| dc.description.abstract | Music education in contemporary Kenya has faced significant challenges owing to a complex interaction of socio-historical, cultural, economic and political influences facing the country especially following British colonial rule in the 20th Century. One particular challenge is the marginalisation of music education through the undermining of the value and role of music in education, which is further perpetuated by a decolonising agenda that lacks convincing impact. This marginalisation has raised concerns for music practitioners and educators because the discourse and strategies for the validation of the place of music in the Kenyan educational system have failed to change policy and practice, leading to the denial of access to a music education for all.
This unsatisfactory situation is what prompted an investigation into the underlying theoretical and philosophical underpinnings for the importance of music and music making, especially in this context. Given the important part music plays in most Kenyan Indigenous Communities (KIC), this thesis questions why KIC engage in music as they do and why it affirms and validates the humanity of those who participate in it. The thesis therefore argues that music and music making is an educational space where all who participate can transform and be transformed for their participation in life. It makes this argument by exploring the nexus between three main disciplines relevant to the given context: African philosophy, music and education. This deliberate positioning of the discussion aims to critically examine the decolonial agenda in this context by providing an alternative philosophical framework, Utu, that emanates from KIC ways of being. Specifically, three main principles are critically discussed, those of relationality, connectivity and maturity, in relation to music and education to frame the foundations upon which music and music making is an educational space.
The exploration teases out the etymology, epistemology and ontology of Utu that grounds music and music making as an aesthetic of life. It also provides an alternative framing for the nature and purposes of education, arguing that educational transformation is a process of maturity that involves being and becoming through doing where one is. It further proposes a foundation for new musical expression to create new musical spaces for new ways of being. Put differently, through the eyes of Utu, all have the potential for relationship and connection to participate in life. Thus,
2
through being (potential) and doing (action) transformational connections are enacted and this affirms our humanity.
This means that Utu is a relevant philosophical and theoretical framework for interrogating ways of being in the contemporary Kenyan context with implications for alternative approaches to knowledge production, creative possibilities in music educational practice and future investigations into new methodologies for future research. This is important to current thinking in music education because the framework affirms the human right to a musical education based on the human right to participate in life and therefore the right to transform and be transformed in and through music and music making. | en_GB |
