Collaboration, creativity and care: pedagogical approaches in a South African undergraduate electronic music module

Collaboration is a tool increasingly used in tertiary education, and a critical evaluation of it in this environment counters a culture of neoliberal transactions that may limit the creative process. This article reports the authors’ experiences during a decade of teaching the theory and practice of electronic music within an undergraduate curriculum at a South African university music department, and discusses the pitfalls and advantages of incorporating collaboration within a creative, practice-centred music classroom. The philosophies of the English composer Cornelius Cardew (1936–1981) formulated during his middle period were deployed to facilitate student collaboration and served as guiding principles, providing a pedagogical model for advancing collaborative dexterity in teachers and students.