Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education I S S N 15 4 5 - 4 5 17 A refereed journal of the Action for Change in Music Education Vo lu m e 14 N u m be r 2 Au gu s t 2 0 15 Vincent C. Bates, Editor Brent C. Talbot, Associate Editor Re fle ctio n s o n Fre ire an Pe d a go gy in a Jazz Co m bo Lab Daniel J . Shevock © Dan iel J . Shevock. 20 15. The content of this article is the sole responsibility of the authors. The ACT J ournal and the Mayday Group are n ot liable for any legal action s that m ay arise in volvin g the article's content, including, but not lim ited to, copyright infringem ent. Special Features: Download this docum ent and then open it in Adobe Reader to view endnotes and citations by placing the cursor over the corresponding num ber or date. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 85 Reflections on Freirean Pedagogy in a Jazz Combo Lab Daniel J. Shevock The Pennsylvania State University Abs tra ct Paulo Freire w as an im portant figure in adult education w hose pedagogy has been used in m usic education. In this act of praxis (reflection and action upon the w orld in order to transform it), I share an autoethnography of m y teachin g of a university -level sm all ensem ble jazz class. The purpose of this autoethnography w as to exam ine m y teaching praxis as I integrated Freirean pedagogy . There w ere tw o research questions. To w hat extent w ere the teachings of Paulo Freire applicable or useful for a university -level, im provisational, sm all ensem ble class? How do students’ confidence and ability at im provisation im prove during the class? Data sources included teacher reflections, video-recordings of each class, and conversations on a Facebook page. In the Jazz Com bo Lab, students w ho w ere unable to successfully navigate the com petitive audition process w ere em pow ered to develop as jazz m usicians and becom e critically reflective. A narrative of m y ow n evolving praxis is shared around the them es “Freirean Pedagogy as Increased Conversation,” “Em pow ering Students to Critique Their W orlds,” “Pedagogical Missteps,” and “A More Critical Praxis.” Keywords: m usic education, Freire, jazz, pedagogy P aulo Freire was an im portant figure in adult education whose pedagogy has been used in m usic education. Working within a Critical Pedagogy fram ework derived from Freirean theorists, Henry Giroux and Michael Apple, Elliott (20 13) proposed that a “prim ary” way m usic education can serve hum anity is by, “enabling the developm ent of students’ character, identities, em pathy, happiness, health and well-being, personal an d social agency, an d ethical dispositions to oppose all form s of oppression and injustice with and through critically reflective and creative m usic m aking” (3). This quote resonated with m e, because m y aim for m y own teaching praxis is to facilitate these qualities, and m y research has focused on realizing how to enable the developm ent of students’ confiden ce to im provise m usic (Shevock, in-press). In this act of praxis (reflection and action upon the w orld in order to transform it), I share an autoethnography of Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 86 m y teaching of a university-level sm all ensem ble jazz class, while, at the sam e tim e learning and im plem enting Freire’s pedagogy. Fre ire an Pe d ago gy Paulo Freire (1921-1997) was a dom inant an d often-m ythologized figure in 20 th century educational philosophy. Giroux (20 11) explains, “Paulo Freire occupies a hallowed position am ong the founders of critical pedagogy” (152). Freire im plem ented and oversaw nation-wide adult literacy program s in South Am erica, Africa, an d Central Am erica. His pedagogy evolved and changed through his experiences and his scholarship. In this paper, I will share an autoethnography illum inating m y initial experience with Freirean pedagogy and m y attem pt to incorporate Freire’s theories into m y own teaching praxis. I find it im portant to m ake a distinction in this paper between how I’m using the term s Freirean pedagogy an d Critical Pedagogy. Paulo Freire provided a language and theoretical fram ework for Critical Pedagogy (Giroux 20 11; Macedo 20 0 0 ). Critical Pedagogy can be understood as a Freirean pedagogy, however not all expressions of Freire’s theories have been Critical Pedagogy. For instance, there are distinctions that m ight be m ade between the places of teaching for critical pedagogues in the U.S., Europe, Australia and Canada, and Freire’s places of teaching—national adult literacy program s in Chile, Brazil, Guinea Bissau, an d Nicaragua. In conducting this autoethnography, I did not use the literature of Critical Pedagogy broadly (which is often already m odified for a so-called First W orld context), or m usic education Critical Pedagogy, but designed m y J azz Com bo Lab pedagogy on m y readings of Freire’s writings and relevant critiques on Freirean concepts. The context of a perform ance ensem ble also provided unique challen ges. Cho (20 10 ) stated that a banking education teaching approach dom inated in perform ance settings. “This traditional m anner of teaching and learning has been passed down through tim e” (3). I believe university jazz instruction can also be affected by a tradition of banking education. Therefore, m odifications were m ade. I will use the term Freirean to refer to Freire’s writings and large-scale adult literacy cam paigns he design ed and im plem ented during his lifetim e, and to the literature that critiques Freire’s pedagogy, and not to Critical Pedagogy or critiques of Critical Pedagogy Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 87 broadly. Because of the focus of this research on (what is here labeled) Freirean pedagogy, the challenges, successes, and critiques in this research are specific to Freirean pedagogy and how I applied Freire’s theories to a specific m usic perform ance ensem ble. I hope this paper, therefore, will provide m eaningful inform ation for other teachers approaching Freire’s writings for the first tim e, as I was at the start of this study. Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire 1970 / 93) was written after Freire im plem ented nation-wide adult literacy program s in Chile and Brazil, program s that ended when right wing political parties were elected to power. Pedagogy of the Oppressed represents the m ost com plete description of Freire’s pedagogical concepts and later Freirean writings draw heavily from Pedagogy of the Oppressed and expect readers to have a strong grasp of prior Freirean concepts (Kirkendall 20 10 ). It is im possible to fully grasp Freire’s theory without understanding Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and, because of its im portance, m any contem porary critical educators base their understandings of Freirean pedagogy entirely on this text, which Roberts (20 0 0 ) describes as unfortunate; Freire’s pedagogy grew throughout his life in response to what he considered fair criticism —especially from critical race theorists and critical fem inists. Still, Pedagogy of the Oppressed contains Freire’s foundational concepts of hum anization, banking education, problem posing pedagogy , conscientization, and the oppressed/ oppressor binary. Freire (1970 / 93) believed that because the world can often dehum anize oppressed people, education m ust be a hum anization process, a process advancing from reflection, to action, to transform ation. This process requires the oppressed to becom e “restorers of hum anity to both” (44) them selves and their oppressors. But there is a real danger, in Freire’s m ind, that when given power the oppressed m ight them selves becom e “sub-oppressors” (45). Rather, the key to overcom ing oppression lies in praxis, which for Freire is “reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it” (51), rather than sim ply changin g the balance of power. Transform ation com es in two stages, (1) the oppressors unveil the oppressive nature of the world and com m it them selves to change the world, and (2) the world enters a state of perm anent liberation for all people. For Freire (1970 / 93), m any teachers problem atically use a banking concept of education, which positions teachers as possessors of knowledge; knowledge is then Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 88 deposited into the students who are m ere consum ers (em pty of knowledge) rather than producers of knowledge. Banking education alienates students from knowledge. As opposed to the banking m odel, problem -posing pedagogy addresses real problem s an d positions knowledge as constructed rather than som ething out there. A Freirean pedagogy is based on dialogue. Dialogue is conversation, but to distinguish his concept of dialogue from other philosopher’s use of the term , Freire (1970 / 93) describes the “correct m ethod” (67), as “the encounter between m en, m ediated by the world, in order to nam e the world” (88). This requires reflective action, courage, and love. Through dialogue, students are viewed as historical—as Freire (1974/ 20 0 6) wrote, “Men exist in tim e. They are inside. They are outside . . . Men are not im prisoned within a perm anent ‘today’; they em erge, and becom e tem poralized” (3– 4). Dialogue occurs with critical thinking, an d can lead to conscientization—m ovem ent from m agical thinking, to naïve thinking—thinking in which the oppressed are not em powered to change the world—to critical thinking— “thinking which discerns an in divisible solidarity between the world and the people and adm its no dichotom y between them ” (Freire 1970 / 93, 92). Freire’s pedagogy also had an artistic com ponent. To Freire, “what is fundam ental in the role of the teacher is to help the student to discover that inside of the difficulties there is a m om ent of pleasure, of joy” (Freire and Horton 1990 , 23). Freire found artistic “sensualism ” in the act of reading. A sim ilar sensualism can be found in m usical action. Also, Freire identified schools during his own learning as “killing creativity” (28), through “bureaucratization of the m ind” (37). Freire suggested creative action provides opportunities for “ruptura” (38)—a breaking from old beliefs, and an internal and personal conflict. Perhaps, creative, im provised m usical action can facilitate opportunities for ruptura. Postm odern, fem inist, critical race, and ecological education scholars criticized Freire’s writings throughout his life. For instance, Freire’s pedagogy seem s to present either/ or binaries (the m ost pertin ent is the distinction between the oppressed and oppressors), and conscientization (as distinct cognitive stages) seem s to present a universal m etanarrative. Lyotard (1979/ 84) defined postm odernism as “incredulity toward m etanarratives” (xxiv), so, quite naturally, postm odernist critique should call into question our m etanarratives, possible negative consequen ces Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 89 and solutions. Postm odernist-Freirean scholar, Roberts (20 0 0 ) reinterpreted Freirean concepts through m ultiple-subjectivities; we are an “am algam of m any different ‘selves’” (147). Freire’s description of m agical, naïve and critical thinking as distinct cognitive stages of conscientization seem s particularly m odernistic. Roberts recom m en ded an alternative, “a dialectical representation of conscientization as a continuous reflective process” (147). These m odifications of Freirean theory seem apropos. In response to critics, Freire (1998) later discussed his ethics, dem ocracy, critical reflection, race, right thinking, and conscientization in his m ost postm odern words. He addressed the problem s of neoliberalism to freedom and equated dem ocratic teaching praxes with “critical capacity, curiosity, an d autonom y of the learner” (33). A postm odern m odified-Freirean pedagogy m ight put em phasis on autonom y , dem ocratic teaching praxes, and respecting students’ different selves. One particularly powerful critique cam e from Esteva, Stuchul, and Prakash (20 0 5), who presented Freire as conservative and as a “colonizer” (13). They suggested conscientization is “new wine for old bottles—the bottles of colonization” (16), by positioning the teacher as the m ediator who “conceptualizes the category or class of the oppressed in his or her own term s, with his or her own ideology” (16). The m ediator status of teachers creates a m oral obligation to change, or evangelize, the students, who lack som ething, “and even m ore, that what their oppressed lack is this specific notion or stage, they assum e and legitim ate their own role as liberators” (17). This critique m ay help explain Freire’s failed literacy program in Guinea Bissau, and his seem ing insistence that students learn to read and write Portuguese rather than their native languages. Portuguese was the language of the Guinea Bissau governm ent and the colonizer’s language. Undoubtedly, the decision to use the colonial language as the m eans of instruction was, ultim ately, the m ajor reason why the literacy program in Guinea-Bissau failed. As in m ost postcolonial African countries, leaders preferred to use the language of the colonizer as the new national language . . . Creole m ight have had som ewhat m ore potential as a unifying force, as the use of it had spread during the war for liberation. (Kirkendall 20 10 , 111) It m ay be that the use of the language of the oppressor was detrim ental to the students. It m ay also be possible that the very need for a unify ing force represents what Esteva, Stuchul, and Prakash (20 0 5) called a “universal ethic” (16), one that seem s to have been unsuitable for Guinea Bissau, even if it had been suitable for Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 90 Freire’s previous teaching contexts in Brazil and Chile. Was I em ploying jazz as a universal ethic in the J azz Com bo Lab? As a university teaching assistant, course descriptions are out of m y control. The course instructor provided m e m uch freedom when teaching this class, and only observed m e during a few periods during the sem ester. We talked weekly about what I was trying, and he m ade suggestions, but he took a laissez-faire approach, respecting m y teaching experience while providing guidance based on his own experience as a jazz professor. I did not, however, feel the freedom to change J azz Com bo Lab to Pop Music Lab, and so did not explore that possibility with the students. In higher m usic education, the dom in ant pattern has been Western Art Music, with jazz having a place at the table at m any institutions (and possibly considered the dom inant pattern for teaching m usic im provising, though im provising is not a dom inant pattern for m usicking in higher m usic education), and other m usical styles being taught seldom , if ever. Like Freire, I chose to use jazz (as a dom inant pattern for university instruction). Though Freire suggested that the governm ent insisted on im plem enting his literacy program in Portuguese, Freire continued to defend teaching the “dom inant pattern” (and perhaps the dom inant language) years later. Do you see, it’s im possible to think of language without thinking of ideology and power? I defend the duty of the teachers to teach the cultivated pattern and I defend the rights of the kids or of the adults to learn the dom inant pattern. But, it is necessary in being a dem ocratic and tolerant teacher, it is necessary to explain , to m ake clear to the kids or the adults that their way of speaking is as beautiful as our way of speaking. (Wees 20 12) Freire seem s to suggest that the learning of the “dom in ant pattern” is a “right,” when, in the case of Guinea Bissau, requiring the learning of Portuguese seem s to have been an unnecessary burden to students wanting to becom e literate. The issue of a m ediator, whose view of conscientization places “the oppressed” into a less advanced “stage of awareness,” seem s unanswerable within the context of Freirean pedagogy, as I understand it. Freirean author, McLaren (20 0 7), adm itted three critiques “worthy of consideration” (10 1) in discussions of Freire’s pedagogy: 1) that the languages of indigenous cultures often encode ways of protecting the environm ent and anim als, 2) that Freire’s belief that all change is linear and progressive m ight recapitulate a Western colonialist understanding of the world and its peoples, and 3) that Freire’s com m itm ent to “critical reflection” without a grounding in local culture or tradition can too easily becom e future Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 91 justifications for technological advancem ent, war and even geopolitical m anipulation. (10 1) In connection to the lack of Freirean pedagogy for the environm ent and anim als, McLaren (20 0 7) suggests teachers, “do best to open a dialogue with students about the environm ents they live in, rather than by im agining that som e sort of ideal tradition will take care of environm ental crisis by itself” (10 2). Dialogue, then, is the m ethod through which a Freirean teacher would address the environm ental crisis. It m ight also be said that our field, m usic education, lacks m uch discussion on the protection of the environm ent and anim als. And the current research did not approach environm ental issues, ecological literacy, or ecopedagogy. Esteva, Stuchul, and Prakash’s (20 0 5) concern for Freire’s universal ethic seem s to align with what McLaren (20 0 7) described as the possibility for recapitulation of W estern colonialist understanding of the w orld and its peoples. McLaren points readers to Pedagogy of Hope (Freire 1992). Freire suggested: I cannot understand hum an beings as sim ply living. I can understand them only as historically, culturally, and socially existing. I can understand them only as beings who are m akers of their ‘way,’ in the m aking of which they lay them selves open to or com m it them selves to the ‘way’ that they m ake and that therefore rem akes them as well. (Freire 1992, 8 3, em phasis in original) In this excerpt, Freire m akes it clear that he is em phasizing his students’ choice (m akers of their w ay ) through his hum anistic conception, within historical, cultural, and social contexts. McLaren (20 0 7) continues, “We critical educators are universalists, yes . . . But we begin from som ewhere, from concrete spaces and places where subjectivities are forged and com m odified (and we hope de-com m odified) and where critical agency is developed in particular and distinct ways” (10 3). Perhaps J azz Com bo Lab can im prove critical agency in the particular and distinct ways the jazz tradition provides. Fre ire a n Pe d ago gy in Mu s ic Ed u catio n Freirean pedagogical ideas are present, but not widespread, in m usic education, and have expanded our m usic education philosophical discourse (e.g. Abraham s 20 0 5a; Allsup 20 0 3a; Benedict 20 0 6; Benedict and Schm idt 20 0 7; J orgensen 20 10 ; Schm idt 20 0 5; Spruce 20 12). Allsup (20 0 3a) used Freire’s understanding of praxis as nonneutral to widen the use of the term praxis in m usic education. He clarified Freire’s inseparability of theory and practice (praxis) when he suggested, “we disavow the Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 92 traditional separation between abstracted learning and real life . . . acting upon our world requires inaction: thinking, perceiving, reflecting, reconceptualizing, connecting” (158). Benedict (20 0 6) used Freire’s theory to critique the essentialist philosophy used to construct 1994 U.S. National Music Standards. And J orgensen (20 10 ) used Freire to discuss how we m ight dialogue and act to address current issues in m usic education, including in equities such as “the unevenness of m usical opportunities” (22), which I consider university jazz to be (m y J azz Com bo Lab students 1 would be unable to participate in jazz if it weren’t for the creation of this opportunity). Freirean pedagogy has been used to develop m usic education lessons in general m usic settings (e.g. Abraham s 20 0 7; Allsup 20 0 3a; Spruce 20 12). Allsup (20 0 3a) described a lesson in which he had university m usic education students com pose a “requiem for the m issing and dead” (158) of Septem ber 11, 20 0 1. In opening space for dialogue and reparation, this lesson seem s to have had the power to incorporate (in the classroom ) students’ lived experiences of tragedy (outside of the classroom ). Spruce (20 12) provided exam ples of Critical Pedagogy – having students write “m usical biographies” (192), motivating students to im provise m usically by im provising a “Hip-Hop type riff” (193), and reworking the lyrics of an English folk song into an anti-war song. He also voiced a belief that “m usic provides the possibility of a m uch richer discourse between teacher and student” (193) than discourse based on spoken language. In 20 0 5, Schm idt (20 0 5) recognized that m usic educators still did not com m only read Freire. The author’s goal was to use Freirean concepts to “develop fram eworks that define the philosophy of a Critical Pedagogy for Music Education” (2). Schm idt’s concern was that in m usic education, “Authoritarian pedagogical m odels an d objectives . . . are expected” (4), and recom m ended that m usic education m ight grow to be for social an d personal transform ation. Freirean conscientization, for Schm idt, is a process in which a learner, “becom e[s] conscious of one’s knowledge, by engagin g in learning that connects concepts to the learners’ own realities, leads students to the point where they ‘know that they know.’ Music education, centered upon conscientization becom es powerful” (6). According to Schm idt, this pow er is a consequen ce of culture and social relationships. In other words, m usic is a way in which students encounter the world interactively. Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 93 Abraham s (20 0 5a) constructed a Freirean fram ework for lesson planning in m usic education. The author suggested a critical approach relates m usic in students’ personal lives to em power students in the classroom s, an d “does not advocate a particular body of repertoire or specific teaching procedure” (63). He outlined, “Five key principles of critical pedagogy” (64), education as (1) conversation, (2) broadening students’ view of reality, (3) em powering, (4) transform ative, (5) and political. Scheib (20 12) suggested that, because they were shared in the widely distributed Music Educators J ournal, these five principles are em ployed in m usic teacher training. It m ay be that by 20 12 (15 years after Freire’s death), Freirean pedagogy was becom ing m ore com m on (though not necessarily com m on or wellim plem ented) in m usic education, at least in university teacher training program s. Pu rp o s e At the beginning of this research, I believed Freirean pedagogy m ight provide a useful lens through which to consider teaching praxis in a m usic-perform ing ensem ble. Freire’s literacy cam paigns were highly politicized and prom oted his m ethod as able to teach literacy “in only forty hours” (Kirkendall 20 10 , 41). The dual purpose of Freirean pedagogy (of efficiently teaching adults to read and write and of conscientization) seem ed to echo the dual-purpose in m y ensem ble. It was m y aim to design Jazz Com bo Lab to develop both skill and critical reflectivity. My teaching had for years been influenced by J ohn Dewey (1910 / 20 0 5), who said, “To cultivate unhindered, unreflective external activity is to foster enslavem ent, for it leaves the person at the m ercy of appetite, sen se, and circum stance” (52). Critical reflectivity m ight, then, have the potential to free students from their enslavem ent– e.g. to a com petitive audition process. To Freire (1970 / 93), “Knowledge em erges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, im patient, continuing, hopeful inquiry hum an beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other” (72). This curious nature of knowledge, knowledge based on curiosity, was a guiding thought for m y weekly teaching of jazz com bo lab. “A person learns to swim in the water, not in a library” (137). The purpose of this autoethnography was to exam ine m y teaching praxis as I integrated Freirean pedagogy in a sm all ensem ble jazz class. Freire (1998) described critical reflection as “a requirem ent of the relationship between theory and practice” Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 94 (30 ). The conducting of this research on m y own teaching praxis, as well as the presenting and writing of this current paper, then, can be described as an act of critical reflection and of praxis. There were two research questions. How appropriate did I find the teachings of Paulo Freire (a full-spectrum of his work and not just Pedagogy of the Oppressed) for a university-level, im provisational, sm all ensem ble class? How do students’ confidence and ability at im provisation im prove during the class? Over the course of the sem ester m y teaching praxis evolved through discussions in an Adult Education course on Freire in which I was enrolled, critical readings of Freirean texts, studying m usic education thinkers who have used Freirean fram eworks, and reflective teaching in the Jazz Com bo Lab. Me th o d The opportunity for conducting this autoethnography arose as I enrolled in an Adult Education course on Paulo Freire and began teaching a section of Jazz Com bo Class for students who were unable to successfully audition into one of the ensem bles. Prior to 20 13, I knew very little about Freirean pedagogy. Through the course, I studied Freire’s books Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Freire 1970 / 93), Pedagogy in Process: The letters to Guinea Bissau (Freire 1978), W e Make the Road by W alking (Horton and Freire 1990 ), Pedagogy of Hope (Freire 1992), and Pedagogy of Freedom (Freire 1998); a book placing Freire in historical context of Cold War politics (Kirkendall 20 10 ); a book-length case study im plem enting Freirean pedagogy (Purcell-Gates an d Waterm an 20 0 0 ); and critiques of Freire’s pedagogy such as those by Bowers and Apffel-Marglin (20 0 5), Roberts (20 0 0 ), Esteva, Stuchul, and Prakash (20 0 5), hooks (1994), Ism ail (20 0 3), Rivera (20 0 4), and Weiler (1991). Freire (1998) suggested the teacher m ust also be a researcher. I challenged m yself to try to apply Freire’s ideas on literacy in the Jazz Com bo Lab. At the sam e tim e, I hoped to fam iliarize m yself with Freirean m usic education writings. Au to e th n o grap h y. At MayDay 25 in Vancouver, BC, Peter Gouzouasis an d Danny Bakan (20 13 J une) presented, “An ethos in m usic education: Where are teachers and learners in m usic education research?” Their paper in spired m e to em ploy autoethnography as a self-reflective research m ethod. Autoethnography has recently em erged as a viable m ethod for m usic education research (e.g. Kruse 20 12; Nethsinghe 20 12), an d autoethnographies are reflective “case studies” (Kruse 20 12, Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 95 297) describing subjective, setting-specific experiences. Sim ilar to Nethsinghe (20 12), the present study explored m y developm ent as a teacher. Like Kruse (20 12), I am interested in challenges and successes that I experienced over a fixed period of tim e, in this current case, a university sem ester. Autoethnography was chosen (over Action Research, Phenom enology, or Grounded Theory) because it provides a m ethod for self-study, such as in Nethsinghe’s and Kruse’s research, which allowed m y initial foray into a new pedagogy (Freirean) for m e to be illum inated subjectively. The subjective n ature of the autoethnographic m ethod has strengths and weaknesses. Other research m ethodologies m ight better be able to get to the experiences of the other participants in a study (such as how the students felt about the experience), but by being honest about m y successes and failures as a teacher with a history and evolving opinions, autoethnography is able facilitate m y sharing of m y evolving praxis. Because “culture and individual are intricately intertwined” (44) this study em ployed Chang’s (20 0 8) autoethnographic m ethod. This approach to autoethnography can be distinguished from other self-narrative m ethods like autobiography, person al essay writing, and perform ative storytelling by its goal, attaining “triadic balan ce” (48) between self, culture, and process; the three parts of the word auto-ethno-graphy . The basic unit of analysis was the researcher acting within his sociocultural surroundings, and the prim ary data were the researcher’s personal experiences. In this research, there were sociocultural surroundings at play– m y history as a public school teacher in a large, urban school district, m y history as a jazz perform er, how I perceived the socioculture of university level jazz instruction, and the actual m ini-culture created in this classroom , am ong the four students and m yself as teacher. D a ta an d An alys is . I used three sources of data– journaling, videorecordings of each class, and a Facebook group page. Methodologically (Chang 20 0 8) internal data (journaling) were “com plim ent[ed]” (55) with analysis of external data, including video-recordings of each class session and dialogue occurring on the social m edia site Facebook. During the first week of class, I created Jazz Com bo Lab Facebook group and invited students to join. Data were collected and analyzed throughout the course of a 16-week university sem ester, between Septem ber and Decem ber 20 13. My prim ary purpose in the class, Jazz Com bo Lab, Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 96 was to facilitate an ensem ble experience for students who were unable to successfully navigate the audition process into one of the university’s jazz com bo ensem bles, and help them build their confidence and ability to perform . I video-recorded each teaching session to reflect on m y success at facilitating robust dialogue, increasing student agency, and avoiding authoritarian educational m odels. I also created a Facebook page, for the dual purposes of extending classroom conversations and sharing sm all ensem ble jazz YouTube videos. Finally, I im plem ented Freirean pedagogy into m y lessons throughout the sem ester as I becam e aware of it through reading Freirean texts. Data were coded and interpreted. Videos of teaching sessions were used to inspire reflection in the journal. These journal entries were coded descriptively (a noun or short phrase describing the data). Descriptive codes were gathered into larger them es in relation to the focus of the research– m y evolving teaching praxis. The prim ary them es of this research considered m y evolving praxis and were Freirean Pedagogy as Increased Conversation, Em pow ering Students to Critique Their W orlds, Pedagogical Missteps, and A More Critical Praxis. Additional analysis was conducted through writing exercises suggested by Chang (20 0 8)– chronologically listing events in m y life connected to learning (and considering Freirean theory), “list five personal, fam ilial, or social rituals, in order of im portance” (78 ) (in this case social rituals of jazz teaching in the U.S. educational institutions), “list five artifacts, in order of im portance, that represent your culture” (81) (the culture being the J azz Com bo Lab culture I was cultivating), creating a list of values that are im portant to m y teaching, and creating a list of “textual artifacts” (10 8) I used in class (e.g. the Real Book, the apps). I also analyzed data artistically (as suggested by Chang 20 0 8 ) through the writing of m odified-haiku. Form ally, haiku have followed three conventions since around the sixteenth century, (1) they describe a single thought or occasion, (2) they are about the present m om ent, and (3) they em ploy seasonal im agery like cherry blossom s (Hoffm ann 1986). According to Hoffm an, haiku are also n otable for leaving som ething unsaid, and that being cen tral to the poem . My m odified-haiku followed the first two conventions but not the third, and were about instances that happen ed during class, difficulties I had im plem enting Freirean pedagogy, or challenging Freirean theoretical points. I cam e to believe haiku provided m e an Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 97 artistic representation of m y thinking about data that was lim iting enough (5 syllables in the first lin e, 7 in the second, 5 in the third) to force m e to synthesize m y thinking. In this research I will share raw data (teaching episodes and haiku from the journal) as well as m y interpretation of these data. The first haiku represented how I viewed m y role as an autoethnographer-teacher. Researcher-teacher – Right thinking is right doing, Curious person (Novem ber 6, 20 13) J a zz Co m bo Lab Stu d e n ts . There were four students who registered for Jazz Com bo Lab. The nam es, Ron an, Caitlin, Malachi, and Aiden are pseudonym s. One of the participants, Aiden, was a m usic m ajor. He played electric violin during the sem ester. He had som e experience with free im provisation, but very little experience playing jazz. He hoped to widen his perspectives as a m usic perform ance undergraduate student. Ronan was a trum peter who began playing with one of the university big bands during that sem ester. He was perhaps the strongest jazz m usician, and hoped to becom e a m usic m ajor. Caitlin was a violinist, and an adult learner with experience playing classical m usic an d bluegrass. This helped her during im provisation activities, because she had developed a strong ear. Malachi was a classically trained pianist, and a graduate science student. He worked extensively on com ping (accom panim ent) throughout the sem ester. Prior to this study, I had little experience with Freire, and did not consider m yself a Freirean or a Critical Theory m usic teacher. One difficulty I found was that I was learning about Freire (I had not read any Freirean books prior to this research) while I was writing lesson plans and im plem enting Freirean ideas in a universitylevel perform ance ensem ble. This difficulty is also, I believe, a stren gth of this research, because I hope to identify som e of the challenges to the early im plem entation of these ideas into m y teaching praxis. During the early part of the sem ester, I was m ost influenced by Freire’s writings. However, as the sem ester continued, I becam e in creasingly influenced by criticism ’s of Freire, and, since the study and not the purview of this research, Esteva, Stuchul, and Prakash’s (20 0 5) critique, described above, which had already taken root in m y thinking during the sem ester, has led m e to seek other educational theorists. I m odified m y praxis, Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 98 during the sem ester, using the Freirean theorist, Roberts’ (20 0 0 ), lens of m ultiple subjectivities. Fin d in gs Le s s o n Plan n in g. On the top m argin of each lesson plan, I wrote a guiding quotation from one of the Adult Education course readings for the week, and then constructed a lesson plan, aim ing to help students im prove m usically and also to em power students in a Freirean sense. In other words, the inspiration for these teachings cam e from Freire’s pedagogy, and not from Critical Pedagogy m ore broadly. For instance, on the lesson plan written on Septem ber 22, 20 13, I wrote, “to conquer THEIR WORLD” (Freire 1978, 72, em phasis in the original), “with the intention of creating a lesson plan that will help these m usicians wrest m ore control of the class from m e, the instructor” (Shevock reflective journal, Septem ber 22, 20 13). The idea of con quering their w orld continued to influence m y thinking about Freirean pedagogy throughout the sem ester. I believe that the students wrested m ore control from m e during the sem ester, and by the end of the sem ester (especially with the free im provisation classes discussed later in this paper) they began to conquer their world as confident im provisers. Freirean pedagogy is designed to help avoid banking education and increase student conscientization (Freire 1970 / 93, 67; Roberts 20 0 0 ). Im provisation is an essential part of the jazz m usic tradition. At the start of the sem ester, in the Jazz Com bo Lab, I hoped to create a safe environm ent (by deferring m y judgm ent of student m istakes early in the sem ester) where students would develop confiden ce to im provise, experim ent, talk, grow m usically, and be em powered to m ake judgm ents and express m usical an d verbal positions. Writing about im provisation in Canadian schools, Giacom elli (20 12) wrote, “Im provisatory m odes of m usic m aking within the classroom can be used as a form of critical pedagogy to liberate students from the current text depen den ce an d ‘correct’ instrum ental technique in Ontario m usic classroom s” (8). At the start of the study, I believed that the im provisatory nature of jazz m usicking m ight be uniquely able to accom plish a type of em powerm ent. As the sem ester progressed, students chose m uch of the instructional m aterial. Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 99 Fre ire an Pe d ago gy as In cre as e d Co n ve rs atio n Em pow ered students Dialogue to nam e their w orld, Through w ords and m usic (Novem ber 22, 20 13) In early Septem ber, in the Adult Education class, the instructor facilitated a discussion of what constitutes Freirean education. Much of this discussion centered on the idea that Freire’s teaching evolved throughout his career, and it would be helpful for those teachers labeling their classes as “Freirean” to: Identify which Freire is being used. There are m ultiple Freires. There are better and worse interpretations of Freire’s theories, but no single bad or good interpretation. At som e point, pedagogy becom es no-longer Freirean, but Freire-inspired– drawing on the works of Freire . . . Where is this lin e between Freirean pedagogy and Freire-inspired pedagogy? (class notes, Septem ber 4, 20 13) Throughout the sem ester, I worked under the assum ption that m y pedagogy in the J azz Com bo Lab would be Freire-inspired, and not purely Freirean, and since this exists on a continuum , I used m y previous experience as a teacher and jazz m usician to guide m y evolving understanding of what m akes a “better and worse interpretation.” Four them es arose to dem on strate how m y thinking evolved throughout the sem ester. The first of these them es was Freirean Pedagogy as Increased Conversation. Abraham s (20 0 5b) wrote of Freirean pedagogy, “Education is a conversation where students and their teachers pose problem s and solve problem s together” (3). At the start of the sem ester, on Septem ber 5th 20 13, I taught m y first Jazz Com bo Lab class. I had begun reading Pedagogy of the Oppressed, at this early point in the sem ester. J ust as Freire’s literacy cam paigns began with asking students questions to get a sense for what the students knew, 2 I began the first class with a series of questions written on a sheet of paper. After giving students tim e to write answers to the questions, I read from the sheet: DS: Nam e. Instrum ent. How long have you played the instrum ent? How long have you been playing jazz? How did you learn jazz? What do you like about jazz? If you play other instrum ents, what do you play? Who’s your favorite jazz m usician and why? What do you m ost want to im prove about your playing this sem ester? And finally, what is the blues? Okay, who wants to start? J ust answer som e of the questions. What was m ost im portant, to your m ind? Ronan: My n am e is Ronan. I play trum pet. I like playing drum s as well. My favorite jazz m usician is Miles Davis. It was the first album I ever bought. Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 100 One of the things I want to get out of this course is to learn m ore harm onic things to do when you im prov, rather than just sticking with the notes in the chord. DS: What’s your favorite Miles Davis album ? Ronan: The one with My Funny Valentine on it. My secon d favorite song is Blue in Green. DS: Do you feel like your tone is? Do you want your tone to be like Miles’s? Ronan: Ah. I do, but I don’t know. He said som ething like, “it takes a long tim e for you to sound like yourself,” so I’m still on that path of finding m y own sound. I try to em ulate it [Miles’ tone], but I don’t want to. DS: So, you want to develop your own sound? Ronan: Yeah. DS: [After a pause.] Who’s next? Malachi: I’m Malachi. I didn’t really start listening to jazzy stuff until freshm an year of college. So, that’s four years ago. And it’s not the typical jazz stuff. It’s m ore like rock with jazz m ixed in. DS: Can you give m e an exam ple? Malachi: J am ie Cullum . DS: [Not hearing the last nam e] Who? Malachi: J am ie Cullum . Not m any people listen to him . DS: That’s okay. I need to go look him up [clarifies the spelling]. Malachi: He’s British. He’s a good perform er. I saw him live, and I want to be able to play [like him ]. A lot of his stuff is im provised, and m ixed. But I’m here to learn how to com p so I can be part of jazz band and hopefully solo eventually. (Septem ber 5, 20 13) By asking these questions, I was able to begin to understand what m y students wanted to learn (im provising on m ore than the notes on the chords, and com ping), and I was able to develop future listening lessons around m usicians students were interested in (for these students, Miles Davis and J am ie Cullum ). Using Schm idt’s (20 0 5) term inology, I wanted to know what the students knew to connect m y teaching to the “learners’ own realities” (6). I wrote in m y journal, Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 101 My goals for this class are to explore som e of the Freirean concepts I began to learn in the Adult Education course . . . I believe at the m inim um , em ploying a m ore dialogical m ethod will increase the dem ocratic-ness of m y teaching. So, this is not only a laboratory for the students, but it is a laboratory for m yself . . . The introductory discussion seem ed a little long, but m aybe that’s what dialogue is all about, giving people tim e to think about ideas and values surrounding this m usic. How else will they build identity? After listening to Thelonius Monk’s Blue Monk I had to push them a little to take over the conversation, an d form a plan for playing it. Their playing wasn’t very good [in m y opinion]. [I believe] They knew that. (Septem ber 5, 20 13) By the first class, I was aware that Jazz Com bo Lab was a laboratory for m y own teaching. I was aware that conversation in the form of class discussion (this early in the sem ester), allowing students to talk during class, was taking up instructional tim e. I seem to have been biasing m y own opinion above the studen ts’ opinions about how the m usic should be played. This m ay be because of the little experience they have had with the jazz com bo tradition. Still, with Freirean dem ocratic teaching aim ing to in crease “critical capacity, curiosity, and autonom y of the learner” (Freire 1998 , 33), cultivating in the students the ability to express their opin ion seem ed to, over the course of the sem ester, em power them as autonom ous learners. Listening lessons were an im portant part of learning the jazz com bo tradition, and I wanted to sequence these as m uch as possible, as listening and sequential experiences had arisen as them es of confident m usic im provising in m y previous phenom enology (Shevock, in-press). I chose to listen to Blue Monk, but the students’ interests guided future listening lessons, but not all of them . I chose m any listening lessons throughout the sem ester. I believe this was consistent with Freire’s discussion of students’ right to learn the dom inant pattern (Wees 20 12). At one level, I wanted students to develop agen cy to choose m usic, but at another level, I was the expert in the dom inant pattern, which was, for this class, jazz com bo m usic. Much of the talk early in the sem ester was about m usical-structural issues. We began to talk about fram ing solos, and thinking about an overall structure, or having a plan for the solo. Most often [the structures] turned out being, playing som e slow notes for a while, speedin g up, and expanding the m otivic ideas, then slowing down a bit at the end [an organic structure]. We also talked about starting phrases near the end of one head when you want to continue on into the next head, and curving the solo off if you want it to end. (Septem ber 12, 20 13) I cam e to believe conversations in class could im prove student leadership skills– “im proving their leadership skills, because it is dem ocratically conceived and hinges Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 102 on dialogue” (Septem ber 30 , 20 13). This is consistent with Allsup (20 0 3b), who discussed Freire in term s of “the interdependent nature of dem ocratic learning environm ents” that em phasize “open and honest discussions” (27). Class conversations were facilitating interdependence between m e, as the teacher, and the students, fostering what I referred to, in m y journal, as student leadership. I was aware of the potential for m y leadership in class to go awry in Freirean term s. Freire (1970 / 93) suggested, “The conviction of the oppressed that they m ust fight for their liberation is not a gift bestowed by the revolutionary leadership, but the result of their own conscientizaçāo” (67). By m oving leadership responsibilities to the students, I hoped to facilitate, in students, their fight toward conscientization. I also wrote in m y reflective journal about instructional tim e because I was aware of m y own unease with dedicating this m uch class tim e to talking, not to m usic m aking. I discussed this concern with the J azz Com bo Lab course in structor. As discussed earlier in this paper, Roberts (20 0 0 ) represented conscientization as “a dialectical representation of conscientization as a continuous reflective process” (147), and I was experiencing m y own conscientization during this sem ester as I was talking about how to best teach this course with the course instructor (who does not self-identify as a Freirean teacher), learning Freirean pedagogy, and bringing in m y own history. As I taught for twelve years prior to entering graduate school at Penn State, I had long held, preset notions about what activity should be taking place in a m usic class. In that, I valued m usic above talking. I continued, throughout the sem ester and since then, to reflectively think about the balance between producing sonic m usic an d talking in class. I have com e to believe (as I wrote in m y reflective journal), “With too m uch sonic-m usic, class can becom e disem powering and unreflective. With too m uch talk, m aking m usic in class can becom e a rarity, and class can becom e about m usic instead of m usical action in practice” (Novem ber 2, 20 13). Often having students m ake decisions through conversation proved difficult because students are used to having teachers m ake decisions. For instance, after playing a n ew song, Straight N o Chaser, I wanted students to choose the final piece to practice. Caitlin: [to Ronan] That song was really fast. Good song. Excellent solo. DS: That was a fun one, wasn’t it? Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 103 Malachi: Yeah. Ronan: [Singing the m elody] DS: So one m ore. Som ething we’ve played before. What do you want to play? Malachi: [Doodling on the piano] DS: Because we don’t want to drop the songs we’ve already played. Aidan: Ahhh. DS: [Pause] What have we played that we want to play again? Caitlin: [Flips through her m usic] Malachi: What? DS: What have we played before that we want to play again? Ronan: What we played last week. Blue Monk. Blue Bossa. DS: [Pause] Is that what you want to play again? Malachi: We can play one of the songs we did not get to play last week. Ronan: Yeah. DS: So, one of the ones you do but you didn’t get to. Malachi: Yeah. What. How Insensitive? Ronan: Was that on there? DS: How Insensitive? Blue Bossa? Malachi: We could do Blue Bossa. DS: What’s a fun one to do? Ronan: They’re all fun. Aiden : Let’s see. We have Blue Trane, How Insensitive, ‘Round Midnight. What is a fun one? They’re all fun. DS: [Pause] You guys get to choose. Caitlin: [to Ronan] You should choose. Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 104 Ronan: No. Malachi, your choice. Malachi: Don’t leave it to m e. DS: [after another pause] Blue Bossa. Ronan an d Malachi: Alright. Ronan: Blue Bossa. (October 24, 20 13) This video transcription dem onstrates how difficult it was, at tim es, to allow students to wrest control from m e, as the teacher. It m ay be that the students were uncom fortable m aking the choice for the entire group. I felt this was a necessary conversation, though it took a lot of class tim e. I also felt this instance was a pedagogical m isstep (and this was coded within both them es), because I eventually gave up, telling the students what song to play (adm ittedly a song initially suggested by a student) at the end of rehearsal. As I continued reading Freire and teaching, I realized conversation is not enough to m ake classroom dialogue Freirean. Freirean dialogue is both em powering to the students, but also toward changing the world. As such, it is political. Definitions of political involve system s of governm ent, the state, and the public; and historically, the word political originated in the word politicus, Latin, “pertaining to a polity, civil affairs, or governm ent” (political 20 14). In this way, the university is inherently a political institution, and teaching is a political act. Political also im plies an act as being not neutral. Political parties take political positions. For Freire, dialogue is a way for students to politicize their worlds. Prim arily because Jazz Com bo Lab is a perform ance ensem ble, and one in which students, who I initially viewed as oppressed by the audition process (Freirean pedagogy is a “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” and not a “Pedagogy of the Disenfranchised” (Macedo 20 0 0 )) wanted to im prove their playing skills, I wanted a m ore subtle way to express the political content of Freirean pedagogy in the Jazz Com bo Lab. Dedicating large segm ents of tim e in Jazz Com bo Lab talking about politics m ight be oppressive to unconfident students yearning to develop their m usical skill. I believe, to som e extent, it is through developing m usical skill that these students would be able to overcom e their oppression. And yet, each class needed to allow som e space for students to voice their awareness of political m atters, and develop com m unally. A balance needed to be found. Christopher Sm all’s (1998 ) Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 105 m usicking provided the theoretical fram ework for the type of representative-political m usicking I appreciated as a teacher in the Jazz Com bo Lab. According to Sm all, the ways in which we choose to m usic are a ritualistic perform ance, and “. . . to take part in [ritual] is to take part in an act that uses the language of gesture to explore, affirm , and celebrate one’s concepts of ideal relationships” (98). Musicians m usic In ideal relationships; A just classroom / w orld (November 19, 2013) In som e ways, I used Sm all’s m usicking concept to curb m y political understanding of Freirean dialogue. In discussing what conversation m ight enable, Giroux (20 11) explain s, “such conversations have for the m ost part failed to consider m ore fundam ental issues about the need to revitalize the language of civic education as part of a broader discourse of political agency and critical citizenship in a globalized society” (174). I do not believe these conversations approached Giroux’s suggestions. Abraham s (20 0 7) recom m ended “com posing and im provising m usic in styles consistent with who the students are and the contexts in which they live” (228) as consistent with critical conversation. In Jazz Com bo Lab I did not have control over the sty les of m usic perform ed (the style of m usic was in the course description), but the dem ocratic context (allowing students room to talk) of m y classes seem ed to benefit students. Students seem ed to be m ore confident students– confident to im provise m usic, and to critique them selves, each other, and the teacher. In m y reflective journal, I wrote, “While Freire was teaching literacy, I am teaching m usic. Music is not as directly about an idea as language is. A word sym bolizes a m ental concept, while m usic m ight at best allude to sim ilar concepts” (October 28, 20 13). My conception of conversation continued to evolve during the sem ester. By the beginning of October I was incorporating Sm all’s thoughts on ritual as affirm ing beliefs that the Jazz Com bo Lab be able to facilitate an ideal belief of negotiation and em powerm ent. “My hope for the m acrocosm of the world dem ands a com plex relationship where power is negotiated daily, where teacher and student voices are em powered throughout [the m icrocosm of] the class tim e” (October 1, 20 13). But by the end of the m onth, the political nature of Freirean dialogue seem ed like a paradox. As I am attem pting to apply Freirean pedagogy to m y jazz com bo lab class I am beginn ing to realize that because Freirean pedagogy is explicitly political, I have com e to a paradox that I am yet unable to solve. A num ber of questions Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 106 need to be addressed as I continue to construct this class. 3 Can a Freirean pedagogy that is overtly political, where dialogue is about the oppressive nature of the world, be em ployed in a jazz com bo lab where the prim ary objective is creating sm all ensem ble m usic? How m uch talking is too m uch talking, and when does dialogue lim it the experiences the students want? Is it equally oppressive to force overm uch verbal discussion, as it would be to shut it down through incessant direct instruction? Is instrum ental dialogue, im provised creation, Freirean in any way or form ? Should students explore the oppressed/ oppressor Hegelian binary that Freire saw as central? Am I doing Freirean pedagogy, or is being aw are of Freire enough? (October 28, 20 13) Em p o w e rin g Stu d e n ts to Critiqu e Th e ir W o rld s The second them e of m y evolving praxis was Em pow ering Students to Critique Their W orlds. By m y Septem ber 19th journal entry, the students seem ed to be showing signs of im provem ent, both m usically and in their ability to dialogue (though they did not seem to feel em powered, yet). Perform ing m usic with the iPhone app iRealb seem ed to have proven an effective (and fast) tool for learning jazz com bo m usic without a bassist or drum m er. The students seem ed som ewhat m ore com fortable with talking in class, since I was insistent on providing tim e for conversation throughout. One difficulty inexperien ced jazz im provisers have is constructing a solo that is interesting and lasts longer than one tim e through the head (beginning of the com position). This problem m ight be com pounded by the prevalen ce of big band m usic in school jazz, because big band m usic em phasizes im provised solos less than jazz com bo m usic. I had each student talk through a guiding fram ework for an extended im provised solo. I then allowed each student to perform the solo. After each solo, the other students assessed their classm ate. Since I played vibraphon e along with each class, I also participated in this activity, subm itting m yself to the verbal construction of an extended solo, perform ance of that solo, and assessm ent by each student. This activity had m ixed results. I also tried to have them critique each other’s solos. I’m not sure how well it worked. It definitely seem ed to help Caitlin. I’m not sure Ronan was happy with it; he seem ed uncom fortable with receiving criticism from his peers . . . The goal of having peer assessm ents was to em power the individuals. Their opin ions m attered. They were the authority able to judge their own and other’s work . . . it was a challenge of social-cohesion; not necessarily painless. (Septem ber 19, 20 13) Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 107 After this first not painless peer assessm ent, students seem ed uncom fortable around each other. However, I continued using peer assessm ent throughout the sem ester. By the second peer assessm ent, perhaps because I subm itted m yself to the sam e scrutiny; perhaps because they understood this would be expected, students were noticeably m ore com fortable with taking and giving criticism , and I feel this becam e an im portant key to their developm ent as m usicians. Students were em powered as agents, judging their and other im provisations based on criteria that were socially constructed. As a doctoral student who was the course instructor I had difficulties unrelated to teaching. I presented research three tim es from the end of Septem ber to the beginning of Novem ber, in North Carolina, Nebraska, and Ireland. Each of these presentations m eant that I m issed class tim e. The students m et to rehearse without m e during these weeks and continued to develop, but not as quickly as they had developed 4 in Septem ber, nor as quickly as they would during the free-jazz lessons I taught in Novem ber. On October 17th, Malachi posted a recording he m ade of the group perform ing Blue Monk to the Jazz Com bo Lab Facebook page and it was nice to hear them reflectively playing, a point I lauded on the Facebook page. Students were expressing their agency, a concept Giroux (20 11) connects to transform ation. I cam e to believe Em pow ering Students to Critique Their W orlds (an agentic act) is a step toward transform ative pedagogy. There are also structural inequities involved in teaching at a university. As a teaching assistant, I had less power than other teachers. When I was at [a conference], the students were kicked out of their room by a faculty m em ber who had double booked the room through [the adm inistrative assistant]. I’m not sure how this happened, but the students felt powerless. This week, sin ce they n eeded the room again, we went to the first half of ‘Passport’s’ [one of the other jazz com bos] perform ance at the . . . Museum of Art. We then cam e back and played one of the songs they played, ‘When You Wish Upon a Star.’ [I feel that] listening to jazz com bo m usic is im portant in addition to just trying to play it. We then had a conversation about being kicked out of the room . Caitlin in particular was upset. I had to ask [the course instructor] to help by talking with her. [The following day, the course instructor] and I explained to her that being flexible about the room is part of being a jazz person, being flexible. (October 26, 20 13) I wasn’t happy about this situation either, as I had reserved the classroom for the entire sem ester. However, this type of situation has occurred to m e in the past, and was not uncom m on in the evenings am ong rehearsing groups. The ethic of flexibility Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 108 in jazz has helped m e to accept the things I cannot change while changing those things I can. It m ay be said that this ethic of flexibility is, in itself, oppressive because it allowed the teacher (who out-ranks the students) to take the room and force adaptability. However, it is not the ethic of flexibility that created the injustice within the university structure, but the structure itself. Freire has been described as “a m an of hope, sim ulated by realistic an d attainable aspirations” (Rossatto 20 0 8, 157). Still, such flexibility m ay be at odds with Freirean pedagogy in that it does not increase students’ belief that they can change the structure. Perhaps, flexibility and realism m ight be balanced against hope an d action for change. It is possible to be too flexible, accepting too m uch the structure and, resultantly, stifle student agency. This instance was also coded under the next them e, pedagogical m issteps, because it represents a m issed opportunity for m e to find som e way to em power the students. Students had m ore opportunities to lead con versation as the sem ester continued. After listening to J ohn Coltrane’s Im pressions in Decem ber, Caitlin (not m e, as the teacher) began the conversation. Caitlin: So, they’re writing like one chord, but the piano’s playing two chords, using the notes of the m ode and playing as m any chords as he wants, perhaps. DS: Right, within the Dorian m ode. It’s written as chords here, but really he’s thinking m odes. Malachi: [Doodling on chords within the D Dorian m ode] DS: So, the piano has a lot of leeway within that Dorian m ode. Caitlin: How interesting. Malachi: I understand that he was changing stuff, and it sounds like there are m ore chords than are written. DS: [Goes over to the piano to dem onstrate the Dorian scales] Malachi: So with a raised 6. [Doodles and finds a repetitive pattern that works] Caitlin: [Com es to the piano]. At the end I was hearing this [plays a pattern in the higher register] [Malachi an d Caitlin play back and forth on the piano and figure out a pattern that works. I walk back to m y vibraphone an d allow them space to work] Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 109 Caitlin: That’s kind of interesting because in the whole piece is A-B-A, and there’s just a half step in-between tonalities, and these chords, again, just a tone between them . Malachi: [Toward DS] I know it’s D Dorian, but we’re not really just lim ited to just these notes, right? DS: You have to m ake it interesting, even though it only has two chords in it. So we’re going to pull from everything that we have done so far, which is playing chordally, you m ight pull from the blues, and the free jazz stuff we did, where you had to create ideas off of nothing. (Decem ber 5, 20 13) Caitlin, by the end of the sem ester, seem ed to really find her voice as a leader during interactions like this. In a way, she was em powered to critique her world through the jazz com bo, by being em powered to take lead in class. Two of the students, being violinists, had little opportunity for previous jazz instruction. For the two violinists, jazz com bos m ight be the only jazz perform ing opportunity they have, since those instrum ents are not usually part of the big band tradition. This is one of the reasons I listen to so m uch jazz com bo m usic; as a vibraphonist, m ost of the repertoire I m ost appreciate is sm all ensem ble jazz like Modern J azz Quartet, Gary Burton, Caribbean J azz Project, and Roy Ayers. (October 29, 20 13) My own perform ance experience as a vibraphonist dictated m y appreciation for jazz com bos. I began to view m y praxis as providing an opportunity “that affords them agency and opportunities to im provise on their instrum ent that m ight not be part of the big band tradition” (October 29, 20 13). The increased opportunity for im provisation in a jazz com bo (in com parison to big band), and the sm all class sizes m ight have helped facilitate student com fort with critiquing their worlds, m usically and through talking. In this way, this them e connects to the first, as an evolution of m y understanding of dialogue. Pe d ago gica l Mis s te p s N ot ty rannical N or a laissez-faire approach, W alking a tight rope (Novem ber 15, 20 13) The third them e of m y evolving praxis was Pedagogical Missteps. Many m issteps were due to not knowing a lot about Freire’s thinking until m id- to late- sem ester, after engaging with his work. In these m issteps, I em bodied the “unfinished” (Freire 1998 , 52) nature of the teacher/ student, essential to Freirean pedagogy. Two Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 110 pedagogical m issteps were discussed above. The first, m y inability to have the students chose songs early in the sem ester, resolved itself during the sem ester as students felt m ore em pow ered to critique their w orlds. The secon d possible m isstep was m y handling of the room situation; I applied an ethic of flexibility and m ay have m issed an opportunity to foster activism . I will share a third pedagogical m isstep here. By Novem ber 8 th, the Jazz Com bo Lab was working on jazz ballads, which were particularly challenging for Malachi, because the piano voicin gs were causing problem s. After playing through My Funny Valentine, we returned to Blue Monk, and I had the students im provise a pattern, which could then be taught to the whole group and used as a com ping figure during som e of the solos. In m y journal I wrote, Next I had the students im provise, and then write out a harm ony part for Blue Monk, and of the three, we all learned Malachi’s. I’m not sure how dem ocratically I handled this, because when ultim ately the three m em bers weren’t able to decide on one to do, I chose Malachi’s because I thought it would work best for . . . a com posed line to be played behind soloists. I then com ped on the piano while Malachi taught the group his part. (Novem ber 8, 20 13) Another reason I chose Malachi’s harm onic line was to em power him , after he had difficulties with the ballads. I share this reflection because it dem onstrated one of the tim es I feel I left a dem ocratic teaching style. Freire (1998) suggested that both authoritarian an d laissez-faire teachers hinder students’ freedom . A balance of authoritarian an d laissez-faire pedagogy becam e an issue for m e as I tried to im plem ent Freirean pedagogy, as m y own teaching m ight at tim es lean toward the laissez-faire. A Mo re Critical Pra xis Teachers and students Are people, im provising Co-form ing m eaning (Novem ber 30 , 20 13) The fourth them e of m y evolving praxis was A More Critical Praxis. I dedicated two weeks to free-jazz in Novem ber. During the week before the second free-jazz class, I had students find free-jazz tunes they liked, and post them to the Jazz Com bo Lab’s Facebook page. Both Ronan an d Malachi posted videos. In class, we talked a little about the Ronan’s Facebook post– Pithecanthropus Erectus, by Charles Mingus. I gathered som e inform ation about it from Wikipedia, which I read to the students, Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 111 According to Mingus' liner notes, the title song is a ten-m inute tone poem , depicting the rise of m an from his hom inid roots (Pithecanthropus erectus) to an eventual downfall due to "his own failure to realize the in evitable em ancipation of those he sought to enslave, an d his greed in attem pting to stand on a false security." (Wikipedia.com , Pithecanthropus Erectus (album )) This provided the class with fodder for critical dialogue, including how Mingus’s com position ends in such a way that it sounded, to the Jazz Com bo Lab students, hopeful—perhaps that hum ankind m ight evolve past its desire to enslave others. Ronan: It translates to upright ape-m an, which holds a dual m eaning m ainly because Charles Mingus plays an upright bass. Me: They’re im provising on this idea, and in the beginning it sounds like pretty standard stuff. And then whenever it com es to m an’s “failure to realize em ancipation,” it seem s to becom e really chaotic, and alm ost ugly. But it com es back together at the end. Aiden : It m ight also m ean the enslavem ent of plants and anim als. We need plants and anim als to survive, and eventually all of the resources we need to live, eventually they’ll run out and that’s it. No m ore m an. (Novem ber 21, 20 13) We ended up talking about historical slavery, social slavery, an d wage slavery. Giroux (20 11) suggested Freire’s teaching is about “soaring beyond the im m ediate confines of one’s experiences, [and] entering into a critical dialogue with history” (155). This was the first point in the sem ester where I felt our dialogue began to approach the historical nature of Freirean praxis. Since Freire’s teachings are also about “im agining a future that would not m erely reproduce the present” (155), I directed students– as a group– to com pose a free-jazz piece around licks (m otifs) and chord progressions they im provised, which I then wrote on the chalkboard (see figure 1). For an exam ple of what one of these session s sounded like, listen to “Riley’s Colorful Socks” (http:/ / youtu.be/ lqoVXuAlAF0 ). In “Alone for Thanksgiving [No Hom e],” Ronan expressed his disappointm ent at being unable to afford returning hom e for Thanksgiving break. He felt he was fortunate though, because he would return hom e for winter break. He asked the other com bo lab m em bers to consider, while they perform ed, students whose hom es were even m ore distant, such as international students, who often are unable to return hom e even for the extended winter and sum m er breaks. These conversations required “incalculable personal and social Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 112 investm ent” (Benedict and Schm idt 20 0 7, 33) am ong the students/ teachers an d teacher/ student, an d seem ed to m ove toward Freirean dialogue as transform ation. After perform ing “Alone for Thanksgiving [No Hom e],” the students had this conversation: Ronan: Yeah, that was cool. Aiden : It was m ore m elancholy, I would say, than depressing. It wasn’t like, “oh m y life sucks.” It was like, “I guess I’ll be alone for a week and then . . . happy ending, I guess.” (Novem ber 21, 20 13) The students seem ed to have different intentions for perform ing the piece, which unfolded first through conversation, and then through im provising together, and finally through conversation. These conversations m ay have provided an exam ple of Freirean “ruptura” (Freire and Horton 1990 , 38), a breaking with beliefs through creative action and dialogue, because these students were considering the dehum anizin g nature of loneliness inherent in the structure of the traditional college experience in Am erica. Abraham s (20 0 5b) wrote, “Believing that teaching was a conversation or dialogue between the teacher and the student, Freire posed problem s for his students that caused them to take what they already knew and understood from their world outside the classroom and connect it to the goals of literacy, nam ely the abilities to read and write the language” (3). Viewing the free im provisation lessons as problem posing pedagogy, the students/ teachers and teacher/ student co-posed problem s (in this case licks and chord progressions) that were co-solved through m usical perform ance. Further, these student-com posed free im provisations were connected to their experiences—in the case of “Alone for Thanksgiving [No Hom e]” the experience of loneliness—and began to hum anize and transform their worlds. As Freire (1970 / 93) wrote, “It is to engage in authentic transform ation of reality in order, by hum anizing that reality, to hum anize wom en and m en” (18 3). Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 113 Figure 1: “Alone for Thanksgiving [No Hom e]” Dem anding freedom , Jazz, as critical subject Dem ocratizes (Novem ber 21, 20 13) Co n clu s io n s This autoethnography provided an opportunity to docum ent m y initial experience with Freirean pedagogy as well as m y using of Freirean ideas during the sem ester. It should, therefore, be read not as an advanced Freirean application in a jazz ensem ble, but as an initial experience with an d step toward Freirean praxis. This, taken in conjunction with the subjective nature of self-study, and with the lack of a clear Freirean m ethod for such an ensem ble in m usic education literature, shows the possible necessity for Freirean applications for m usic outside of the general m usic setting. How appropriate did I find the teachings of Paulo Freire for a university-level, im provisational, sm all ensem ble class? Ultim ately, I believe Freirean pedagogy Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 114 expan ded m y thinking and, to a lesser extent, teaching praxis, but there were difficulties. Many difficulties I experienced were developing an understanding of Freire during the sem ester, and challenges to Freire’s pedagogy I shared in the introduction. “One of the biggest difficulties with Freirean pedagogy I needed to overcom e was m y incredulity toward the oppressed/ oppressor Hegelian binary, central to Freirean pedagogy” (October 26, 20 13). Macedo (20 0 0 ) argued that Paulo Freire’s pedagogy is a “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” (not m erely of disenfran chisem ent am ong university students), and therefore was understood variously as appropriate and inappropriate for m y praxis. At an Am erican university the students are fairly privileged– especially in com parison to the oppressed in Chile, Brazil, Guinea Bissau, or Nicaragua, where Freire im plem ented his adult-literacy cam paigns (Kirkendall 20 10 ). Macedo (20 0 0 ) described the oppressed/ oppressor bin ary as an essential part of Freire’s analysis. If you have an ‘oppressed,’ you m ust have an ‘oppressor’ . . . ‘Pedagogy of the Disenfranchised’ dislodges the agent of the action while leaving in doubt who bears the responsibility for such action. This leaves the ground wide open for blam ing the victim of disenfranchisem ent for his or her own disenfran chisem ent. (21) Conceiving critical consciousness through the lens of m ultiple subjectivities (Roberts 20 0 0 ) allowed m e to conceive how individuals m ight be the oppressed in one arena, but an oppressor another. Both m yself as teacher/ student, an d the four J azz Com bo Lab students/ teachers can be understood as oppressors and oppressed in various arenas on a dialectical experience of evolving conscientization. This exploration of Freirean praxis in m y own teaching em powered m e to begin to consider teaching m usic to be about m ore than m ere sonic m atters. The discussion of Charles Mingus’s Pithecanthropus Erectus, in both m y success and where I could have done better as a teacher/ student, open ed m y m ind to possibilities for a m ore critical m usic praxis that considers racism in its historical and present-day relevance. Ultim ately I viewed m y teaching praxis as a m odified-Freirean praxis– m odified for m y evolving understanding of the oppressed/ oppressor binary, and began to construct a praxis appropriate for a perform ance ensem ble. Regardless of whether this autoethnographic reflective teaching experim ent can be viewed as a successful im plem entation of Freirean pedagogy in a universitylevel jazz com bo laboratory, m y personal teaching praxis was enriched, taking the Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 115 thoughts of an im portant pedagogue in adult education and m aking an effort to incorporate som e of his pedagogy. I learned, first hand, that this type of pedagogy is difficult (for m e) to implem ent in a m usical perform ance ensem ble, and that Freirean pedagogy requires continued reflective praxis. Since the com pletion of this study, I attended a num ber of workshops conducted by Freirean teachers. On reflection, it is essential to see Freirean teaching in action to truly understand som e of the m ore difficult (and not well described) Freirean pedagogical techniques such as codification and the developm ent of generative them es. Throughout the sem ester I m ade choices to incorporate som e aspects of Freirean pedagogy and to discard others. These decisions were based on what I felt I understood at that point during the sem ester. How successful was I at im plem enting Freirean pedagogy? To answer this question I have to explicate m y goals as a teacher of a perform ance ensem ble. I felt m y m ost successful lessons were the free im provisation lessons. The existing literature on Freirean m usic education described how lessons m ight be incorporated in general m usic settings. Also, I was never able to incorporate generative them es (Freire 1970 / 93; Freire 1978 ; Purcell-Gates and Waterm an 20 0 0 ) since m y initial learning about Freirean pedagogy began with the start of the sem ester. I only began to grasp this concept n ear the end of the sem ester, and began to allow students to choose m ore of the repertoire (a weak substitute for fully generative them es). In future sem esters, co-constructing the syllabus with students m ight m ake an interesting exploration into incorporating gen erative them es in this ensem ble. Poetry is often used in classroom settings to generate the generative them es because these them es need to be tied to 1) the students’ personal experiences and 2) be em otionally expressed. In redoing this laboratory, beginning with free im provisation m ight provide a way for students to com pose their generative them es. My use of conversation as dialogue, and also m usic im provisation as a form of dialogue, while in line to Spruce’s (20 12) understanding of m usic as m uch richer discourse, seem ed to fall short of Freirean dialogue, which is expressly political. While both im provised m usic an d verbal dialogue can be hum anizing, words have definite m eanings that can clearly express injustices. The problem with m usic im provisation as dialogue (for Freirean pedagogy) com es in codification of generative them es—if the generative them es are going to explore political inequities then codes n eed to be explored for their root causes and those things that cultivate the code. And further, the university Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 116 structure, which set this course as a jazz course, m ay have set m e in the position of an evangelizer (Esteva, Stuchul and Prakash 20 0 5), evangelizing these students to a m usical style they m ight not have listened to regularly. Certainly, I introduced them to m uch jazz m usic. Nonetheless, the idea that jazz im provisation dem ocratizes a perform ance ensem ble seem s in line with the literature that suggests, “people learn dem ocracy just like we learn all im portant things” (Minch an d Sanders 20 0 9, 239). In this way, it m ay be that student/ teachers and teacher/ students are form ing habits of dem ocracy through the style of m usic chosen. How do students’ confidence and ability at im provisation im prove during the class? My teaching of student confidence was guided by pedagogical them es from m y previous research in confident m usic im provising (Shevock in-press). The essential them es of that research were listening, sequential experiences, and criticism -free environm ent. I dedicated a healthy am ount of class tim e working on developing the student ears through listening (to recordings and listening/ responding across the ensem ble). I sequenced instruction by choosing m usic with less-com plex chord changes early on, to allow confidence to develop before I introduced m ore com plex chord structures over which to im provise. I created a criticism -free environm ent through m y aim s to create a safe classroom space. When I had students critique each other (and m e), m y goal was to m ove them toward a m ore critical perspective (about the m usic) and em power them as agents. Sin ce em powering studen ts as agents is im portant in Freirean theory, it m ay be that Freirean theory is, at least at tim es, at odds with m y previous work on confidence. Alternatively, it m ay be im portant for students to challenge their confidence to develop a m ore robust agen cy. Criticism free environm ent m ight therefore be understood like an educational scaffold, which at som e point m ust be rem oved. As an autoethnography, the prim ary data for this is m y judgm ent of the students’ confidence and ability. I was able to stim ulate robust dialogue am ong students to enhance student confidence an d ability. Each of the students seem ed (to m e) to im prove as im provisers and confident m usicians, crafting im provisations that em ployed m ore m usical elem ents (pitches, dynam ics, rhythm ic content, structure, etc.). According to the course instructor, the four students im proved considerably as jazz m usicians, and according to the course evaluations, the students greatly appreciated the course design (around Freirean pedagogy). Ronan went on to play in Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 117 m ore advanced jazz ensem bles the following sem ester, an d I attended a perform ance by Malachi in the student com m on area, where he was playing (an d singing) im provisational m usic confidently. This autoethnography adds to a body of Freirean m usic education literature, and shares successes and challenges unique to constructing a Freirean perform ance ensem ble, and especially as it pertains to an ensem ble teacher approaching Freirean theory for the first tim e. An obvious lim itation was the use of jazz only, though in line with Freire’s insistence on using the dom inant pattern (while jazz isn’t the dom inant pattern in university m usic departm ents, it is the dom inant pattern for learning im provisation, and it is a dom inant pattern in com parison with other m usics), and future research m ight allow students to choose im provisational styles early in the teaching sem ester. Further research m ight also extend this current study by further im plem enting Freirean pedagogy into a perform ance ensem ble, whether jazz or not. Re fe re n ce s Abraham s, Frank. 20 0 5a. Transform ing classroom m usic instruction with ideas from critical pedagogy. Music Educators Journal 92(1), 62– 7. doi:10 .230 7/ 340 0 229. ———. 20 0 5b. The application of critical pedagogy to m usic teaching and learning. Visions of Research in Music Education 6: 1– 16. http:/ / www.rider.edu/ ~vrm e. ———. 20 0 7. Musicing Paulo Freire: A critical pedagogy for m usic education. In Critical pedagogy : W here are w e now ? edited by Peter McLaren and J oe L. Kincheloe, 223– 37. New York: Peter Lang. Allsup, Randall Everett. 20 0 3a. Praxis and the possible: Thoughts on the writings of Maxine Greene and Paulo Freire. Philosophy of Music Education Review 11(2): 157– 69. http:/ / www.jstor.org/ stable/ 40 32720 8 . ———. 20 0 3b. Mutual learning an d dem ocratic action in instrum ental m usic education. Journal of Research in Music Education 51(1): 24– 37. http:/ / www.jstor.org/ stable/ 3345646. Benedict, Cathy. 20 0 6. Chasing legitim acy: The US National Music Standards viewed through a critical theorist fram ework. Music Education Research 8(1): 17-32. doi:10 .10 80 / 1461380 0 60 0 570 686. Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 118 Benedict, Cathy, and Patrick Schm idt. 20 0 7. From whence justice?: Interrogating the im probable in m usic education. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 6(4): 21– 42. http:/ / act.m aydaygroup.org/ articles/ Benedict_ Schm idt6_ 4.pdf Bowers, Chet A., and Frédérique Apffel-Marglin. 20 0 5. Rethinking Freire: Globalization and the environm ental crisis. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Chang, Heewon. 20 0 8. Autoethnography as m ethod. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press. Cho, Katharine Sun. 20 10 . A constructivist approach to studio instruction: A case study of a flute class. Doctorial diss., Teachers College, Colum bia University. Dewey, J ohn. 1910 / 20 0 5. How w e think. New York: Barnes & Noble. Elliott, David J . 20 13. MayDay Colloquium 24: The aim s of m usic education. 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The Reflective Educator. http:/ / davidwees.com / content/ paulo-freire-reflects-his-life. Weiler, Kathleen. 1991. Freire and a fem inist pedagogy of difference. Harvard Educational Review 61(4): 449– 74. N o te s 1 It m ay seem that using the colloquial “m y students” here (I also use “m y students” on the 17th page of this paper) would be un-Freirean because “m y” im plies possession. It would be possible to use “students/ teachers,” which I use later in the paper. However, using Google Scholar, a search of Freire + “m y students” reveals m any results. In fact, the phrase “m y students” is used in Freirean author Shirley Steinberg’s (1995) interview of Freirean teachers Peter McLaren and J oe Kin cheloe. The use of “m y students” here is not intended to express ownership, but rather is used in com m on term inology (m y in being w ith the students). Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2) 121 2 Freire’s goal was to understand where his students were in relation to critical thinking. For instance, in Brazil, students were “asked if they believed in werewolves” (Kirkendall 20 10 , 48). I assum e students who believe in werewolves fit into the category, m agical thinkers. At this point in the sem ester (9/ 5), I did not know enough about Freirean critical thinking to design survey questions to get at conscientization. 3 Learn ing is often co-constructed in Freirean pedagogy (but not always– see som e of the issues with Freire’s im plem entation of the adult literacy program in Guinea Bissau described in Kirkendall, 20 10 ), especially through generative them es (see discussion later in this paper about m y hopes for future im plem entations of Freirean pedagogy). However, in this October 28 journal entry, I am referring to the larger construct of class form at. Even providing room for developm ent of generative them es, the space for and form at of the co-construction of generative them es m ust be planned (constructed) by the teacher. In this case developing is viewed as confiden ce at im provising, perform ing the pieces, an d playing together well as subjectively (as an autoethnography, by m yself) judged. 4 Abo u t th e Au th o r Daniel J . Shevock earned his PhD from the Pennsylvania State University (May 20 15). He taught in public schools for twelve years in Pennsylvania and Maryland. His experience as an urban m usic teacher awakened a concern for issues of dem ocratic education, creativity, an d social justice. Dan m usics on the vibraphone and drum s, and is an ardent reader. His scholarly interests include confident m usic im provising, practicing m usic im provisation, dem ocratic teaching practices, social philosophy of education, spirituality, and critical theory. Dan also has degrees from Clarion University of Pennsylvania (B.S.Ed. 1997), and Towson University (M.S. 20 0 0 ). Shevock, Daniel J . 20 15. Reflection on Freirean pedagogy in a jazz com bo lab. Action, Criticism , and Theory for Music Education 14(2): 85– 121. act.m aydaygroup.org