AIRS IN BRAZIL
SCHOOL: EDUCATIONAL CENTER SANTO ANTONIO
REPORT BY ALDA OLIVEIRA
TO: ANNABEL COHEN and LILY HAFTECK
C/W Zuraida Bastião and Angelita Schultz
JUNE 30th, 2012
_____________________________________________________________________

Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing (AIRS) Subtheme 3.1
International Project on Cultural Understanding

1. Start Date of the project in Bahia, Brazil – March 9th, 2012
2. End Date of the project – June 19th., 2012.
3. Names of participating school: Educational Center Saint Antonio – CESA
Characteristics of the school: CESA is an educational organization which is maintained by
the Govern of the State of Bahia, by Salvador City-Hall Administration and by the non-profit
organization “Social Works by Irmã Dulce” (OSID) which receives donations of several
different sources such as federal, state and city governments, private enterprises and
individual donors. CESA is dedicated to the mission of educate and take care of children and
young individuals of both genres of low-income families from the urban areas.
Staff:
Solange Couto de Santana – General Director of CESA
Rita Frois – Pedagogic Coordinator
Ezi da Silva Costa Ramos – Coordinator of complementary actions
Marli Ramos Cortes Barros – CESA general secretary
4. No. of classes in each school - 2
5. No. and names of participating teachers in each school: 2 (and 1 music teacher)
Silvianey Ramos Ferreira (experimental class teacher)
Meiriele Souza Lopes (control class teacher) and
Edilton Souza Dias (music teacher)
6. Age and grade of each class – 5th grade classes of 10-11th year-old children
7. No. of children in each class – experimental class – 30 students

 Control class – 25 students
PREPARATION PHASE

The Preparation Phase of the AIRS in Brazil at the Educational Center Santo Antonio -CESA
school (code BRA 1) has worked out very well, since we got copies of all the Teaching materials
(Songbook, Powerpoint, Demonstration Video) and we handed them out to the experimental
class teacher (CESA = E1), Silvianey (silvianey@bol.com.br ), and to the teacher of the control
class (CESA=C1), Meiriele (son_meiry@hotmail.com). We got the Approval from the
administration of Educational Center Santo Antonio to apply the study with children ages 10-11.
We also got back the signed Consent forms from teachers, parents and students, following all the
ethics rules that were adopted for this research study. The translation of the Songbook,
Powerpoint, Questionnaire & Consent Form was made into Portuguese by Zuraida Bastião and
Angelita Schultz, team participants.
The First Meeting with Teachers was organyzed with the participation of both music and
classroom teachers. At first, the music teacher, Prof. Didi (dida.e.s.dias@hotmail.com)
demonstrated not to be very integrated with the project. Consequently, he did not participate of
the process of teaching the songs, which was done by the class teacher, Prof. Silvianey. The C1
teacher Meiriele worked with the information about the 4 countries, but she did not teach the
songs.
In my opinion the preparation phase was successful, although developed in just one whole day,
since all the research plan and the didactic process for teaching the songs and the cultural
information were explained to all the participants, including the director of the school, Prof.
Solange, the pedagogic coordinator Prof. Ezi, the music teacher Didi. In addition, we managed
to explain the project and get all the permission letters of the staff of the organization that takes
care of the administrative process (the OSID – Obras Sociais Irmã Dulce). The teachers, the
pedagogic coordinator and the director were very prompt for helping to give out and collect
consent forms from parents and for setting up a schedule with dates for the tasks during the
study.

 The Brazilian team (Alda and Zuraida) was available only during the special dates when
collecting data (video recordings and photos) at school and by the Internet, in order to explain
and clearing up some doubts on how to cope with the teaching materials.
The school administration, especially the director and the pedagogic coordinator were very
helpful during all the phases of the study application at CESA. So, they helped to set up a
schedule with dates for the tasks during the study and were available to discuss and help to
implement all the phases of the study.
The CESA staff is composed by the following individuals:
Solange Santana - CESA / Pedagogia – Diretora (solange.santana@irmadulce.org.br)
Rita Frois – CESA (rita.frois@irmadulce.org.br)
Rita Assis – CESA (rita.assis@irmadulce.org.br)

PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS AND PERSONAL OPPINIONS ABOUT THE
APPLICATION OF THE AIRS RESEARCH AT CESA SCHOOL
I am conscious about the aim of the study we are developing, which is to determine whether the
singing of the songs has impact on cross-cultural appreciation than simply learning about the
cultures. I am sure that it will take a long time to determine if the data collected actually provide
evidence for this. But considering the results we have observed at CESA (I am sure it is not a
final evidence, of course; we will observe more with time), the children from the experimental
class actually showed through their eyes and singing expressions, and also through the joy (not at
always, but at special occasions, though) they were demonstrating through singing and through
free communications to teachers, to relate a lot better than before to the different languages,
special facts and cultural curiosities about Canada, China and Quenia.
One fact that I was especially surprised is that the teacher of the experimental class told us at the
end that the Brazilian songs and materials were the most difficult of all to teach! They had a preconceived opinion on the Brazilian songs. They thought that the songs were too simple, easy
and appropriate only for little children. She insisted with singing, and after some time, they
totally changed their behaviors and started to sing with more engagement.

 Even the problem of singing on tune (pitch accuracy) was a common fact among all the songs. It
did not seem to be related to special preferences on this or that country. For my surprise,
according to the classroom teacher´s report, the students were having problems to accept to sing
the Brazilian songs, because they thought they were too easy, too childish and silly. At the
beginning I thought that they were going to sing better the Brazilian ones, of course. The singing
on tune problems were not related to the cultural differences or preferences, but I think because
most of the time to the following variables: individual levels of care and concentration of the
individual students, the level and capacity of warming of the voice, the individual level of real
knowledge of each song they were singing, and the types of motivational stimulus the person and
audience would send them as energy to elicit the potential power of their voices through singing
expressively.
It is important to register that the children did not know almost anything from people of other
cultures or about their countries as well at the beginning of the project. I was amazed by the lack
information they had before. By the end, we could perceive that this reality had changed quite a
lot. Some of them were saying that they would like to travel and to know more about the people
in such and such places. They said that although they were from other cultures they were feeling
that they were the same as the children of the other countries. I really think that the singing
made a difference, since through the singing, they "felt" the cultural traits of the different
countries, since the songs passed the emotional parts of the countries.
I have observed many positive things that are coming from this research project at CESA:
1. Reflecting about the AIRS project we are developing in Salvador,
Bahia, Brazil, I must recognize the precious professional friendship between me and Lily
Hafteck, which has begun after Frascatti, Italy, ISME Research Commission meeting.

 Frascatti, Italy

Lily Hafteck and Alda Oliveira

I was presenting my PhD research on the analysis of Bahian folksongs and its relationship for
Brazilian curricular decisions, when a professor called Kathy Primos from South Africa came
and invited me to present my work there. I went to South Africa with Drs. Graham Welch and
David Hargreaves, and worked there for teacher empowerment purposes in music research.

South Africa

South Africa

South Africa

South Africa

 After then, I was meeting Lily at all ISME meetings. Without Lily, I could never be part of
AIRS. As a Chinese working outside China, Lily was always smiling happily, collaborating with
others. Lily has developed through her life an attitude of respect for human differences and for
the music of other cultures.

Thanks for the respect she demonstrates to have for the

collaboration of the younger and the older generations of researchers, she invited me to be with
her applying AIRS in Brazil, with my other colleagues of the post-graduation program in Bahia.
Lily also introduced me to Dr. Annabel Cohen, who was at the symposium at Kean University on
Creativity.

Kean University, New Jersey – USA

Countries of the world: Canada, Kenya, China and Brazil
So, I must thank especially to Lily, and also Beatriz, for being involved with AIRS and be part
of the curriculum development process we are successfully engaging. Since I value those
connections with cultures of world and of my own country, I think that this path of professional
relationships is a rich and enlightened example of opportunities for further developments and for
the strengthening of international friendship through music teaching and learning.

 2. AIRS project in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

The Brazilian team: Alda, Zuraida and Angelita

Brazil

Kenya

Canada

China

coordinated by Dr. Lily Hafteck has been a successful and rewarding experience for me, since it
is the application of an organized music curriculum that includes traditional songs from 4
different countries in a school context of low social economic population (CESA has 700
students!!), which is maintained by 4 types of sources: the State of Bahia, the City -Hall , OSID
"Obras Sociais Irmã Dulce" and by private enterprises. Consequently, we are working with
music education (singing) for the benefit poor children, with different social organizations.

 Alda Oliveira and Zuraida Bastião

AIRS Closing Celebration

Teacher Meiriele – Control Class

CESA students

Teacher Silvianey – Experimental Class

Solange, Meiriele, Alda, Zuraida, Silvianey, Ezi
AIRS Staff (CESA, Brazil)

3.

The participation of the experimental class teacher was exceptional.

She did not have music training, but she has obtained positive results, since the children sung 6
songs from Kenya, 6 songs from Brazil, 2 songs from China and 3 songs from Canada. She used
well all the AIRS materials as learning tools. The AIRS team gave her only an initial training

 experience and came to collect the data at different times (evaluation points) of the study. We
gave her some small technical advices but the learning of the songs was all done by her.
4.

The music teacher (Prof.Didi) at the beginning of the project, after the training we provided

the teachers, communicated to us that he was not going to participate.

Alda Oliveira, Zuraida Bastião and Prof. Didi
He gave us some excuses such as that he was sick, his contract as teacher was not yet been done,
and so on. He stayed away from the process up to the point when he noticed that the children of
Silvianey ´s class (the experimental class teacher) were singing happily and well. At this point,
he begun to come to the work of Silvianey and, finally, he did the music arrangements at the
keyboard, performing with the children.
Little by little he became involved with the AIRS project. The school director Solange, told us at
the end, that in Didi´s opinion, he was not going to participate because he had received
everything ready, like a “ready-made-curricular-package”! At the moment, prof. Didi has been
invited by me and Zuraida to record his musical arrangements, since we liked very much his
participation. Zuraida has also some especial connections with Didi: she taught his son Pedro,
when he was a small child. In spite of prof. Didi´s initial negative impressions, it seems that
from June´s final presentation on he is going to collaborate more with the project.
5.

AIRS study made me see, experience and value (as music professor and music teacher in

school context such as CESA), the importance of a teacher education in relation to openness to
changes and to the different roles the person has to develop through the various situations of
professional life.

 Alda Oliveira and Sister Dulce
I have been experiencing the different roles this project brought to my life, such as: the role of
Saint Antonio´s school ex-student, Sister Dulce ex-religious adviser, secretary Marli´s best
friend,

Marly and Alda (mid 50s), during Saint John´s festivities
Angelita´s graduate supervisor, Zuraida´s ex-graduate supervisor, Beatriz´s collaborator for the
AIRS book for teachers, Silvianey and Meiriele´s supporter for AIRS project application,
Angelita, Beatriz and Zuraida´s colleague and good personal friend, Lily´s collaborator and
professional friend for the AIRS project, AIRS international research team´s participant, and
finally, the role of an active but retired music professional who has some backup experience to
share with colleagues, having pleasure to see the participants shine with their own achievements.
There is another role that I have developed at AIRS: the combination of the roles of Jamary´s
wife, musician and grandmother of Felipe, Henrique and Sarah, who happily recorded all the
Brazilian songs for the AIRS´ CD and DVD we are using for the study. The whole experience
has been marvelous!
2. AIRS has been particularly for me a very rewarding experience especially for these reasons:

 a) I have had a long career as a pianist, music educator, music supervisor at graduate level,
researcher, director of 2 music schools, music composer.
But this experience at CESA sounds to me as the most rewarding, since I was listening children
singing songs in other languages, taught by a generalist class teacher, using as didactic tools the
CDs and DVDs with real examples taken from each culture, who were happy with all the
experiences provided by us, with discipline, collaboration and happiness;
b) I am working together with two graduate students (Zuraida and Angelita), who are now not
only my supervised students, but also my good friends and colleagues, in strict collaboration and
friendship. I am experiencing the pleasure to see them developing towards being independent
and capable of taking decisions and being prospective professionals in the field.
c) We managed to go to CESA because of my personal friendship with Marli , who is the general
secretary of CESA. Marli was my best friend in childhood, and she has known also Sister Dulce.
Her support meant to me a lot. Her support made a difference, since she believed in the project,
she introduced me and Zuraida to the whole school administration, which opened all the doors to
the AIRS team!

Here I can see again, the power of the quality of social and individual

connections that are developed through ones during our whole lifetime.
c) Since we invited Mara Menezes (my ex-graduate student and professor at UFBA) to
participate of the final presentation of AIRS at CESA, she was captured by the process and the
idea; I introduced her to the school administration and perhaps she will build a connection and
send some other student-teachers from the federal university to help the future implementation of
a music education curriculum for ALL the school, based on the AIRS idea!;
d) The AIRS research music curriculum seems to have had had not only positive results at
CESA as a study but also is having positive consequences for a whole community of educators
and for the CESA students; I am really proud and happy to see future developments without my
direct presence, since I am already a retired professor and I am developing people to continue a
positive educational music education project here in Salvador, Bahia. Besides, this moment is
very special, since from 2011 on, the Brazilian curricula are required to include musical
elements. Consequently, we have now in Brazil only a few professionals who have answers for
this problem. We are experiencing one possible curricular answer for music in schools. This
makes me feel rewarded two times more!

 e) I am very happy to see some relevant points of my own research studies (traditional songs and
the PONTES approach) happening around the application of the AIRS study at CESA: among
the various points observed. Here are some examples:
a) during the final presentation of the children at CESA , I included in the program a song that I
composed in homage to Irmã Dulce (a simple song), since she had prepared me for my First
Communion when I was a 7 year old girl, at the Saint Antonio School. Even though I had given
the score to prof. Didi, the music teacher, some days before, he did not teach the children how to
sing this song. So, I decided to introduce and teach them during the rehearsal, distributing the
words also to the audience (approx. 100 people). Zuraida encouraged me to develop the idea
(she said “let´s start with the religious and end with the profane!”), and helped singing the song
with Mara, at the microphone. In fact, this activity served as a bridge or a connection for the
whole presentation, acting as a way to get everybody into an appropriate mood for the AIRS
musics the children were going to present. That picture I sent to Annabel and Lily, was taken
when I was introducing the AIRS project, speaking about my relationship to Sister Dulce and
teaching the song to the audience (composed by the local families and institutional
administration/ and the children. I was very happy accompanying everybody at the keyboard!
When I listened the children singing, my colleagues singing, the audience singing, I felt that for
the first time I was having a rewarding and happy research experience!
b) The children that were participating both of the AIRS and Neojiba Orchestra projects, made a
connection among themselves and the teachers. The children asked the teachers to perform some
of the AIRS songs in the string instruments they were learning at Neojiba´s. So, some of them
not only sung the AIRS songs but also played their string instruments.
c) Before the rehearsal at CESA, the students from the NEOJIBÁ Orchestra (this is a special
project they have received also from the State Government of Bahia) were having fun, playing
some folk songs at random. I felt to accompany them at the keyboard, improvising the
accompanyments. This was a special moment for them and especially for me, since I´ve noticed
that when they were playing by themselves with the string teacher, they were very out of tune.
But performing independently with the keyboard accompaniment, they were a lot better both
musically and more close to the pitches of the melodies.
d) I have noticed that in spite of the distance Angelita is far away from me and Zuraida, there is
happening a natural collaboration among the team participants.

I worked more closely to

 Beatriz, by distance, on the book´s organization, Zuraida helped with the book, did all the
translations into Portuguese and is being very proactive during the research implementation (she
is even responsible for finding the second school, “ Dois de Julho”; she made all the social
contacts with the staff and did all the training of the music teacher), and in spite of being in Los
Angeles (USA), Angelita has helped with the book organization, she is translating all
teachers´reports into English, is helping with the workshop plans for ISME/AIRS Meeting, and
sharing the thoughts about the study. We all, as a team, worked very well for making the DVD
with the children, organizing the body movements and the solo and group singing. I think that
the organization done for this study by Lily has helped a lot the implementation of the study,
since the tasks are well planned and clear.
SUGGESTIONS
If I may, I will point out some suggestions:
a) To avoid contamination of the subjects of the experimental and control classes towards
the learning of the songs, the design of the study could be replicated, cutting out any
possibility of students to hear the students of the experimental class singing the songs of
each culture. The songs are appealing to that children´s ages. Consequently, during the
recreational periods, they apparently may sing to the other colleagues, stimulating the
control class students for learning about the cultures.
b) To avoid the variables of teacher qualification and motivational abilities, try a design that
would change roles of teachers by regular periods, alternating their tasks with the same
other variables. This small change may possibilitate the evaluation of the independent
variable (the songs), in spite of the teacher qualification and talents for teaching the
planned contents.
c) The number of songs could be smaller. We could test the study using three songs, for
example, since the time dedicated to the learning of the songs in each school is short.
Teachers inserted the new AIRS curriculum as an addition to their pedagogic plans,
approved by the school boards.
Alda Oliveira
Supervising Professor at the Federal University of Bahia – Brazil Artistic Production Director of SONARE

 Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing (AIRS) Subtheme 3.1
International Project on Cultural Understanding
Research Team Members
USA
• Lily Chen-Hafteck, Kean University – Project Leader
• Patricia Shehan Campbell, University of Washington – Honorary Advisor
• Nancy Gleason, Kean University – Administrative Assistant
• Robert Anderson, Kean University – Administrative Assistant
Brazil
• Zuraida Abud Bastião, Federal University of Bahia
• Angelita Broock, Federal University of Bahia
• Beatriz Ilari, University of Southern California
• Alda de Jesus Oliveira, Federal University of Bahia
Canada
• Carol Beynon, University of Western Ontario, London
• Jennifer Beynon-Martinec, University of Western Ontario, London
• Annabel Cohen, University of Prince Edward Island
• Kelly Gillis, University of Prince Edward Island
• Arla Good, Ryerson University, Toronto
• Frank Russo, Ryerson University, Toronto
China
• Bing-Yi Pan, University of Prince Edward Island
• Yue Xiao, China Conservatory of Music
• Jiaxing Xie, China Conservatory of Music
Kenya
• Elizabeth Andang’o, Kenyatta University