Las normas morales

As indicated in Chapter 1, Section 1.6.1, the research data for this investigation was carried out at a high school situated on the periphery of a town in a semi-urban region in the Western Cape province of South Africa. This school is located in a previously disadvantaged area, and learners at the school live in mostly poverty-stricken environments. The djembe drumming sessions were conducted in the music classroom of the school, which is located in a quieter and more secluded part of the school. The decision to conduct the sessions in this classroom was taken in order not to disrupt the other classes in the school, since the drumming sessions took place during school time as part of the learners’ arts and culture learning area.

A Grade 9 class was approached, the research project was explained, and learners from the class were invited to volunteer to participate. The process of the group drumming circle was presented to them, and 14 learners volunteered to take part in the research project.

The research data was gathered at the school, using observations by recording the sessions on a video camera, focus group interviews, and diary entries of participants. Confidentiality was ensured throughout the process – the video recordings were transcribed by the researcher and only the supervisor was privy to the transcriptions and the diaries entries of the particpants. The biographical information of the participants, as well as the data collection techniques used, are provided below in Table 4.2.

Eight djembe drumming sessions were presented over two weeks for a time period of one hour each. The initial planning of the research investigation stipulated that the research would be carried out over a period of eight weeks, during a one-hour session each week. This planning had to be adjusted owing to practical considerations. However, the intensity of the experiences were heightened with the increased frequency of the sessions. The

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headmaster informed the researcher that the school was to close two weeks before the September school holiday, which meant a rescheduling of drumming sessions was required. A shift of the originally planned weekly sessions over eight weeks to a slot after the school holiday would however also be problematic for the school. These alterations forced the researcher to conduct the eight sessions in a two-week period. The sessions included djembe drum playing, and various movement and team activities (Addendum J). The sessions, as presented to the participants, are briefly described in Section 4.1.2.

Table 4.1: Biographical details of participants

Research partici- pant code

Gender Age Ethnicity Home language Data collection techniques

Observations Focusgroup interview 1

Focusgroup interview 2

Diaries

P1 Female 15 Coloured Afrikaans √ √ √ √

P2 Female 14 Coloured Afrikaans √ √ √ √

P3 Female 14 Coloured Afrikaans √ √ √ √

P4 Male 14 Coloured Afrikaans √ √ √ √

P5 Female 15 Coloured Afrikaans √ √ √ √

P6 Female 14 Coloured Afrikaans √ √ √ √

P7 Male 14 Coloured Afrikaans √ √ √ √

P8 Male 15 Coloured Afrikaans √ √ √ √

P9 Female 15 Xhosa Xhosa √ √ √ √

P10 Female 14 Coloured Afrikaans √ √ √ √

P11 Male 16 Coloured Afrikaans √ √ √ √

P12 Male 16 Xhosa Xhosa √ √ √ √

P13 Female 15 Coloured Afrikaans √ √ √ √

64 4.1.2 Drumming sessions

Eight drumming sessions were presented to the participants. The sessions each had various sections, of which all started with the same introduction, and ended with the same conclusion. The researcher facilitated the introduction comprising a drumming sequence which represented the group escaping to an imaginary village, where the drum session took place. The ‘escape’ was facilitated through playing on the djembe drums, in varying tempos, and volume. The conclusion was facilitated in such a way as to represent the participants returning to the school, again through djembe drumming, similar to the introduction. The activities in each session varied. Examples of activities in these sessions included creating a thunderstorm, free rumbling on the djembe drums, creating a web of positivity, playing participants’ names on the djembe drums, and creating a composition by combining all participants’ names. Activities progressively became more complicated towards session eight, as more complicated drumming techniques were introduced throughout the sessions. The findings which will now be presented are fully discussed later in Chapter 5. These findings are interpreted according to the research questions and in light of Bronferbrenner and Bandura’s theories, as summarised in Chapter 2. The presentation of the findings below include excerpts from all of the various forms of data as evidence for the respective categories and themes. For the sake of convenience, a key is used in order to indicate where the data comes from. This key is displayed in Table 4.2 below.

Table 4.2: Key for data collection method

Key Source of data

Obs

ses 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8

Observations Sessions 1–8

Dia Diary entries

Ref Researcher’s reflective notes

Session 1–8

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The analysis of the data yielded the following categories with various themes constituting the three different categories. The themes that emerged were categorised as Participants’ experiences with djembe drumming that may have an impact on learning; Participants’ experiences in the moment and Specific experiences of participants in relation to self. The themes will now be presented and supported by extracts from the data.

Those aspects which emerged most frequently during the analysis of the researcher’s observations, participant’s comments, drumming sessions recordings, journal entries, and focus group interviews were coded accordingly. Data was recorded in participants’ first language, Afrikaans, and for the data presentation and discussion, the verbatim responses were translated into English.