The musical development of visually impaired learners: A case study of a special needs secondary school

Abstract

Exceptional musicality in visually impaired musicians raises the challenging question on the existence of a link between blindness and musicality. This qualitative ethnographic case study informed by Ockelford’s theory on blind musicians and Gardner’s multiple intelligence model undertaken at a special needs secondary school, explored the musical development of visually impaired learners. Data collection was made through observations, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Thirty-five [35] visually impaired learners, fourteen [14] boys and twenty-one [21] girls were purposefully sampled for exceptional musicality in choir, guitar, keyboard, marimba ensemble and solo mbira. Sixteen [16] low vision, eight [8] legally blind, and eleven [11] totally blind informants were purposefully sampled for their virtuoso performance on select African and Western instruments. Evidence revealed that, audiation, kinesthetic and tactile knowledge contribute significantly to learner development of music skills. An acute sense of hearing is an important contrivance for visually impaired learners to construct the meanings of the world around them. An individual who are visually impaired or suffers loss of vision at an early age, re-wire to other senses particularly that of hearing to establish the identity of individuals and objects. A low vision hereditary trait in some participants was established. However, the study focus was not on the causes of blindness. Formal education and the home environment are significant factors in the creation of favorable conditions for the development of music skills in learners with visual impairment. Further research needs to examine the integration of emerging technologies in the quest for a better understanding of the development of music knowledge by visually impaired individuals Collaboration with neuroscience with its interest in music processing by the brain and may specifically focus on visually impaired individual’s musicality.