A bridge of improvisation: the space between teaching and jazz

Teaching and jazz have a strong conceptual connection built predominantly on a metaphor of improvisation. However, this metaphor does not account for, or can disregard or diminish, the reality of teaching being an improvisational practice. Using curriculum scholar Ted Aoki’s notion of a bridge, a way to connect to places and reveal the space in between, I argue that teaching is not only metaphorically improvisational, but an improvisational practice of its own grounded in educational socio-learning theories. Aoki’s bridge invites us to move more slowly between jazz and education and pause in the tension in between. A tension that reveals a lack of professional improvisational training and systemic pressures on teachers, but also a space for future scholarship and possibilities. A space in which teachers are collaborators and learners, open to dialogue and reflection, and embracing the opportunities of mistakes and unpredictability of the classroom. From this position on Aoki’s bridge, improvisation emerges not just as metaphor, or an educational tool, but as the basis of pedagogical practice.