Developing educational spaces for new communities of practices: Ghanaian highlife at a German university

This paper reflects on a pedagogical intervention with Ghanaian students who taught highlife music at a German university as part of a workshop. The reflection is based on empirical data from participant observation, conversations with the participants and reflection reports from the German students at the end of the workshop seminar. From the perspective of the German students, cultural differences were observed with regard to group learning, memorising music and orientation towards structures. The repeated references to the absence of sheet music reveal the continuing dominance of notation in music education in Germany. The article discusses the concept of shared educational spaces for decolonial approaches to learning popular music and for critical reflection on high/low differences.