Co-operative Principles and the Creative Sector: Musings of a Music Educator.

Abstract

The creative sector boasts a number of highly-skilled yet versatile players with relatively low levels of academic preparation. Despite the latter, their products find recognition in diverse spaces of human existence, meeting human and socio-economic needs at various levels. As a music educator, the question ‘What job will my child do after studying music?’ is one I have heard too often for comfort. The fact that education should not be focused on securing jobs is lost on many supporters of learners in higher education institutions. The creative disciplines are a fine example of an area of education that must not be confined to learners ‘being employed’, but on developing capacity for productivity. The question of credibility and sustainability, in terms of being a legitimate employment of one’s time and a source of sustenance, is recognized as being behind the question above. It calls for an understanding of how creatives provide support structures not only for technical development, but also towards selfactualization and social wellbeing. As a music educator, I look at both creative and cooperative concepts and structures to decipher how the (young) creatives can come together in democratic ways towards developing themselves and the industry. The findings should inform a model for co-operative education for the creative disciplines.