Liesl Van Der Merwe
Biographic Data
| ID | 312796 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Liesl Van Der Merwe |
| GIVEN NAMES | Liesl |
| FAMILY NAME | Van Der Merwe |
| SIGNATURE | VAN DER MERWE L |
| AFFILIATIONS | North-West University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8698-7218 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Exploring five professional violinists’ flow experiences during solo and chamber music performances
This interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study explores how five professional violinists, who teach and perform in South Africa, make sense of their lived flow experiences during solo and chamber music performances, and to what extent flow theory explains the inhibiting and promoting conditions of flow for the participants. Data were collected by conducting in-depth, semi-structured online video interviews. Rigorous data analysis follo…
A Pianist's Technique Rehabilitation After Post-Traumatic Stress
Individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have access to a number of sources detailing the neuropsychological effects and influence of PTSD on their day-to-day lives. While the information on the effects and influence of PTSD may be helpful in understanding the scope of the disorder, there is a lack of knowledge on how to rehabilitate musicians, specifically pianists, who experience these effects. PTSD is especially detrime…
Exploring the meaning of musicking for older adults in a care home
Accessible music-related programmes are essential to the well-being of older adults. Although the role of music in the lives of older adults has been studied extensively in various settings, the purpose of this qualitative intrinsic case study was to explore the meaning older adults ascribed to musicking at a care home. The participants were older adults from one residential care home who chose to attend the weekly musicking sessions on Monday af…
Stories of the role musicking plays in coping with the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa
The purpose of this narrative study is to explain the role that musicking plays in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic for 11 South African musicians. The research question is: How do the stories of 11 South African musicians explain the role that musicking plays in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic? There have been studies on how music helps in therapeutic and everyday settings, but there has been limited research on the role musicking plays in co…
Explaining How Community Music Engagement Facilitates Social Cohesion through Ritualised Belonging
The flourishing society envisioned by the South African government's National Development Plan 2030 is based on nation-building and social cohesion. With the recent civil unrests, calls for healing a nation characterised by poverty, inequality and violence through social cohesion have again been made. Community music engagement is uniquely positioned to achieve social cohesion since the discipline engages disparities of power and privilege whilst…
Learning Collectively in a South African High School Choir Community of Musical Practice through Dalcroze-Inspired Activities
The purpose of this case study was to explore the extent to which Dalcroze-inspired activities can facilitate collective learning in a choir as a community of musical practice (CoMP). The research intervention was conducted in a newly formed multi-ethnic high school choir in Germiston, Gauteng, South Africa. Data sources included in-depth semi-structured interviews, researcher field notes of rehearsals and concerts, video recordings of weekly reh…
Exploring the meanings that stakeholders of the Brandfort community ascribe to their experiences of a Dalcroze-inspired workshop
For some time now, urban settlements in the rural areas of South Africa have experienced considerable problems relating to municipal water and sanitation service delivery. In September 2013, as part of a larger investigation in the town of Brandfort in the Free State Province, a transdisciplinary research team, Cultural Dynamics of Water (CuDyWat), conducted a workshop using Dalcroze-inspired activities based on music and movement to generate ins…
Adapting the Suzuki Method for Two Community Music Programmes in Atteridgeville, South Africa
The Suzuki method has been used in the Atteridgeville community by two teachers since 2008 to teach the violin at two children’s homes. In using the method, the teachers realised that the needs and circumstances of the students in the Atteridgeville community music programmes led to a natural adaptation of the method. The purpose of this intrinsic case study is to explain the adaptation of the Suzuki method by the two teachers, Babette and Jane, …
Experiences of music listening among rugby players at North-West University
This article documents a study that investigated the reasons why a group of student rugby players habitually listen to music as part of their pre-match routine. The investigation followed a hermeneutic phenomenological approach that allowed the players to verbalise their personal music listening experiences. The investigation links the music listening practices of the players with the concept of musical experience as an innate human capacity dire…
Young children and spirituality
In a fast-paced materialistic world, it is important to create opportunities for spirituality in early childhood music education, a developmental element often neglected in the scholarly literature. The purpose of the present hermeneutic phenomenological study is to understand the meanings that children ascribe to their experiences of connectedness in a group music class for 15 children, aged 4–5 years, at a nursery school in Potchefstroom, South…
Frontal lobe brain damage and the lived piano-playing experiences of an older adult
This paper presents an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of the lived piano-playing experiences of an older adult who suffered frontal lobe brain damage. Semi-structured interviews and diary reflections were used to gain insight into the intrapersonal, relational, spiritual and therapeutic experiences of the participant, Annie. Emergent themes include being ill, loss, depression and anxiety, determination, yearning, will to live and …
A Conceptual Model of Spirituality in Music Education
This article aims to describe the phenomenon of spirituality in music education by means of a model derived from the academic literature on the topic. Given the centrality of lived experience within this literature, we adopted a hermeneutic phenomenological theoretical framework to describe the phenomenon. The NCT (noticing, collecting, and thinking) model was used for the qualitative document analysis. Atlas.ti 7, computer-aided qualitative data…
Learning about the world
Innovative thinking is an innate human capacity geared towards adaptation and survival. Theories of education accordingly aim at developing teaching-learning strategies that promote creative, problem-solving reasoning referred to as higher order thinking. This essay briefly explains some of the assumptions underlying this concept, and then suggests how they may be reconfigured in a strategy suitable for education in and through music. The strateg…
A Conceptual Model of Spirituality in Music Education
This article aims to describe the phenomenon of spirituality in music education by means of a model derived from the academic literature on the topic. Given the centrality of lived experience within this literature, we adopted a hermeneutic phenomenological theoretical framework to describe the phenomenon. The NCT (noticing, collecting, and thinking) model was used for the qualitative document analysis. Atlas.ti 7, computer-aided qualitative data…
Explaining How Community Music Engagement Facilitates Social Cohesion through Ritualised Belonging
The flourishing society envisioned by the South African government's National Development Plan 2030 is based on nation-building and social cohesion. With the recent civil unrests, calls for healing a nation characterised by poverty, inequality and violence through social cohesion have again been made. Community music engagement is uniquely positioned to achieve social cohesion since the discipline engages disparities of power and privilege whilst…
Learning about the world
Innovative thinking is an innate human capacity geared towards adaptation and survival. Theories of education accordingly aim at developing teaching-learning strategies that promote creative, problem-solving reasoning referred to as higher order thinking. This essay briefly explains some of the assumptions underlying this concept, and then suggests how they may be reconfigured in a strategy suitable for education in and through music. The strateg…
A Conceptual Model of Spirituality in Music Education
This article aims to describe the phenomenon of spirituality in music education by means of a model derived from the academic literature on the topic. Given the centrality of lived experience within this literature, we adopted a hermeneutic phenomenological theoretical framework to describe the phenomenon. The NCT (noticing, collecting, and thinking) model was used for the qualitative document analysis. Atlas.ti 7, computer-aided qualitative data…
Young children and spirituality
In a fast-paced materialistic world, it is important to create opportunities for spirituality in early childhood music education, a developmental element often neglected in the scholarly literature. The purpose of the present hermeneutic phenomenological study is to understand the meanings that children ascribe to their experiences of connectedness in a group music class for 15 children, aged 4–5 years, at a nursery school in Potchefstroom, South…
Frontal lobe brain damage and the lived piano-playing experiences of an older adult
This paper presents an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of the lived piano-playing experiences of an older adult who suffered frontal lobe brain damage. Semi-structured interviews and diary reflections were used to gain insight into the intrapersonal, relational, spiritual and therapeutic experiences of the participant, Annie. Emergent themes include being ill, loss, depression and anxiety, determination, yearning, will to live and …
Adapting the Suzuki Method for Two Community Music Programmes in Atteridgeville, South Africa
The Suzuki method has been used in the Atteridgeville community by two teachers since 2008 to teach the violin at two children’s homes. In using the method, the teachers realised that the needs and circumstances of the students in the Atteridgeville community music programmes led to a natural adaptation of the method. The purpose of this intrinsic case study is to explain the adaptation of the Suzuki method by the two teachers, Babette and Jane, …
Experiences of music listening among rugby players at North-West University
This article documents a study that investigated the reasons why a group of student rugby players habitually listen to music as part of their pre-match routine. The investigation followed a hermeneutic phenomenological approach that allowed the players to verbalise their personal music listening experiences. The investigation links the music listening practices of the players with the concept of musical experience as an innate human capacity dire…
Exploring the meanings that stakeholders of the Brandfort community ascribe to their experiences of a Dalcroze-inspired workshop
For some time now, urban settlements in the rural areas of South Africa have experienced considerable problems relating to municipal water and sanitation service delivery. In September 2013, as part of a larger investigation in the town of Brandfort in the Free State Province, a transdisciplinary research team, Cultural Dynamics of Water (CuDyWat), conducted a workshop using Dalcroze-inspired activities based on music and movement to generate ins…
Learning Collectively in a South African High School Choir Community of Musical Practice through Dalcroze-Inspired Activities
The purpose of this case study was to explore the extent to which Dalcroze-inspired activities can facilitate collective learning in a choir as a community of musical practice (CoMP). The research intervention was conducted in a newly formed multi-ethnic high school choir in Germiston, Gauteng, South Africa. Data sources included in-depth semi-structured interviews, researcher field notes of rehearsals and concerts, video recordings of weekly reh…
Stories of the role musicking plays in coping with the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa
The purpose of this narrative study is to explain the role that musicking plays in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic for 11 South African musicians. The research question is: How do the stories of 11 South African musicians explain the role that musicking plays in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic? There have been studies on how music helps in therapeutic and everyday settings, but there has been limited research on the role musicking plays in co…
Explaining How Community Music Engagement Facilitates Social Cohesion through Ritualised Belonging
The flourishing society envisioned by the South African government's National Development Plan 2030 is based on nation-building and social cohesion. With the recent civil unrests, calls for healing a nation characterised by poverty, inequality and violence through social cohesion have again been made. Community music engagement is uniquely positioned to achieve social cohesion since the discipline engages disparities of power and privilege whilst…
Exploring the meaning of musicking for older adults in a care home
Accessible music-related programmes are essential to the well-being of older adults. Although the role of music in the lives of older adults has been studied extensively in various settings, the purpose of this qualitative intrinsic case study was to explore the meaning older adults ascribed to musicking at a care home. The participants were older adults from one residential care home who chose to attend the weekly musicking sessions on Monday af…
A Pianist's Technique Rehabilitation After Post-Traumatic Stress
Individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have access to a number of sources detailing the neuropsychological effects and influence of PTSD on their day-to-day lives. While the information on the effects and influence of PTSD may be helpful in understanding the scope of the disorder, there is a lack of knowledge on how to rehabilitate musicians, specifically pianists, who experience these effects. PTSD is especially detrime…
Exploring five professional violinists’ flow experiences during solo and chamber music performances
This interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study explores how five professional violinists, who teach and perform in South Africa, make sense of their lived flow experiences during solo and chamber music performances, and to what extent flow theory explains the inhibiting and promoting conditions of flow for the participants. Data were collected by conducting in-depth, semi-structured online video interviews. Rigorous data analysis follo…
Psychology (12 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Diverse Music Education Insights (7 works) · Music Therapy and Health (7 works) · Pedagogy (6 works) · Social science (6 works) · Social Psychology (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Art (4 works) · Medicine (4 works)