Inquiry in Music Education

Concepts and Methods for the Beginning Researcher

Carol Frierson-Campbell, Hildegard C. Froehlich

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN:
  9780367523947
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000547818
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Research in Education

Inquiry in Music Education: Concepts and Methods for the Beginning Researcher, Second Edition, introduces research and scholarship in music education as an ongoing spiral of inquiry. Exploring research conventions that are applicable beyond music to the other arts and humanities as well, it offers a sequential approach to topic formulation, information literacy, reading and evaluating research studies, and planning and conducting original studies within accepted guidelines.

Following the legacy begun by Edward Rainbow and Hildegard C. Froehlich, this book expands what is meant by music education and research, teaching tangible skills for music educators with diverse instructional goals and career aspirations. The second edition addresses the changes in methods due to technological advances, a proliferation of new scholarship, and an awareness of the impact of place and culture on researchers and research participants.

This edition features:

• the most current information on research tools, strategies to remain up-to-date, and expanded supplemental online materials (see inquiryinmusiceducation.com)
• case studies that reflect recent research and discuss issues of gender, race, and culture previously absent from mainstream scholarship
• an acknowledgment of the assessment demands of contemporary K-12 schooling
• a chapter devoted to mixed methods, arts-based, and practitioner inquiry
• assignments and other resources designed to be friendly for online course delivery
• chapters from contributing authors Debbie Rohwer and Marie McCarthy, bringing additional depth and perspective.

Inquiry in Music Education provides students with the language, skills, and protocols necessary to succeed in today's competitive markets of grant writing, arts advocacy, and public outreach as contributing members of the community of music educators.

PART IEntering the World of Questioning Chapters 1 through 3

DOI: 10.4324/9781003057703-2

The first three chapters of this textbook are directed at the reader who is about to become a researcher. The chapters describe the process on which “re”-search depends—the “looking again” that is so essential to the spiral of inquiry mentioned in the Introduction. Chapter 1 asks you to apply “who, what, where, when, why, or how” questions to issues that concern you as a music teacher, a student, or both. Chapter 2 describes early steps in finding, analyzing, and selecting pertinent scholarly literature relevant to such concerns. Chapter 3 pushes you to formulate an initial research purpose and rationale along with purpose specifications to guide your subsequent research decisions.

CHAPTER 1The Spiral and Modes of Inquiry Options, Choices, and Initial Decisions

DOI: 10.4324/9781003057703-3

This chapter describes how your research journey might begin:

• Generating possible research frames
• Considering modes of inquiry
• Focusing your concerns with the Teacher-Learner-Music model
• Getting started with reflective reading.

In this chapter you begin to put concerns that likely originated in personal experience and casual observation into scholarly contexts. By considering a variety of perspectives, modes of inquiry and foci, you generate and imagine different frames for your research ideas. Employing both cursory and reflective reading skills, you learn to look for specific characteristics in a variety of publications.

INTRODUCTION

The research journey begins with accepting that “who, what, where, when, why, and how” questions relative to areas of concern are not always easily answered by simply looking them up on the Internet or by asking experts in the field. Secondly, hardly any answer remains the same once and for all. This is why the “think-read-observe-share” cycle is ongoing: Thinking leads to observing or reading, which may lead to the possible modification of once accepted answers; or reading leads to observations that may make you question previous assumptions or thoughts. Finally, sharing your insights with peers, colleagues and—possibly—the public at large may trigger responses that cause yet more thinking, reading, and observing on your part.

The quest is characterized by exploring and articulating (“framing”) researchable questions from which you select one for further examination. The activities become the filters by which you work toward the goal of selecting a topic upon which a complete study can be built. You may visualize it as shown in Figure 1.1.

FIGURE 1.1 The Search Process Visualized

Notice that the image contains two cones—one inverted, the other upright—that relate to each other. Its purpose is to illustrate that when you engage in thinking, reading, observing, and sharing with increasing specificity, your knowledge base about the field broadens; one cannot happen without the other. Early in the filtering process, you may be inclined to spend much time on thinking/reading, and less on observing/sharing your thoughts and findings (preferably in writing) with your peers. Ideally, however, you should move back and forth between all four activities long before you have fully finalized your plans for executing an actual research project.

Do not be surprised if the spiraling process does not unfold as neatly as visualized in our “textbook description.” In fact, at times, you may feel as if the reading and thinking goes in circles, that is, nowhere. This is the proverbial brick wall all scholars run into occasionally, an experience you also know from practicing your instrument. Be assured that moments like that actually may be signs of progress. Uncertainties are an inevitable part of the process of exploring concerns, filtering ideas, and framing topics, because it can be uncomfortable to let one idea go in favor of pursuing another one.

Thinking, reading, observing, and sharing/writing may overlap or take place side by side, albeit at different levels of specificity and precision. Therefore, discuss your concerns, ideas, and topics with friends and colleagues so that you learn to express your thoughts more clearly. At the same time, begin to seek published evidence that addresses your concerns.

Many terms could be used to label the levels of specificity that guide the filtering process. Our labels, chosen deliberately without being necessarily binding, are research concerns, ideas, topics, and purpose. Other choices are equally suitable as long as it is understood that the research process evolves through stages of increasing specificity by which a purpose for your project becomes clear to you.

To describe the aim of a research project, some replace “research purpose” with “research question;” still others refer to it as the “research problem.” Consider using the term “research problem” cautiously because it tends to imply that a resolution is expected as the outcome. In fact, some research, especially in the philosophical realm, may generate questions rather than solve any one problem in particular. In that case, you might prefer to call the focus of your study the “critical issue” or the “problematic.”

TOWARD FRAMING A RESEARCHABLE TOPIC

As you hone your research thoughts from a broad area of concern to a researchable topic, it will be helpful to put an intellectual frame in place. We suggest beginning with a four-sided frame that includes perspective, focus, mode of inquiry, and engagement with the literature. We discussed perspective in the introductory chapter when we visited Times Square via webcam. Two additional frames, mode of inquiry and focus, are described below. The fourth side of the frame, engaging with scholarly and professional literature, is described in detail in Chapter 2.

Generating Possible Research Frames

Music education scholars who study the learning and teaching of music tend to focus on the learner (L), the subject matter of music (M), and the teacher (T), either by themselves or in interaction with each other. To capture the interconnectedness between these component parts, which we call the Teacher-Learner-Music Model, Figure 1.2 likens them to interacting “cogs” (similar to bicycle gears) that cause each other to move, thus resulting in particular processes of learning and teaching.

FIGURE 1.2 The Interconnectedness between Formal and Informal Music Learning Situations

In the instructional formality of school music where the teacher guides most musical interactions, these three components shape the interplay of actions in the classroom or rehearsal. When we refer to learning situations as schooling, formal, or instructor-guided, we suggest that they take place with teachers, assigned mentors, or otherwise appointed or declared superiors overseeing the instructional process. Outside of school—away from teachers, mentors, or mediating guides—the learner interacts directly with the music, which changes the ongoing dynamic between learner and subject matter. Calling such situations informal learning does not imply a learning situation that is less important or effective than what goes on in the formality of institutional settings. The opposite may be the case. Presently, both terms—formal and informal learning—are stipulated definitions, still awaiting systematic examination and verification by further evidence (see Chapter 5). Their presence here simply acknowledges that the way in which music learning takes place impacts its results.

Some Thoughts by the Students in RC 533

Most of the students in RC 533 were more interested in issues related to formal music instructional processes than in informal ones. They thought of themselves as teachers who, with varying degrees of experience, had practical “who, what, where, when, why and how” questions about their own involvement in everyday instructional practices. To illustrate:

Christy’s efforts to articulate several research ideas stemmed from her question about being an effective teacher in the voice studio. “HOW do I teach differently from others?” she asked. “WHAT and HOW do others teach?” “HOW (and WHY) do I know that I am an effective teacher?” When focusing on music (the music cog in Figure 1.2), Christy began to think about other pedagogues. As a result, she moved away from exclusively focusing on herself. Instead, historical questions began to come to the forefront: WHO have been the most influential vocal pedagogues throughout history? WHAT are they known for and WHAT approaches did they use? HOW did they change what was known or believed about vocal pedagogy? WHY were their ideas influential?

Christy’s story illustrates how an original concern (her own effectiveness as a studio teacher) can develop into ideas (previous pedagogy models) of historical significance (what can knowledge about the past teach us about the present?). Clearly, considering whether your own areas of concern deal with questions about teaching or specific actions by your pupils, with events of the past or the present, adds a new dimension to your inquiries. But Christy could also have broadened her initial concern by probing relationships between herself and her students, possibly even adding issues of repertoire choice, teaching strategies, or her students’ home backgrounds to the list of ideas she began to gather.

Exploration: Pause for a Moment and Think

Consider the concerns that have come to your mind thus far: Are your interests situated in institutional learning and teaching or in how learning might take place outside of school? Are you looking into the past like Christy had begun to do, or are you more intrigued by what happens in the present? Are you primarily interested in your own or other teachers’ behaviors and resultant actions or does the world of ideas about music pique your curiosity? If the latter, how does the world of ideas in music relate to thoughts about education and formal instruction? What questions fascinate you and how could you best articulate them?

Answers to any of the questions posed in the above exploration refer to what we call modes of inquiry. Understanding what they are and knowing differences among them may benefit how you might best articulate specific concerns about various learning and teaching settings. The better and more succinctly you frame such concerns, the stronger all subsequent steps in your research are likely to be.

Modes of Inquiry

All research begins with asking questions about that which is to be examined. Now that you have begun that process yourself, scrutinize the nature of those questions. What specifically are you asking about? Are you interested in the past or in the present; in actions, behaviors, and experiences; or in the study of ideas?

A concern about past events, behaviors, and/or documented experiences would likely lead to a historical study; examining past and present ideas would fall under philosophical inquiries, and examining present events, behaviors, actions, and/or experiences would be empirical in nature—regardless of which methods were used. Interestingly, the etymological origin of all three terms goes back to “learnedness, wisdom, and experience.”

“Empirical” derives from the Latin empiricus (or from the Greek empeirikos, empeira, and/or empeiros), making reference to experiences that come from “living in the world” as opposed to knowledge that results from studying written documents. A characteristic derived from “learnedness through experience” brings us to the “learned” or “wisdom loving” person. In Greek, philosophos means the same: The person who loves wisdom. The Latin histor means “learned person,” suggesting a close connection between “lover of wisdom” and “learned person.” A histor, philosophor, and empiricus therefore pursue the answer to a question for the same reason: A need to know. They adhere to principles of both reason and intuition, rely on evidence obtained through the senses as well as through introspection, and engage in the ongoing examination of such principles. In today’s understanding of the three modalities, their differences lie mainly in what a question is about: (1) ideas or ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Introduction: Learning about the Book and Getting Involved
• Part I Entering the World of Questioning: Chapters 1 through 3
• Part II Methods in Modes of Inquiry: Chapters 4 through 15
• Recapitulation: Placing Your Research Experience in the Bigger Picture
• Appendix A: Working out a Course or Project Timeline
• Appendix B: Selected “Isms” as found by Rainbow & Froehlich, 1987
• Appendix C: John Curwen Observes Sarah Glover Teaching Music
• Appendix D: Sample Template for Organizing Coded Qualitative Data and Files
• Appendix E: Choices in Statistical Tests for Parametric and Non-Parametric Data
• About the Authors
• Index