Master of Arts

This study sought to discover the impact of angklung playing on students’ experiences in the music classroom, and surface possible implications towards multicultural music education. The study had three guiding questions: 1) What were the musical learnings in the classroom? 2) What were benefits of angklung ensemble participation in the classroom? 3) How did angklung playing in the General Music Programme (GMP) lesson impact students’ cultural understanding?

The study was based on an ethnographic case study of a class of 40 mixed gender secondary school students (twelve to thirteen years old) in a neighbourhood school in Singapore that used angklung in GMP lessons. Known for its strong focus on character development, the participating school selected its music programme to be a National Education1 driver as part of its character development efforts. The school’s angklung co-curricular activities instructor taught the angklung lessons.

Data was collected over fifteen weeks of lessons through non-participatory lesson observations, video recordings of lessons, interviews with students, the music teacher, instructor and school principal, focus-group interviews, student journals, schemes of work, other relevant school documents and a researcher’s journal. The data was analysed through various layers of coding processes. The findings were reported according to the three main headings based on the three guiding questions. The subheadings, derived from words taken verbatim from students and those found in research literature, reflected the influences of the instructor’s beliefs on students’ learning and development.

The study concluded that the angklung playing programme succeeded in transferring musical knowledge and developing personal and social skills in the students. Much of the students’ learnings hinged on the delivery of lessons and information given by the angklung instructor, meaning that the instructor was a key influencer of students’ development and learning in their character and social skills development and cultural knowledge. The programme, however, did not seem to do as well in its attempts to promote multicultural awareness amongst the students, although it did seem to possess great potential for it. Its weakness in this area was likely due to the lesson delivery. Suggestions to strengthen the programme would be made.