Room for Improvisation in the Music
Classroom?
Author: PhD student Christina Larsson School of Music, Theatre and Art, Örebro University, Sweden christina.larsson@oru.se
Improvisation is a distinguished feature of many music practices. But is there room for improvisation in the classroom? Researchers have argued that music education in schools should provide more improvisation activities (see e.g. Burnard, 2012; Sawyer, 2003). Current national curricula in the Scandinavian countries as well as in England and Australia highlight the need to advance inventive and creative tasks in the learning environment (see e.g. English National Curriculum: music programmes of study 2013, ACARA, 2012; The Swedish
National Agency for Education/Skolverket, 2011). In the Swedish curriculum for the compulsory school (The Swedish National Agency for Education/Skolverket, 2011) improvisation is designated mandatory content in the Core content of the syllabus for the subject music, from year one to year nine. Yet existing international literature (Whitcomb, 2007; Ferm & Zandén, 2014, Gruenhagen & Whitcomb, 2014) shows that improvisation tend to be an overlooked activity in general music classrooms. Music teachers find improvisation challenging and they say they are uncomfortable teaching it, are not well educated in
improvisation practices and have neither time nor space for improvisation activities in the classroom (Whitcomb 2013, Ferm & Zandén, 2014, Gruenhagen & Whitcomb, 2014). With the overall purpose to elucidate didactical, educational and musical conditions for improvisation in the music classroom the aim is to explore:(i) how improvisation is conceived and how these conceptions are expressed in music educational practices (ii) what hindrances and/or possibilities for improvisation that music educators experience. (iii) how didactical conditions for improvisation can be elaborated and improvisation tools can be developed, accommodated and employed in music education (iv) what role improvisation might have in a goal and result-driven school (v) the empirical and methodological challenges for researching improvisation in the general music classroom.
An observation study would probably not be useful since, according to previous research there seem to be few improvisation activities going on in music classrooms. I therefor suggest a collaborative action research method, Participatory Action Research (PAR) (Herr &
Anderson, 2015), in combination with a practical epistemological analysis method based on the pragmatism of John Dewey and developed by Wickman and Östman (2002). The study is set in three different compulsory schools and will be pursued over a period of two semesters in collaboration with three music teachers and their teaching in year four. In the collaborative process with music teachers, where models and methods for improvisation in the music classroom will be discussed, tested, accommodated and developed, the PAR perspective will be combined with a pragmatic perspective.
The transactional theory based on Dewey, is here used in order to explore music educators’ experiences and meaning making in the process of developing and implementing methods for improvisation in music educational settings. Experience in a transactional perspective is about the continuous process where people are facing the consequences of their own actions
(Wickman, 2006). Gert Biesta (2009) discusses the purpose of education and highlights the question of what is educationally desirable by emphasising three functions of education.
These functions are described as qualification, socialisation and subjectification and they will be the foundation for analyses of education policies and the role of improvisation in music education. This will include discussions on potential conflicts of aesthetic subjects in a goal- and result driven schooling system.
The study offers critical discussions and insights on empirical and methodological challenges for researching improvisation in the general music classroom and complement existing music education research in some aspects: (i) teachers didactic reflections on, and development of, improvisation teaching practice will be elucidated, and (ii) show how scholarly based improvisation tools can be developed, accommodated and employed in general music classrooms to facilitate improvisation and empower educators self confidence concerning teaching improvisation (iii) elucidate improvisation as a room for subjectification (Hasslöf, 2015).
References
Biesta, Gert (2009). Good education in an age of measurement: on the need to reconnect with the question of purpose in education. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability,
21(1), 33-46.
Burnard, Pamela (2012) Rethinking Creative Teaching and Teaching as Research: Mapping
the Critical Phases That Mark Times of Change and Choosing as Learners and Teachers of Music, Theory Into Practice, 51:3, 167-178, DOI: 10.1080/00405841.2012.690312
Dewey, John (1988). Experience and nature. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press
Dewey, John (2005). Människans natur och handlingsliv. Inledning till en socialpsykologi. (Human nature and conduct) Övers. Alf Ahlberg. Göteborg: Bokförlaget Daidalos
Ferm Thorgersen, Cecilia; Zandén, Olle (2014). Teaching for Learning or Teaching for documentation? Music teachers ́perspectives on a Swedish curriculum reform. In British
Journal of Music Education. September 2014, pp1-14. DOI: 10.1017/S0265051714000166
Garrison, Jim (2001). An Introduction to Dewey’s Theory of Functional “Transaction”: An Alternative Paradigm for Activity Theory. In Mind, Culture, and Activity, 8:4, 275-296, DOI: 10.1207/S1532788MCA0804 02
Gruenhagen, Lisa; Whitcomb, Rachel (2014). Improvisational Practices in Elementary General Music Classrooms. In Journal of Research in Music Education 2014, Vol 61 (4) 379 – 395. DOI: 10.1177/0022429413508586
Herr, Kathryn; Anderson, Gary L. (2015). The Action Research Dissertation. A Guide for
Students and Faculty. SAGE publications. Thousand Oaks, California
Hasslöf, Helen (2015). The Educational Challenge in ’Education for Sustainable
Development’; Qualification, social change and the political. Diss Malmö University. Malmö: Holmbergs
Larsson, Christina; Georgii-Hemming, Eva (in progress). Improvisation in music education –
an overview.
Sawyer, R. Keith (ed.) (2003). Creativity and development. New York: Oxford University Press.
Skolverket (2011). Curriculum for the compulsory school, preschool class and the recreation
centre 2011. Stockholm: Ordförrådet AB.
Tomlinson, M.M. (2011). Music improvisation: Young children’s multimodal text reconstructions using semiotics in cross- cultural classroom settings. In ”Making Sound
Waves: Diversity, Unity, Equity.” Australian Society of Music Education XVIII National
Conference Proceedings (pp. 144 – 150)
Whitcomb, Rachel (2007). Improvisation in elementary general music: A survey study. The Kodály Envoy, 34(1), 5-10.
Whitcomb, Rachel (2013). Teaching Improvisation in Elementary General Music: Facing Fears and Fostering Creativity. Music Educators Journal, 99 (43), 43–50.
Wickman, Per-Olov; Östman, Leif (2002). Learning as discourse change: A sociocultural mechanism. Science Education, 86(5), 601-623.
Wickman, Per-Olof (2006). Aesthetic Experience in Science Education. Learning and
Meaning- Making as Situated Talk and Action. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
National Curricula from websites:
Australia: Australian Curriculum, the Arts (2013). Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/the-arts/introduction, 2015-05-08
Denmark: The Danish Ministry of Education, National Agency for It and
learning/Undervisningsministeriet, Styrelsen for IT og læring Musik - Mål, læseplan og
vejledning http://www.emu.dk/modul/musik-mål-læseplan-og-vejledning Retrieved
2015-05-08
England: National curriculum in England: music programmes of study (2013) Retrieved from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-music- programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-music-programmes-of-study. Retrieved 2015-05-08
European Association for Music in
Schools/Germany:http://www.eas-music.org/countries/germany-de/music-education/curricula/Retrieved 2015-05-08
Finland: Finnish National Board of Education/Utbildningsstyrelsen (2004) Grunderna för
läroplanen för den grundläggande utbildningen.
http://www.oph.fi/lagar_och_anvisningar/laroplans-
Norway: The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training/Utdanningsdirektoratet (2006). Læreplan i musikk http://www.udir.no/kl06/MUS1-01/ Retrieved 2015-05-08
Sweden: The Swedish National Agency for Education/Skolverket (2011). Curriculum for the
compulsory school, preschool class and the recreation centre 2011. Stockholm: Ordförrådet
AB
