The Place of Jazz in the NSW Secondary School Classroom

Abstract

Jazz is one of the most commonly taught musical styles in various educational contexts worldwide. Nevertheless, jazz teaching and learning resource materials are predominantly designed for those who have advanced beyond a basic level of competence. Further, the common understanding of jazz as a uniquely American style, in conjunction with Australia’s geographical and cultural distance from the USA, tend to feed the perception of foreignness of jazz when it comes to discussions of its place in Australia. For these reasons, classroom jazz education poses a unique set of challenges for Australian music teachers. This qualitative multiple case study examined five NSW secondary school music teachers’ perceptions of jazz, the extent and nature of its inclusion in their classroom curricula, and their classroom jazz teaching approaches. Data were collected from a series of semi-structured interviews, which revealed that although limited by its narrow appeal, teachers considered jazz to be highly effective in facilitating creativity, collaboration, and individuality of expression in students when carefully scaffolded and differentiated. The findings of the study indicate that while jazz may not be highly visible in NSW secondary schools, it is certainly viable and well-positioned to make a unique and worthwhile contribution to school music offerings.