Legacy and Adaptation: The Orff Approach in the New Zealand School Setting

Abstract

This chapter is based on recent doctoral research by the author, who undertook a critical analysis of the Orff approach in the professional lives and practices of New Zealand teachers in the Aotearoa/New Zealand state school context. In this multiple case study, findings were based on an analysis of questionnaire, observation and interview data. The chapter begins by discussing the Orff legacy, offering a view of its foundational principles and referencing some current critique. It then reports on ways in which teacher participants, drawing on their own understandings of the approach, put it into practice in their classrooms in ways that reflect New Zealand’s bicultural heritage and the increasingly diverse character of New Zealand classrooms.