About this Research Topic
Jazz and improvisation education has always extended beyond classrooms, institutions, and what might be understood as a prescribed music education context. 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.
As Jazz and improvisation pedagogy at both school and higher education has received attention due to the gendered nature of teaching and learning, another important goal is to investigate practices that address inequity and disrupt gendered teaching cultures. Research that highlights and explores innovative people, processes, and contexts that address inequality are welcomed.
We welcome scholarship around the intersectionality of race, gender, sexuality, ableness, and themes such as meritocracy, the positioning of power, and the effects of precarity.
This Research Topic aims to cover emerging and novel evidence-based educational research that explores but is not limited to investigating:
• Mentoring/mentorship;
• Gatekeeping;
• Experimentation vs preservation;
• Addressing jazz and national legacies such as Indigenous music;
• Inclusivity;
• Online/Virtual education;
• Lifelong learning and self-directed development of musicians;
Example titles may include:
• What challenges do professional musicians face in becoming jazz educators in Higher Education;
• Possibilities and challenges in fostering inclusivity in a traditionally mastery-oriented practice;
• How can online spaces be safe for female and gender non-conforming students?
• How does learning outside formalized learning in collaborative, social, and professional settings inform HE teaching and learning and vice versa?
We welcome original research articles employing quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method/multi-method research designs, systematic reviews of the literature, philosophical and conceptual-theoretical analysis papers. We also encourage arts-based methods and participatory approaches.
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.
As Jazz and improvisation pedagogy at both school and higher education has received attention due to the gendered nature of teaching and learning, another important goal is to investigate practices that address inequity and disrupt gendered teaching cultures. Research that highlights and explores innovative people, processes, and contexts that address inequality are welcomed.
We welcome scholarship around the intersectionality of race, gender, sexuality, ableness, and themes such as meritocracy, the positioning of power, and the effects of precarity.
This Research Topic aims to cover emerging and novel evidence-based educational research that explores but is not limited to investigating:
• Mentoring/mentorship;
• Gatekeeping;
• Experimentation vs preservation;
• Addressing jazz and national legacies such as Indigenous music;
• Inclusivity;
• Online/Virtual education;
• Lifelong learning and self-directed development of musicians;
Example titles may include:
• What challenges do professional musicians face in becoming jazz educators in Higher Education;
• Possibilities and challenges in fostering inclusivity in a traditionally mastery-oriented practice;
• How can online spaces be safe for female and gender non-conforming students?
• How does learning outside formalized learning in collaborative, social, and professional settings inform HE teaching and learning and vice versa?
We welcome original research articles employing quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method/multi-method research designs, systematic reviews of the literature, philosophical and conceptual-theoretical analysis papers. We also encourage arts-based methods and participatory approaches.
Keywords: Jazz, Improvisation, Creativity, Teaching and Learning, Formal Education, Informal Education.
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
