Mignon van Vreden is an associate professor in music education at North-West University’s School of Music. She teaches music education in the BMus, BA Music & Society, as well as the Diploma in Music programmes, and supervises postgraduate students with diverse musical interests. Her primary instrument is piano, and her own research interests include undergraduate music teacher education, music education in childhood, nurturing socio-emotional learning through music, and project-based service learning in higher music education. These projects include Anke Djé Anke Bé (facilitating drumming at a special education school), the annual musical production for preschoolers, Singing Feelings (songwriting for children focussed on socio-emotional learning), Ukulele Cubs (teaching the ukulele to young children), the Mmino Fest (an annual Music Eisteddfod for amateur, upcoming and advanced musicians), and Green Songs (songwriting and teaching young children with a focus on sustainable development in early childhood).

She attends many national and international conferences where she presents her research. Her research publications include articles in the British Journal of Music Education, the International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, the South African Journal of Childhood Education, Early Child Development and Care, and Vir die Musiekleier. She has also contributed research to books published by Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group), AOSIS, and Van Schaik. In 2018 she received a Y2 rating from the National Research Foundation and was awarded an NWU Emerging Teaching Excellence Award the same year. In 2021, she was an awardee of an NWU Faculty Teaching Award and the award for Exceptional Lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities.

[2024-07-12]