Jazz and Improvisation: The Classroom and Beyond

Jazz and improvisation education has always extended beyond classrooms, institutions, and formal music education contexts. While the idea of jazz and improvisation musicians ‘learning on the job’ has an important historical grounding, the growth of formalized jazz and improvisation education has created more situations for and complexities in learning, such as digital/online possibilities. These may not offer the same affordances as learning in a community that is inclusive of collaborative and social experiences such as mentoring relationships and peer learning. Concomitantly, having diverse pathways available in music learning is important. This theme aims to gather perspectives from a wide range of contexts, advancing the discourse and expanding the possibilities in jazz and improvisation educational research to inform teaching in Higher Education and other contexts such as adult education.

A key area of interest is to better understand and appreciate the different roles and responsibilities of teaching and learning in distinct contexts. This may involve recognizing how facilitation functions in different learning contexts and the resulting implications for approaches to teaching and learning. For example, provocations such as the evolving roles of teachers and students, where the students’ perspectives and experiences inform the teaching process, could be considered. This is of particular interest to those working in Higher Education as well as community contexts as there has been an increase in student-centred music facilitation.