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Akosua Addo
Music
Children playing singing games
University students exchange games with the children of Ghana
The final performance
Students and Addo during the 2005 global seminar in Ghana
PHOTOS COURTESY OF AKOSUA ADDO
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Growing
up in Ghana, West Africa, music played an essential part in Akosua
Addo's life. "The drum tradition is very rich and singing goes
with everything," she says. "We don't have a word in Ghana
for performance-we call it play."
In Ghana, the arts are a focus in daily life. Music, for example,
integrates with playtime for children and cultural expression for
all members of the culture. Expressed in multiple ways, the arts
permeate across and within cultures. On the playground the children
play singing games. They dance and perform plays. They watch adults
dance and perform traditional songs in the evenings. They borrow
from what they see and invent new singing games as they play.
After living and studying in other countries, Addo returned to Ghana
to research children's singing games and how they facilitate learning.
Now, as an associate professor in the school of music, Addo teaches
her students the importance of learning from other cultures.
More than Child's Play
Ghanaian children practice a rich variety of singing games. The
complexity of clapping and singing patterns requires adept memorization
and coordination. Present in the children's understanding of the
rules of the singing game is an inherent demonstration of the Ghanaian
cultural values-the importance of problem solving and agreement
between people. However, Western culture has had an influence too.
"Because we have MTV in Ghana the kinds of games have changed,"
says Addo. "The movement patterns are mimicking what they see
on T.V." Rap has begun to influence traditional singing games,
but the ways children learn and teach each other remains the same.
Addo has researched how children in Ghana identify with different
cultures and recreate music cultures on the playground. According
to Addo, the performance and practice of Ghanaian signing games
provides a theoretical model for teaching.
Addo studied children from three schools in Ghana in and around
the Cape Coast. There she observed three teaching and learning scenarios
on the playground: children teaching themselves singing games, children
using overt teaching styles to instruct others, and children learning
conflict resolution skills in class using singing games as a catalyst.
On the playground, Addo describes learning as "uninhibited
shared constructions." In other words, learning grows because
everyone is involved in the process. Learning is also like midwifery,
as children coach one another. For instance, one child carries the
game like a facilitator, becoming a member by the end of the game.
"What I learned 10 years ago was that children on the playground
were facilitators of learning," Addo said. "One child
would teach the game and others would follow from her lead. She
didn't instruct, but taught by doing." During one of her visits
to Ghana, children urged Addo to learn a game through verbal encouragement,
much in the same way a midwife coaches a woman giving birth.
In Ghana, it is common for educators to use music and dance performance
as a way of communicating ideas to students. Learning follows from
participation. Cooperation, participation, and coordination are
important to Ghanaian culture because one person defines the next.
The concept translates to music performance on the playground as
each player complements another and helps form the whole. Thus,
Addo found that through their games, children express knowledge
that can be passed on in other cultural contexts, such as the classroom,
where other topics can be taught through music. Through group work
and cooperation, teachers facilitate knowledge rather than lecture.
International Education
"International education has always been an interest of mine
because I have always been an international student," says
Addo. Therefore, it is fitting that she would lead an annual global
seminar through the University's Learning Abroad Center, entitled
"Music and Culture in Ghana." Since the first class in
2004, students have had the opportunity to travel with Addo to her
home country, and observe and interact with local musicians. Students
gain an understanding of global arts through immersion in Ghana's
culture. Addo encourages the integration of performing arts-music,
movement, speech, and drama; cultural and social dimensions of music
learning experiences; and the opportunity for creativity and improvisation
in music making.
Students spend three-and-a-half weeks in Ghana participating in
the local music traditions of a cultural group in Cape Coast, the
capital of Ghana's central region. They study the traditional teaching
approaches through which the local music is passed to the younger
generation. Addo studies the effects on students studying in a new
culture, experiencing music in new culture, and the impact on learning
when students are pushed out of their comfort zones.
Currently, Addo is looking at what elements of the arts the students
consider global, what procedures the Ghanaian artists use for teaching
music and culture, and what transformations take place in the lives
of the students and how they articulate their personal transformations.
Giving Back
When Addo took her first group of University students to the schools
in Ghana, they immediately saw the country's development problems.
So Addo decided to set up the Arts for Development Fund to give
back to Ghana's children and schools. Addo's students help to raise
money through a variety of projects. For example, one student made
and sold earrings for a year to help pay school fees for children
at one of Ghana's primary schools. The fund aims to enable children
to participate in arts and education without the constraints of
inadequate facilities and programs. However, Addo stresses that
this is a collaborative effort with the schools.
"So there is a transformative learning piece, a developmental
piece for students and for people in the community," Addo explains.
"That's how we come together and learn from each other."
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