recalled, and the complexities of two important and complex hot spots (Tayor, 2013) – ‘tap and gap’ and ‘relationship goals’ – demonstrated this gap. A need remains for sexuality education to be more connected with young people’s lives (Allen, 2001, 2005a, 2005b; Young, 2002). Other issues that became important included hickeys, hair and skin, the school stage, big bodies and health, boys’ breasts, and clothing. A material-discursive exploration of these topics was central to the analysis; this research has demonstrated their under-acknowledged importance in the daily existence of rangatahi, which should continue to be explored. Colonisation remained a lingering presence (Le Grice, 2018), and instances rangatahi shared highlighted not only this, but also their critical awareness of its functioning.
An innovative approach is the posthuman methodology experimented with in this research. As outlined above, this research was guided by a theoretical framework built with ideas borrowed from three philosophical fields. I applied a method of analysis that attempted to move beyond normative modes of qualitative analysis, unsettling dominant anthropocentric ways of doing research.  Taking this position, among other things, meant that the entanglements I worked through were materially-discursive. Thus, this research posits that non-human or more-than-human participants are active in the daily becomings of rangatahi, and their influence in shaping daily experiences for rangatahi and should not be overlooked in future research (Bennett, 2010). The ethical crises of the present mean that an ethical imperative to do things differently in every facet of our existence is needed now more than ever (St. Pierre, Mazzei & Jackson, 2016). Perhaps a change in the way research is conducted is one key approach to a fruitful and sustainable future for humans and non-humans alike.

year: 2019