Group improvisation as dialogue: Opening creative spaces in secondary music education

Abstract

Dialogue is inherently a form of improvisation, focussed on its relational nature and on the syntactic properties of its relationships. In the field of music education, group improvisation is considered as an emerging, reflexive and creative practice. However, research into secondary education has been limited. In this article, we present the results of a Collaborative Action Research study in Spanish Secondary education. The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of group improvisation as a dialogic practice in secondary education, and the factors that determine the music creative space for learning. Data collection included observation, interviews, classroom diary, classroom assessments, questionnaires, video and audio recordings. We drew on the perspective of artography, in which artist, researcher and teacher co-exist, to codify, analyse and triangulate data. Findings show how the music creative space in group improvisation is determined by the following connected aspects: (a) active student involvement and wellbeing; (b) the students’ identification with the music; (c) the emergence of group flow and positive emotions manifested from both a multi-dimensional and a dual perspective; (d) a high level of motivation emerging in different forms; and (e) significant musical experiences from students’ role as musicians.