Biography

Mandy Carver is an independent researcher based in Makhanda, South Africa. She is a veteran music teacher, having taught music in many different contexts, including school music, studio teaching and teacher education. Her final school position was Director of Music at the Diocesan School for Girls in Makhanda, a job she left to do doctoral research in 2015. Since completing her PhD has worked as an independent researcher. Mandy lectures teacher education for the University of the Witwatersrand School of Education, and Stadio University, and advises customers and develops resource material for teachers at African Musical Instruments in Makhanda.

Research Interests

Mandy’s doctoral research brought together her two key interests: how we learn music and how best to teach African music in formal settings. The study provided the opportunity to engage with theories of learning, knowledge and knowing, and the sociology of music education. Her research took place in the context of South African student protests #rhodesmustfall, which underlined the urgent need for curriculum reform and the decolonisation of curriculum. Sociological questions continue to drive her research, pondering questions regarding who is included, whose musics are included, and how knowledge and skill building is included in curricula and pedagogies in South Africa and beyond.

Publications

Carver, M. 2025. Privatising Music Knowledge: Identifying the Restrictions That Specialise Music Education. In Emerging Perspectives from Social Realism on Knowledge and Education Curricula, Pedagogy, Identity, and Equity, edited by Graham McPhail, Richard Pountney, and Leesa Wheelahan. Routledge Research in the Sociology of Education. Abingdon: Routledge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carver, M. 2022. Facing both ways: Knowers, knowledge and Bernstein’s pedagogic rights in music education. In C. Frierson-Campbell, C. Hall, & S. Powell (Eds.), Sociological Thinking in Music Education: International Intersections. Oxford University Pres

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carver, A. 2020. African music, knowledge, and curriculum: Applying Bernsteinian and Legitimation Code Theory to south African music curricula. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis: University of the Witwatersrand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carver, M. 2017. Knowledge transfer: Indigenous African music in the South African music curriculum. African Music, 10(3), 119–141. https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v10i3.219

 

 

 

Thram, D., Blake, M., & Carver, M. 2015. Andrew Tracey: Performer, scholar, teacher, mentor. SAMUS: South African Journal of Musicology, 34(1), 146–170.

 

 

 

 

 

Carver, M. 2005. Relative theories: An African perspective. In A. Herbst (Ed.), Emerging Solutions for musical arts education in Africa (pp. 64–71). Cape Town: African Minds.