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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1308771
This article is part of the Research Topic Jazz and Improvisation in Education: Towards Gender Diversity and Equity View all 6 articles

Teaching Jazz History: Disrupting Gendered Narratives

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
  • 2 Performing Arts - Faculty of Education - Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The teaching of jazz history in tertiary institutions has historically focussed on the “great men'' of jazz (Whyton, 2010), with jazz historiography giving scant recognition to female-identifying musicians (Rustin and Tucker, 2008). The historicising of certain individuals and their music is fundamental to understanding jazz, yet it silences female and gender non-binary voices, overshadowing the roles they played in the evolution of the genre. This study aims to deepen our understanding of the experience of students engaging with jazz history in the 21st century. Jack Halberstam’s (2005) theory of queer time and disruption serves as the primary framework for analysing shifts in teaching and learning perceptions concerning hegemonic and male-dominated narratives in jazz history. To understand the experiences and perspectives of those directly involved in jazz history pedagogy this research draws on an education-focused, polyethnographic approach utilising data derived from self-selected student research topics, student surveys, and teacher interviews. Our findings highlight both the shifting discourse within tertiary education, teaching experiences and the interwoven attitudes of students, reflecting on how these dialogues came to impact and shape the other. The study provides implications for how jazz education may continue to evolve in both attitude and enlightened access in the education of jazz learners. The objective of this paper's outcomes is to inform the translation of more diversified narratives in tertiary jazz pedagogy and music education more broadly.

    Keywords: jazz, pedagogy, jazz hiostory, gender, Polyethnographic, Intersectionality, Gender non-binary, Teaching

    Received: 07 Oct 2023; Accepted: 14 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Burke, Hall, Kellett and Luebbers. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Robert L. Burke, Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
    Clare Hall, Performing Arts - Faculty of Education - Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
    Michael Kellett, Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
    Johannes Luebbers, Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.