This article examines how students of diverse gender identities experience collaborative music-making in formal, informal, and non-formal music making contexts in and around the music program in Norwegian upper secondary schools. While previous research on gender in music education has largely relied on a binary understanding of gender, this study challenges such frameworks by conceptualizing gender as a spectrum, drawing on the theories of Judith Butler and Karen Barad on performativity. By investigating how gendered norms shape participation in different music-making contexts, the study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between gender and collaborative music-making. Empirical material was generated through participatory observation and qualitative interviews with nine students (three girls, three nonbinary individuals, and three boys) specializing in electric guitar or bass across four schools.The insights indicate that gender identity is a key factor shaping access to music making contexts, musical roles, and collaborative experiences. Male students engaged actively across all three domains, female students primarily participated in formal and non-formal settings, while non-binary students gravitated toward informal contexts or sought greater involvement in them.The study underscores the need for more inclusive educational approaches that recognize gender diversity and critically address how different collaborativemusic-making contexts provide distinct performative possibilities. It highlights the importance of educators being aware of implicit gendered expectations in  different music-making contexts and fostering opportunities for participation that do not reinforce exclusionary norms. By challenging traditional gender binaries in music education and conceptualizing gender performativity as a spectrum of lived experiences, this study calls for a rethinking of how music-making contexts can be more equitably structured and made accessible to students of allgender identities.

This article draws on empirical findings from a qualitative interview study with twelve teachers of free improvisation in European HME institutionsin eight different countries. A salient theme from the interviews was teachers’reflections on the very notion of free improvisation. This article explores theirconceptions of free improvisation with a particular educational interest in thecritical potential embedded in improvisation practices. Within a socio-culturalframework, key concepts are epistemic diversity, George Lewis’ Afrological andEurological approaches to improvisation, and Maxine Greene’s notion of freedomas closely connected to imagination and the power for self-expression and selfdetermination in the arts. The teachers in the study constructed free improvisationas a site for challenging established “truths” about music and creativity and todefy epistemic hierarchies. However, some teachers addressed mechanisms inimprovisation practice and pedagogy that pull towards a conservation of (new)knowledge and values, and privilege what can be perceived as normative masculinity. We claim that in a learning and performing environment in free improvisation where epistemic diversity can flourish, a more diverse range of students andmusicians will feel welcome to participate. 

In higher music education (HME) contexts, free improvisation is currently a rapidly evolving field across musical genres. Previous research indicates that teaching and learning improvisation can be challenging, depending on students’ experience and how improvised music-making is facilitated, but few studies address free improvisation in HME. Our study has explored this field by utilising qualitative interviews with teachers of free improvisation in European HME institutions. Results provided insight into teachers’ motivation and the educational aims which informed their approaches to teaching improvisation. Some teachers referred to a canon of free improvised or experimental music and well-known improvisers, interpreted as a need amongst the teachers to position and legitimise a potentially marginalised subject within institutions. Teachers in our study used different types of frameworks to develop students’ ability to interact and listen. Focusing on musical parameters, limitations of choices or language metaphors were often used as tools for acquiring such aims. Results further indicate that free improvisation should be a safe space, enhance democratic values and disrupt hierarchies of knowledge. In sum, our study contributes to mapping and understanding contradictions and complexities of this developing area of pedagogy.

The European Jazz Workshop (EJW) was an Erasmus+ funded educational project that involved collaboration from jazz programmes in higher music education institutions and jazz festivals from five European cities, focusing on development of repertoire and working methods for large jazz ensembles.TextGuro Gravem JohansenPublished: Jan 12, 2024Last updated: Jan 29, 2024Trailing the Jazz Workshop is a trailing research study investigating aspects of activities and goals relevant for the development of higher jazz education, by taking both the student and the teacher perspectives into account. This report describes background factors for the project; a theoretical framework and the research methodology that has been employed to trail the project; an outline of the main results from the study; and a discussion of how these results can be utilised to develop higher jazz education.

All the music was created by students, but the five large ensemble projects varied in how agency were distributed among participants, which in turn was connected to how the music they worked with was created, rehearsed and performed. Some projects utilised a collaborative working mode through varying degrees of collective improvisation. Other projects employed a hierarchical ensemble structure, centering the composed score and a conductor. In more collaborative projects, teachers were often central in guiding the process, whereas teachers in projects with a hierarchical structure were more in the background. This indicates that collaborative creativity in large ensembles may require experienced guidance in educational projects. When students without the experience of a teacher are given more responsibility, they may fall back on established and traditional ensemble working modes.

This article is a conceptual analysis of the concepts of enactive mastery experience and vicarious learning experience from Albert Bandura's socio-cognitive theory, applied to the empirical case of the Norwegian learning centre Improbasen. I outline some historical and socio-psychological contexts that posits jazz practice as a masculine stereotyped activity, to indicate various mechanisms that may cause a low self-efficacy for playing jazz in girls and non-binary children. When presenting the empirical case, I highlight the learning center's strategies to promote gender equality. Finally, I discuss theoretically how these strategies may strengthen self-efficacy in children, relating them to experiences of mastery and vicarious learning. In conclusion I suggest that a diverse learning environment that facilitates peer identification works better for all genders than, when iconic male jazz musicians are treated as models for learning.

Improbasen is a Norwegian private learning centre that offers beginner's instrumental tuition within jazz improvisation for children between the ages of 7 and 15. This book springs out of a two-year ethnographic study of the teaching and learning activity at Improbasen, highlighting features from the micro-interactions within the lessons, the organisation of Improbasen, and its international activity.

Music teachers, students, and scholars within music education as well as jazz research will benefit from the perspectives presented in the book, which shows how children systematically acquire tools for improvisation and shared codes for interplay. Through a process of guided participation in jazz culture, even very young children are empowered to take part in a global, creative musical practice with improvisation as an educational core.

This book critically engages in current discussions about jazz pedagogy, inclusion and gender equity, beginning instrumental tuition, creativity, and authenticity in childhood.

The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a CC BY NC ND Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 International license

Expanding the Space for Improvisation Pedagogy in Music is a critical, research-based anthology exploring improvisation in music pedagogy. The book broadens the understanding of the potentials and possibilities for improvisation in a variety of music education contexts and stimulates the development of knowledge and reflection on improvisation.

The book critically examines the challenges, cultural values, aims and methods involved in improvisation pedagogy. Written by international contributors representing a variety of musical genres and research methodologies, it takes a transdisciplinary approach and outlines a way ahead for improvisation pedagogy and research, by providing a space for the exchange of knowledge and critique. 

This book will be of great interest to scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students in the fields of arts education, music education, improvisation, music psychology, musicology, ethnomusicology, artistic research and community music. It will also appeal to music educators on all levels in the field of music education and music psychology.