Browsing by Author "Isabirye, James"

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Can indigenous music learning processes inform contemporary schooling
(International Journal of Music Education, 2021-02-24) Isabirye, James
This autoethnographic study investigated possibility of incorporating indigenous pedagogies into Ugandan school music and, possibly, general education. School music education in Uganda currently occurs within a colonial-influenced system that does not connect with learners’ indigenous cultures. The colonial system fosters belief that “western” is modernity and “indigenous” is backwardness that should be erased. School music learning is currently experienced in a teacher-dominated, “banking” (Freire, 1970) school system that disempowers learners and produces graduates who cannot address the musical needs of their worlds. Ugandan government measures to improve music and general education have not improved the situation. Literature on the role that indigenous pedagogies could play in a contemporary music education is limited. Through this study, I sought to understand what might happen when indigenous education pedagogies are incorporated in a contemporary, formal school setting. Informed by relevant literature, I interrogated and analyzed my own learning and teaching experiences in Ugandan communities and schools and found that embedding indigenous learning and teaching processes in music classrooms fostered growth in learner leadership, ownership, agency, and identity in the context of mutually shared participatory experiences that learners found relevant and meaningful—experiences that engendered joyful, passionate, collaborative learning, and reification of reflective practice among learners.
Community musicking and musical cognition among adungu music communities of the Acholi people from Awach, Gulu district, Northern Uganda
(Research Studies in Music Education, 2024-07-31) Isabirye, James
This ethnographic inquiry investigated the nature of musical cognition that engagements in the Ugandan Acholi people’s adungu music culture engender, what can be understood about musical cognition in nonwesternized oral community music-making experiences, and how this might inform school music education theory and practice. Schooling in Uganda mostly upholds colonial epistemes that separate cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains, and position the arts and culture at the periphery of school experiences. Through a thematic analysis of data from interviews, focus group discussions, and observations of Anyim Lac troupe music community engagements, this study found that sociomusical experiences engender musical cognition where the musical spirit, mind, body, and environment interactions birth musical understanding. Musical cognition was understood as a holistic process of reflecting, creating, recreating, and acting emotionally where these musical spirit, mind, body, and environment interactions are shaped by culture. Since humans perceive, perform, and learn music as the embodiment of the interaction between musical spirit, mind, body, and environment, educators might need to create contexts where learners engage in learning experiences in ways that embed awareness of the intertwined nature of musical spirit, mind, body, and environment in those meaning-making processes.
Indigenous music learning in contemporary contexts: nurturing learner identity, agency, and passion
(Research Studies in Music Education., 2021-02-20) Isabirye, James
I studied the revival project that involved teaching and (re)learning of a nearly extinct music tradition of the Basoga people from Uganda, to find out what might be learnt about and from those learning processes, and insights that might be applicable in formal educational settings. The revival project activities were documented (with participants’ permission) and publicized through a large number of audio and audiovisual recordings, photographs, and reports from community and school settings. Treating this documentation as extant data, I engaged in a qualitative analysis of the social and musical interactions between and among the two surviving master musicians and the youths to understand the nature and meaning of these learning experiences. Emergent themes reflected that nurturing identity, agency, and joy-filled passion among the learners were the main contributing factors that facilitated a successful transfer of knowledge and skills from the elderly master musicians to multitudes of youths.
Namadu drum music and dance as mediation of healing rituals among the Bagwere people of Uganda
(Taylor& FrancisOnline: Journal of Music Research in Africa., 2021-03-18) Isabirye, James
This article reports on a study that investigated the namadu healing ritual of the Bagwere people of Uganda. The ritual involves drumming, singing and dancing, as well as sacrificing chicks, birds and animals towards gaining spiritual, emotional and physical healing of afflicted clan members. This music and dance mediated ritual is no longer commonly performed in African indigenous communities, and has not previously received scholarly attention. The current study sought to find out the deeper meaning of this indigenous heritage; what modern society could learn from it; and its viability in a contemporary context. Ethnographic data was obtained through observation, interviews, focus group discussions, and analysis of extant videos and photographs. The findings revealed that the namadu ritual embeds cultural identity, and increases agency in communities. Further, the music and dance have been re-invented into a royal and social entertainment, and a cultural festival for the Bagwere Cultural Union (BCU) and communities, respectively.
Participation in performing arts and student discipline management: an investigative study in selected secondary schools of Kampala district
(Kyambogo University [unpublished work], 2014-08) Isabirye, James
This work is an investigative study that was carried out in selected secondary schools in Kampala district to find out whether participation in PA could be used to manage student discipline. The objectives of the study were: to establish what school managers perceive to be the roles of PA in student discipline management, to find out students' thoughts about influence of PA activities on their discipline and to establish ways through which PA could be utilized to address student indiscipline. This was necessitated by the escalating student indiscipline in schools yet there is limited literature to guide management of student discipline. Head teachers, teachers, parents and society in general were cited to contribute towards causing the growing student indiscipline yet current measures are failing to address it. The phenomenological study design was used and data was collected using interviews, focus group discussion, observation, photography and documentary analyses. The study involved dual sampling of the schools and then respondents. Three schools were purposively selected. Other potential schools were identified using snowball and three of them selected through stratified random sampling. Respondents included head teachers, teachers, and students in six secondary schools of Kampala. The qualitative data was analyzed following Colaizzi's seven step phenomenological procedures. Findings are presented analyzed, discussed and recommendations given in line with the study objectives. It was revealed that, PA could be a motivation for students to understand the need for their being disciplined. Furthermore PA were found to affect students' academic achievement, growth and development yet they are the weakest subjects on the secondary school curriculum. The study further revealed that music can be used to address students' stress and pressure and that PA could be used to affect students' interpersonal skills. Therefore it is recommended that the secondary school PA curriculum could include issues dealing with discipline, teacher trainees be offered orientation in discipline management and all secondary schools need to include PA in their programs among other measures recommended.
''Reclaiming indigenous epistemes : entenga drums revival at Kyambogo University''. In decolonising African Higher Education
(Routledge, 2022) Isabirye, James
This chapter clarifies how Indigenous pedagogies could contribute to university music education and general education pedagogy. This is based on a project in which Musisi Mukalazi Livingstone, master musician, successfully transferred knowledge and skills of Entenga royal drum music to university students and practising musicians. Entenga royal drum music of the Buganda kingdom, in Uganda, was threatened with extinction following political instabilities in the 1960s, which ended with banning cultural institutions and their associated practices. By 2015, Musisi was the only surviving royal Entenga musician. The 6-month project enabled six Kyambogo University students and six non-university practising musicians to learn Entenga repertoire using pedagogies that involved holistic, contextual acts; scaffolding; storytelling; demonstration; collaborative problem solving; active learner participation; and real-life learning goal setting. The youths engaged intensely and joyfully in their learning and became proficient in 12 Entenga songs after 6 months. They were invited to perform at a public event and the Buganda king’s annual coronation anniversaries from 2016 to 2019. Entenga gave students an opportunity to develop their identities as revivalists. This example reinforces that Indigenous-centric music education can become meaningful for Ugandan students if they develop their knowledge through bringing their community’s cultural resources into learning contexts.
Sustainability of the Bigwala musical heritage of Busoga kingdom, in Uganda
(Kyambogo University (un published work), 2019-04) Isabirye, James
This study intended to investigate the sustainability of the bigwala musical heritage of Busoga Kingdom, in Uganda. The escalating extinction of rustic music traditions across the globe leaves bigwala heritage in a highly threatened situation. Bigwala is played to enthrone a King of Busoga, during royal funeral rituals, and in the communities. Basoga communities put in place measures to create a new generation of players by transferring knowledge and skills from the surviving elders to youths. Given the negative attitude that youths generally have towards traditions of this nature, it is doubtful that the practice of this heritage will be sustainable. A phenomenological study approach was used to investigate the viability of this heritage. The objectives of this study were: to establish the practice of bigwala Musical heritage in Bugweri and Bukholi chiefdoms in Busoga Kingdom; to find out the threats to the sustainability of bigwala Musical heritage in Bugweri and Bukholi chiefdoms in Busoga Kingdom; to suggest ways of ensuring the sustainability of bigwala Musical heritage in Busoga Kingdom. Findings revealed that bigwala was entrenched in the Kingdom practices and people generally revere their cultural institution. This entrenchment as well as the Basoga peoples’ devotion to their cultural institution, and values was found to be the main contributing factor to the practice of bigwala for many years to come. The Basoga people learn music orally and aurally and this facilitated the creation of bigwala musical communities with structures for the continuation of this heritage. It was recommended that bigwala communities should look up more opportunities for performance of this heritage to increase their economic benefits, involve school in the practice and write resources for teaching this heritage in schools in case it does not violate the traditions of the practice altogether.