Music Makers: cultural perspectives in textbook development in Kenya, 1985–1995

Abstract

This article draws on my other writings about developments in the teaching of music in Kenya, and on the decision to promote traditional musics and to make music one of the compulsory examinable subjects at the end of primary school. It considers two textbooks published by Oxford University Press in Nairobi: Music Makers for Standards 7 and 8, by Brian Hocking and me, was issued in 1985, and Music Makers for Standards 5 and 6, this time with George Mutura as co-author, was published in 1989. The music education syllabus was revised in 1993, and both books were adapted to adjust the placing and progression of the material. This case study sets out the background of developments in Kenyan educational policy, notes the changes in curricular music, explores how the adaptation happened in practice, tracks the process, comments on its implications and considers responses to the completed project.