Elaine Browne.pdf - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

ABSTRACT
Inherent to post‐apartheid educational transformation was the design and subsequent
implementation of a new national school curriculum. The current curriculum‐in‐use, namely
the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) comprises eight compulsory learning areas. One of
these learning areas, Arts and Culture, aims to equip learners with skills and knowledge with
regard to four distinct arts disciplines, namely music, dance, drama and visual art. In the
General Education and Training Band (GET) phase, general classroom teachers are expected
to implement this highly specialised learning area. This research aimed to determine how
teachers employed at Nelson Mandela Bay primary schools were disadvantaged during the
apartheid era, experience the implementation of arts education. Focus group interviews
were conducted at schools situated in the low socio‐economic areas. The results revealed
that, despite their profound awareness of the unique advantages of arts education for the
learners, several impediments hampered the successful attainment of its value. The
obstacles highlighted by the teachers were the curriculum itself, teaching and learning
environments that are not conducive for arts education, and unsatisfactory involvement of
the Department of Education.
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