Marama Djan: Educational Innovation through Malian Girls’ Songs, Gender, and Music Didactics

Abstract

This article presents the results of an action research project designed and implemented within the field of university teacher education. The proposal was articulated around the interaction of BBC producer, ethnomusicologist and journalist Lucy Durán with students enrolled in the Music Specialization of the Primary and Early Childhood Education Degree at a public Faculty of Education in Spain. The intervention was carried out through musical performance activities and active learning aimed at exploring African music, with particular attention to children’s repertoire from Mali, its musical characteristics, and its social and cultural context. Gender roles present in recording production practices and in the African musical traditions analysed were also addressed, as well as the possibilities of transferring this repertoire to the field of Music Education in Primary Education. The participant population consisted of all students enrolled in the Music Specialization (N = 19). For the intensive qualitative phase, an intentional sample of eight participants was selected: Lucy Durán, two teacher-researchers responsible for the course in which the intervention took place, and five students who formed a focus group. The research was conducted using qualitative methodology based on action research principles. Four data collection strategies were employed: document analysis, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group. Data analysis was organized around three thematic categories: African music, gender, and music education. The results show that the experience fosters a broader understanding of African music as a bodily, communal, and culturally situated practice, as well as a critical reflection on gender roles in musical production and practice. They also highlight the didactic potential of Malian children’s repertoires for teacher education. Overall, these findings suggest that the contextualized incorporation of this type of repertoire can enrich music education in Primary Education, although its effective transfer to the classroom requires more sustained training processes and appropriate cultural and pedagogical contextualization.