Improvising and keeping time: How listening and silence can position the teacher in the classroom

Abstract

The valuable position of the teacher in constructivist classrooms can often be misunderstood and minimised, resulting in the teacher's role and experience being devalued in the face of the freedom of the student. This essay examines how I, a high-school English teacher from Australia, draw upon my jazz and improvisational training to create a dialogic classroom environment that balances the voice and role of the teacher with their students. Using reflective, practitioner research I examine my practice as a high-school teacher through the lens of my jazz and improvisational experience. I explain how I use improvisation, common to both jazz and teaching, as well as the skills of listening and silence to engage in dialogic exchanges with my students, reflecting upon my teaching and learn about my pedagogy. I argue that improvisation, listening, and silence allow the teacher to create a learning environment where their role and position enable them to be connected to and learn from their students. This offers one teacher's voice to a discussion that is often student-focused and in doing so adds practical experience and reflections of improvisation, and silence and listening in the high school classroom.