AIRS Annual Report Year 1 Sub-Theme 3.1: Intercultural Understanding

Submitted by Dr. Godfrey Baldacchino (April 1, 2009 – March 31,
2010).

Activities by Godfrey Baldacchino as part of the AIRS Project

  1. A book proposal exploring songs as demonstrative of cultural
    vibrancy, global-local dynamics and intercultural
    understanding from island contexts was initially submitted to
    Berg Publishers but resubmitted to Scarecrow Press
    after Berg informed us that they no longer publish edited
    works in that field. 28 different contributors have initially
    been involved in this proposal – tentatively titled Island
    Songs - and the first complete draft of the book’s contents is
    expected in early August 2010.

  2. A graduate student at UPEI, Andrew Weatherill, was engaged
    for 8 weeks (part-time) in compiling an annotated bibliography
    of scholarly material dealing with islands and songs/singing.
    His compilation is available in Refworks format here: http://refworks.scholarsportal.info/refshare/?site=010361146456000000/190-94-3NKCK71582593/ISLAND%20SONGS

  3. Both Andrew Weatherill and Godfrey Baldacchino were involved
    in presenting work in progress at the showcase afternoon
    organized by the UPEI Centre for Educational Research at the
    Rodd Royalty, Charlottetown, PEI on April 14, 2010. The event
    was well attended and open to the general public.

  4. As part of ongoing AIRS administration, Godfrey Baldacchino
    was involved in a teleconference on 03 February 2010, as well
    as in another planning meeting on 05 April 2010.

Activities of Lily Chen-Hafteck’s project

  1. A meeting with various international collaborators of the
    project has taken place on March 5, 2010, in New Jersey, USA,
    during my "Educating the Creative Mind" conference at Kean
    University. Attendants included Alda Oliveira from Brazil,
    Dafu Lai from China, Elizabeth Andango from Kenya, plus
    Annabel and me. At this meeting, it was decided that the
    research site in Africa will be Kenya instead of South Africa.

  2. The number of AIRS collaborators from the four research sites
    who will be involved in the project has now been expanded.
    They are Alda Oliveira and Beatriz Ilari from Brazil, Frank
    Russo and June Countryman from Canada, Jiaxing Xie and Dafu
    Lai from China, and Elizabeth Andango from Kenya. They will
    supervise and provide guidance to the student-researchers
    throughout the project. They will also assist in compiling the
    teaching materials that are representative of their cultures,
    identifying the participating schools and requesting for
    permission.

  3. There was some delay in receiving the funding for students.
    The fund arrived only in May 2010. An undergraduate student
    assistant, Nancy Gleason, has been hired in June 2010. She is
    now working on the literature review of the project.

  4. A meeting in Beijing, China, is planned for August 2, 2010
    during ISME (International Society for Music Education)
    conference. At this meeting, the focus will be on finalizing
    the songs from each of the four countries of the study.

Conference Presentations

  • Chen-Hafteck, L., Cohen, A. & Rose, A. (2010). Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing (AIRS): a model for international leadership, networking and collaboration in music education research. Paper presented at the ISME (International Society for Music Education) North American Regional Seminar, Anaheim, CA, March 25-27, 2010.

  • Cohen, A. & Chen-Hafteck, L. (2010). Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing (AIRS): a model for comprehensive studies of the significance of the arts in children’s lives and education. Poster presented at the ‘Educating the Creative Mind’ Conference, Union, NJ, March 4-6, 2010.

  • Chen-Hafteck, L. (2009). Toward cross-cultural understanding through singing. Paper presented at the Phenomenon of Singing International Symposium, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, July 2-5, 2009.

Addendum from Annabel Cohen

Felix Neto in Portugal will be conducting the replication and
extension of  the important study of the role of children’s
learning songs of a minority culture on the improvement of
attitudes to that minority culture.  An injury prevented Dr. Neto
from participating in the UNESCO Symposium, and the paper was
given by Annabel Cohen who co-organized the symposium with Larry
O’Farrell, UNESCO Chair of Arts and Learning, at Queen’s
University, under the auspices of Andrea Rose, co-organizer of the
Phenomena of Singing Conference at Memorial University in
Newfoundland.  This symposium was a plenary session that opened
the  2008 Conference, and support from UNESCO was received.  Larry
O’Farrell has also promoted the AIRS Project at Plenary
Presentations of MENC, Anaheim and the UNESCO World Conference on
Arts and Learning that took place in May, 2010. 

Plans for development of a multicultural choir at UPEI are
underway.

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