Dr Mary Drinkwater, OISE/University of Toronto will be giving a delivering a lecture titled ‘Theorising a new pedagogical model for the arts and cultural paxis: Transformative arts and cultural praxis circle’ on Friday 5th June at 6pm at the University of Malta as part of MRER’s lecture series.

Below is the abstract of the paper Dr. Drinkwater will be delivering:  

Abstract:

This paper arises from a critical international case study which explored teachers’ use of the arts and cultural praxis in two primary schools and communities situated in a post-colonial, democratic nation-state, in the global south (Maasailand, southern Kenya) between 2009 and 2012.  Data were collected through formal and informal interviews with teachers, school and community leaders, curriculum consultants, teacher educators and educational policy developers at the national level.  Additionally, I conducted one focus group at each school, and collected field notes, audio and video data during my observations of their preparation for and participation in the Kenya Music Festival (KMF) process at the local, regional, provincial and national levels. I utilize a two-pronged theoretical lens which combines critical-democratic theory and decolonial theory to analyse the data and to create a new pedagogical model which I call a transformative arts and cultural praxis circle.