Teachers Reactions to Outcomes-Based Music Education in South African Primary Schools2

This article examines the reactions of specialist music teachers to the introduction of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) in South Africa. OBE has been seen in post-apartheid South Africa as a way to transform education and address the imbalances of the past. The study reported here used questionnaires to explore attitudes of teachers at independent schools in Johannesburg in the first year of implementing OBE. Analysis of data revealed both positive and negative attitudes as well as the strong need for teachers professional development if OBE is to succeed. his article presents a case study of specialist music teachers opinions and attitudes towards an outcomes-based approach to music education implemented in a representative cross section of independent schools in Johannesburg. It is part of a wider study (Joseph, 1999) which provided a critique of outcomes-based music education in South Africa at the beginning of its implementation (1998) across all subjects in the new National Curriculum. The purpose of the present article is to provide an outline of the new outcomes-based system of education (OBE) in South Africa, reporting specifically on music teachers attitudes and opinion