Teaching as Improvisation
Abstract In this article, we discuss the centrality of improvisation for teaching, based particularly on readings of Cassin (2014, 2020), Rancière (1991, 1999, 2013, 2020), and Bailey (1992). Our starting point is that there simply can be no teaching without improvisation, i.e., the delicate practice of responding to, situating, and attuning to events within educational encounters that cannot be foreseen, but constantly call for attention and action through the finest virtue of our intellect at play. In the article, we go along with the early Sophists for whom improvisation meant to be able to speak about everything by allowing oneself to be led by opportunity (Cassin 2014). We will be claiming that improvisation of the sophist teacher is both an intellectual and bodily virtue, requiring discipline as well as poêsis and technê as well as praxis. In short, improvisation as a specific form of educational performativity. Together with Rancière (1991, 2020), diPiero (2020), and Bailey (1992) we intend to show how improvisation in teaching speaks to our senses and sets into motion simultaneously the sharing and uniqueness of sensing as such, captured by Rancière’s understanding of le partage du sensible. Improvisation, we conclude, can be understood as the product of contingent encounters between subjects, objects, and environments, where it emerges in the rupture between form and content (diPiero 2020). As such, it allows for other ways of speaking and being in the world than those desired by the institutionalisation of a certain police orderand therefore becomes, we suggest, a central element in a democratic realization of the teaching practice.
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Aadland, H., Espeland, M., & Arnesen, T. E. (2017). Towards a Typology of Improvisation as a Professional Teaching Skill: Implications for Pre-service Teacher Education Programmes. Cogent Education, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2017.1295835
Bailey, D. (1992). Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music. British Library National Sound Archive.
Bertram, G. W. (2021). Improvisation as Normative Practice. In A. Bertinetto, & M. Rutta (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Improvisation in the Arts. Routledge.
Bertrand, L. (2020). Musique concrète and the Aesthetic Regime of Art. In J. P. Cachopo, P. Nickleson, & C. Stover (Eds.), Rancière and Music (pp. 27-46). Edinburgh University Press.
Biesta, G. (2022). Why the Form of Teaching Matters: Defending the Integrity of Education and of the Work of Teachers Beyond Agendas and Good Intentions. Revista de Educación, 395, 13-34. https://doi.org/10.4438/1988-592X-RE-2022-395-519
Britzman, D. (1991). Practice Makes Practice. A Critical Study of Learning to Teach. State University Press.
Caranfa, A. (2007). Lessons of Solitude: The Awakening of Aesthetic Sensibility. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 41(1), 113-127.
Cassin, B. (2014). Sophistical Practice. Toward a Consistent Relativism. Fordham University Press.
Cassin B. (2020). Jacques the Sophist. Lacan, Logos, and Psychoanalysis. Fordham University Press.
DiPiero, D. (2020). Rancière and Improvisation: Reading Contingency in Music and Politics. In J. P. Cachopo, P. Nickleson, & C. Stover (Eds.), Rancière and Music (pp. 207-229). Edinburgh University Press.
English, A., & Doddington, C. (2019). Dewey, Aesthetic Experience, and Education for Humanity. In S. Fesmire (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Dewey. Oxford Handbooks Online. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190491192.013.37
Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change. Jossey-Bass.
Holdhus, K., Høisæter, S., Mæland, K., Vangsnes, V., Engelsen, K. S., Espeland, M., & Espeland, Å. (2016). Improvisation in teaching and education—roots and applications. Cogent Education, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1204142
Jaeger, W. (1939/1965). Paideia. The Ideas of Greek Culture. Vol I. Archaic Greece the Minds of Athens. Oxford University Press.
Kaltenecker, M. (2020). Wandering with Rancière: Sound and Structure under the Aesthetic Regime. In J. P. Cachopo, P. Nickleson, & C. Stover (Eds.), Rancière and Music (pp. 97-116). Edinburgh University Press.
Lewis, T. E. (2012). The Aesthetics of Education. Theatre, Curiosity, and Politics in the Work of Jacques Rancière and Paulo Freire. Bloomsbury.
Massumi, B. (2015). Politics of Affect. Polity.
McGuirk, J. (2021). Improvisation in the Classroom: Towards an Aspectual Account of Improvisatory Practice. In S. Ravn, S. Høffding, & J. McGuirk (Eds.), Philosophy of Improvisation: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Theory and Practice. Routledge.
Nachmanovitch, S. (1990). Free Play. Improvisation in Life and Art. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnamn.
Preston, B. (2012). A Philosophy of Material Culture. Routledge.
Rancière, J. (1987, tr. 1991). The Ignorant Schoolmaster. Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation. Stanford University Press.
Rancière, J. (1999). Disagreement. Politics and Philosophy. University of Minnesota Press.
Rancière, J. (2006). Texter om politik och estetik. Site edition 2.
Rancière, J. (2020). A Distant Sound. In J. P. Cachopo, P. Nickleson, & C. Stover (Eds.), Rancière and Music (pp. 353-365). Edinburgh University Press.
Rytzler, J. (2017). Teaching as Attention Formation. A Relational Approach to Teaching and Attention. Doctoral thesis. Mälardalen university.
Rytzler, J. (2021). Teaching at the Margin – Didaktik in the Sphere of Attention. Ethics and Education, 16(1), 108-121.
Saugstad, T. (2002). Educational Theory and Practice in an Aristotelian Perspective. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 46(4), 373-390.
Säfström, C. A. (2003). Teaching Otherwise. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 22(1), 19-29.
Säfström, C. A. (2014). The Passion of Teaching at the Border of Order. [Electronic version] Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 42(4), pp. 337-346.
Säfström, C. A. (2022). Please Show Me Your World! A Sophistical Practice of Teaching. Revista de Educación, 395, 35-58. https://doi.org/10.4438/1988-592X-RE-2022-395-521
Säfström, C. A. &, Månsson, N. (2021). The Marketisation of Education and the Democratic Deficit. European Educational Research Journal, 20(1), 83-101.
Thoilliez, B. (2022). Conserve, Pass on, Desire. Edifying Teaching Practices to Restore the Publicness of Education. Revista de Educación, 395, 61-83. https:/doi.org/10.4438/1988-592X-RE-2022-395-527
Todd, S. (2003). Learning From the Other. Levinas, Psychoanalysis and Ethical Possibilities in Education. State University of New York Press.
Van Manen, M. (2015). Pedagogical Tact. Knowing What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do. Left Coast Press.
Bailey, D. (1992). Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music. British Library National Sound Archive.
Bertram, G. W. (2021). Improvisation as Normative Practice. In A. Bertinetto, & M. Rutta (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Improvisation in the Arts. Routledge.
Bertrand, L. (2020). Musique concrète and the Aesthetic Regime of Art. In J. P. Cachopo, P. Nickleson, & C. Stover (Eds.), Rancière and Music (pp. 27-46). Edinburgh University Press.
Biesta, G. (2022). Why the Form of Teaching Matters: Defending the Integrity of Education and of the Work of Teachers Beyond Agendas and Good Intentions. Revista de Educación, 395, 13-34. https://doi.org/10.4438/1988-592X-RE-2022-395-519
Britzman, D. (1991). Practice Makes Practice. A Critical Study of Learning to Teach. State University Press.
Caranfa, A. (2007). Lessons of Solitude: The Awakening of Aesthetic Sensibility. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 41(1), 113-127.
Cassin, B. (2014). Sophistical Practice. Toward a Consistent Relativism. Fordham University Press.
Cassin B. (2020). Jacques the Sophist. Lacan, Logos, and Psychoanalysis. Fordham University Press.
DiPiero, D. (2020). Rancière and Improvisation: Reading Contingency in Music and Politics. In J. P. Cachopo, P. Nickleson, & C. Stover (Eds.), Rancière and Music (pp. 207-229). Edinburgh University Press.
English, A., & Doddington, C. (2019). Dewey, Aesthetic Experience, and Education for Humanity. In S. Fesmire (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Dewey. Oxford Handbooks Online. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190491192.013.37
Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change. Jossey-Bass.
Holdhus, K., Høisæter, S., Mæland, K., Vangsnes, V., Engelsen, K. S., Espeland, M., & Espeland, Å. (2016). Improvisation in teaching and education—roots and applications. Cogent Education, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1204142
Jaeger, W. (1939/1965). Paideia. The Ideas of Greek Culture. Vol I. Archaic Greece the Minds of Athens. Oxford University Press.
Kaltenecker, M. (2020). Wandering with Rancière: Sound and Structure under the Aesthetic Regime. In J. P. Cachopo, P. Nickleson, & C. Stover (Eds.), Rancière and Music (pp. 97-116). Edinburgh University Press.
Lewis, T. E. (2012). The Aesthetics of Education. Theatre, Curiosity, and Politics in the Work of Jacques Rancière and Paulo Freire. Bloomsbury.
Massumi, B. (2015). Politics of Affect. Polity.
McGuirk, J. (2021). Improvisation in the Classroom: Towards an Aspectual Account of Improvisatory Practice. In S. Ravn, S. Høffding, & J. McGuirk (Eds.), Philosophy of Improvisation: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Theory and Practice. Routledge.
Nachmanovitch, S. (1990). Free Play. Improvisation in Life and Art. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnamn.
Preston, B. (2012). A Philosophy of Material Culture. Routledge.
Rancière, J. (1987, tr. 1991). The Ignorant Schoolmaster. Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation. Stanford University Press.
Rancière, J. (1999). Disagreement. Politics and Philosophy. University of Minnesota Press.
Rancière, J. (2006). Texter om politik och estetik. Site edition 2.
Rancière, J. (2020). A Distant Sound. In J. P. Cachopo, P. Nickleson, & C. Stover (Eds.), Rancière and Music (pp. 353-365). Edinburgh University Press.
Rytzler, J. (2017). Teaching as Attention Formation. A Relational Approach to Teaching and Attention. Doctoral thesis. Mälardalen university.
Rytzler, J. (2021). Teaching at the Margin – Didaktik in the Sphere of Attention. Ethics and Education, 16(1), 108-121.
Saugstad, T. (2002). Educational Theory and Practice in an Aristotelian Perspective. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 46(4), 373-390.
Säfström, C. A. (2003). Teaching Otherwise. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 22(1), 19-29.
Säfström, C. A. (2014). The Passion of Teaching at the Border of Order. [Electronic version] Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 42(4), pp. 337-346.
Säfström, C. A. (2022). Please Show Me Your World! A Sophistical Practice of Teaching. Revista de Educación, 395, 35-58. https://doi.org/10.4438/1988-592X-RE-2022-395-521
Säfström, C. A. &, Månsson, N. (2021). The Marketisation of Education and the Democratic Deficit. European Educational Research Journal, 20(1), 83-101.
Thoilliez, B. (2022). Conserve, Pass on, Desire. Edifying Teaching Practices to Restore the Publicness of Education. Revista de Educación, 395, 61-83. https:/doi.org/10.4438/1988-592X-RE-2022-395-527
Todd, S. (2003). Learning From the Other. Levinas, Psychoanalysis and Ethical Possibilities in Education. State University of New York Press.
Van Manen, M. (2015). Pedagogical Tact. Knowing What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Do. Left Coast Press.
Säfström, C. A., & Rytzler, J. (2023). Teaching as Improvisation. Teoría De La Educación. Revista Interuniversitaria, 35(2), 139–155. https://doi.org/10.14201/teri.30155
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