Abstract
Musical and dance ensembles from Singapore schools have acquired a habit of winning awards at local and international music festivals and competitions; a track record for the last few decades. This award winning mindset could not be made possible without kindred support of and for these ensembles by school leaders and administrators in many schools. Yet little is known of the ‘workings in the kitchen’; the processes involved in nurturing these ensembles that leads them to excellence in achievement. This study will explore the successes of a primary school band through a qualitative examination of the dedication and hard work of its members and conductor, highlighting the working ingredients that are similar and different with other international settings.
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Notes
- 1.
“The Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) is an annual event organized by the Ministry of Education to celebrate the achievements of our youths in their co-curricular activities (CCAs). Starting in April and culminating in a month-long celebration in July, the SYF will engage students from schools across Singapore involved in the performing arts, sports and uniformed group CCAs” (http://www.singaporeyouthfestival.sg/).
- 2.
Student participation in music CCAs is by choice and CCAs are held outside curriculum time. Within curriculum time, music is a compulsory subject in all primary and lower secondary schools with up to 1 h per week. Music classes are guided by a national syllabus, the General Music Programme (GMP 2008).
- 3.
National Service in Singapore or conscription, requires all male Singaporean citizens who have reached the age of 18 to be enrolled into the military between 22 and 24 months.
- 4.
Students in Singapore Primary Schools typically start at age 7 and goes up to age 12, from Primary 1 to Primary 6. This particular primary school houses about 2,000 students in total.
- 5.
The data collection was done during the school’s end-of-year break (typically end of November till the beginning of January). In this instance, the band members were required to attend daily practices (9 am to 5 pm) for 2 whole weeks during this end-of-year break.
- 6.
Due to the scarcity of land, the bulk of Singaporean low- and middle-income families live in high-rise flats with rather compact living spaces and neighboring flats close to each other.
- 7.
The MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) system is the public railway transport system for Singapore that spans the entire city-state.
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This project is made possible by a generous grant from the National Institute of Education, Office of Educational Research (OER 7/10 LCH – Images of Practice in Arts Education in Singapore).
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Lum, CH., Rahman, T. (2013). Contextualizing Band Directing in a Singapore Primary School: Questioning Function and Significance. In: Lum, CH. (eds) Contextualized Practices in Arts Education. Education Innovation Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4560-55-9_14
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