Unveiling Barriers: Challenges to Access High-Quality Education in South African Music Schools for Underprivileged and Marginalised Communities
Sakhiseni Joseph Yende 
Issue: Vol.5 No.12 Special Issue Article 3 pp.40-50
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245123 | Published online 11th October, 2024
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
South Africa’s music education landscape stands at the intersection of historical legacies, socio-economic disparities, and cultural intricacies, posing formidable challenges for underprivileged and marginalised communities. Despite strides made since the post-apartheid era, high-quality music education remains an elusive pursuit for many aspiring musicians. This study used a qualitative approach to explore and dissect the multifaceted challenges that hinder access to quality education within South African music schools. Adopting a descriptive phenomenological research design, this investigation involved ten music lecturers from diverse universities using the snowball sampling procedure. The interviews conducted using Microsoft Team, Zoom, and Google Team served as the primary means of data collection. Colaizzi’s phenomenological data analysis technique was applied to distil rich insights from the participants’ narratives, offering an in-depth exploration of their experiences and perceptions. The study unravels four overarching themes, each shedding light on critical aspects of the challenges faced by underprivileged and marginalised communities in South African music education. These themes include the music lecturers’ perspectives on inclusivity and diversity in the music education curriculum, the challenges encountered by students from underprivileged backgrounds, the socio-economic impact on student engagement, and the role of cultural representation in creating an enriching educational environment. The study concludes that South African music education faces challenges related to inclusivity, diversity, socio-economic disparities, and cultural representation, which hinder access for underprivileged communities. Recommendations include revising the curriculum to incorporate diverse cultural perspectives, implementing support systems for underprivileged students, addressing socio-economic barriers through policies and initiatives, and enhancing cultural representation in music education.
Keywords: Education, Inclusivity, Marginalised Communities, South African Music Schools, Socio-Economic Disparities.
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Dr. Sakhiseni Joseph Yende, an accomplished emerging scholar at the New Archival Visions Fellowship, Centre for Humanities Research University of the Western Cape were he serves as a postdoctoral fellow. His influential contributions extend across the performing arts, particularly opera, and include significant achievements in supervising students in Dance, Vocal Arts, and Musical Theatre. Dr Yende’s broad research portfolio spans musicology, ethnomusicology, music education, African music, linguistics, gospel music, opera, political sciences, and education. With over 50 articles published in DHET-accredited journals, numerous book chapters, and presentations at various conferences, he showcases a dedicated commitment to advancing knowledge within the performing arts.
Yende, Sakhiseni Joseph. “Unveiling Barriers: Challenges to Access High-Quality Education in South African Music Schools for Underprivileged and Marginalised Communities,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 5, no.12 (2024): 40-50. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245123
© 2024 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
