An Unexpected Journey

Abstract A classically trained pianist and self-proclaimed rule follower, Austina Lee has always found the notion of improvisation intimidating. Educational policies in the United States, influenced by neoliberal ideals, have supported and compounded this feeling through promoting competition-centric and achievement-focused practices the author has clung to including, and especially in, her identity as a musician. She continued to conform to noncreative, restrictive structures and practices in her early years as a mathematics and choir teacher at the high school from which she graduated. In this chapter, Lee walks readers through her journey of appreciation for the improvisatory nature of the art of teaching and her pursuit of disentangling from oppressive structures to embrace liberatory praxis for her and her students, in and through her work and experiences as an educator. The outcome is a pedagogical approach that celebrates the humanity of self and others in and through music education.