Playground Music Pedagogy Of Ghanaian Children

Abstract

This article discusses the pedagogical approaches and values that are applied to music knowledge acquisition in the Ghanaian indigenous communities with special reference to the performance of children's singing games on the playground. Music education in the Ghanaian community is largely participatory and informal so that children perform their clapping and dancing games by watching and `doing'. The process of music training and performance in the Ghanaian context including children's playground music is a key feature of this article. I conducted an ethnographic study to explore how children acquire music knowledge in indigenous contexts and what this could offer formal music education. I also investigated the disparity between playground music pedagogy and classroom pedagogy in Ghanaian schools and offered recommendations to classroom teachers particularly in music. The research questions were: What pedagogical approaches and values are embedded in Ghanaian children's playground performances? How can music educators transform school music by borrowing creatively from children's playground processes?