Somatic sensitivity and reflexivity as validity tools in qualitative research

Abstract

Validity is a key concept in qualitative educational research. Yet, it is often not addressed in methodological writing about dance. This essay explores validity in a postmodern world of diverse approaches to scholarship, by looking at the changing face of validity in educational qualitative research and at how new understandings of the concept might be applied in dance inquiry. With new methodological frameworks, ideas about validity have changed. Through this article, I trace validity in educational research frameworks and discuss appropriate approaches, given the purpose of the research and its paradigmatic frameworks. My big questions are: is validity a key aspect of qualitative research in dance? Do we hold onto the concept of validity as a useful indicator of methodological rigor? Do the traditional criteria for qualitative research change according to the purpose of the research? Or has the idea of validity itself become challenged with newer trends in dance education research in the United States? If so, how do we then assure that qualitative research is valid?

Keywords:

• validity
• reflexivity
• qualitative research
• postpositivist research
• dance education research
• arts-based educational research

Notes

1. See Green and Stinson (1999) for differences in paradigmatic epistemologies and ontologies.

2. See Green (2001a) for a discussion about the creative process during this study.