The researcher as instrument: learning to conduct qualitative research through analyzing and interpreting a choral rehearsal

Abstract

Qualitative researchers often describe the ambiguities and complexities of extracting meaning from ambiguous and complex data. Although methodological literature provides useful frameworks and heuristics to guide the process of transforming field data into credible findings, learning to analyze and interpret qualitative data also involves a transformation of the researcher as the primary instrument for making sense of the phenomenon under study. This pedagogical action research study involved a ‘case within a case’, in which graduate students, enrolled in a qualitative research class in music education, analyzed and interpreted data from a high school choral rehearsal captured on digital video. This study sought to answer these questions: what pedagogical moves and exercises enable beginning qualitative researchers to practice and refine the skills of data analysis? What pedagogical moves and exercises foster the development and refinement of interpretive perspectives? Implications for teaching qualitative research methods using case materials drawn from music classrooms are described.

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Peter Webster for his assistance on the technical aspects of using digital video in the classroom, to Randal Swiggum for permitting the use of the rehearsal video, and to my students for their willingness to have their ideas included in this paper: Bruce Carter, Kate Fitzpatrick, Jon Harnum, Jenai Jenkins, Jacki Kelly-McHale, Angela Maniaci and Alisha Owner. A portion of this project was presented at the 1st International Conference on Narrative Inquiry in Music Education at Arizona State University on April 6, 2006.

Notes

1. At the time of videotaping, Randal Swiggum was choral director at Whitefish Bay High School, Wisconsin, USA. He has given permission for his name and image to be used. This videocase was excerpted from data from a previous project (Olson et al., 2000).

2. The full text: ‘When David heard that Absalom was slain, he went up to his chamber over the gate, and wept and thus he said: Oh my son Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, Oh Absalom, my son, my son!’

3. Although students granted permission to cite their work, I have chosen illustrative excerpts from their writing without attributing a particular passage to individual students. Unless marked, the excerpts are drawn from the weekly responses for the pertinent phase of the project.