Chapter 3. A Methodology for Researching the Enactments of Place 3.1 Paradigmatic Assumptions
3.2 Design of the Study
As I conceived a design for my study, I aligned my understandings of the various narratives of place and the enactments of place to socially constructed circumstances and relations. I chose a comparative case study between the Lynden Sculpture Garden and the Buildings-‐Landscapes-‐Cultures Field School in which a detailed investigation into the two settings centers on the formation of knowledge and meaningful learning
moments that stem from place-‐based educational initiatives.
My approach to case study research was initially informed from the work of Robert Yin and Robert Stake. According to Yin (2003) a case study design should be considered when: (a) the focus of the study is to answer “how” and “why” questions; (b) you cannot manipulate the behavior of those involved in the study; (c) you want to cover contextual conditions because you believe they are relevant to the phenomenon under study; or (d) the boundaries are not clear between the phenomenon and context.
Robert Stake (1995), a leader in the development of case study research as a method, reveals that the art of case study research is studying the particularity and complexity of a single case, coming to understand its activities within important circumstances (p. 11).
It is impossible to generalize from a single case; however, this case study may serve as a pilot study for a more fuller and in-‐depth dissertation research into place-‐based learning and enactment.
There are many different types of case studies including explanatory,
exploratory, descriptive, instrumental, collective, or multiple (Baxter, 2008). For the purpose of my research, I will be drawing upon multiple case studies in order to enable myself as the researcher to explore differences within and between cases (Yon, 2003).
Because comparisons will be drawn among the cases, including their similarities and differences, the research will be referred to as a comparative case study. A comparative case study examines in rich detail the context and features of two or more instances of specific phenomena, in this case place-‐based education enactment. This form of case study still strives for the “thick description” common in single case studies (Geertz, 1973). However, the goal of comparative case studies is to discover contrasts, similarities, or patterns across the cases (Campbell, 2009).
The parameters of the case are bound in time, location, and by the participants involved-‐including both the docents of the Lynden and the university students of the Buildings-‐Landscapes-‐Cultures Field School. I include time as a parameter of the case to include the period that the study lasted, for the Field School this was from June 2014 to July 2014 and for the Lynden Sculpture Garden, data was collected from September 2013 to November 2014 (though my research as a graduate assistant extends beyond this duration). The case will explore the ways in which the docents perceive the students that visit the Lynden Sculpture Garden, and how the docents change their tours and concepts of place in reaction to the population of students that they are leading and the art they are discussing. Similarly, the other case will investigate the perceptions of the community members by the university students of the Field School and how the
university students represent their ideas of place in reaction to both the community population and artifacts and other place markers of the neighborhood in which they are studying.
Because of my critical stance, I understand that there is a possibility of
“Othering”, or viewing, or treating a person or group of people as intrinsically different or inferior to oneself, which may occur at either setting (Miller, 2008). At the Lynden Sculpture Garden, how the docents have come to know and perceive the school children has been framed within a form of Othering in certain instances. Previously, the docents rarely connected the ideas on tour to the lives of their students. As June McFee (1991) asserts,
In considering the relationships within the main dichotomy (the art or the education of art education), we need to look at our own basic assumptions and backgrounds-‐how our culture, personality, and experience have channeled our interpretation of experience. Are we looking at the students in a given school or community and selecting as appropriate teaching our psychocultural
perspectives on learning? These need to be self-‐recognized and evaluated when observing students and making decisions (p. 73).
Furthermore, culturally relevant teachers must foster and support the development of cultural competence. Cultural competence can be supported in educational settings by acknowledging the legitimacy of students’ home, language, culture and using it as a bridge to support the use of curriculum content selections that reflect the full range of humanity extant in students’ cultures (Ladson-‐Billings, 2010, p.
20), and in my case, in varied understanding of place. For example, the school children of the Lynden have a right and role in shaping the knowledge that is formed on their tour by drawing connections to their own backgrounds, cultures, environments, and experiences. Where the students come from is valued rather than dismissed. Through the process of implementing a place-‐based tour experience-‐the contextualization, development, objectives, and specifics of the place-‐based tour (to be fully divulged in the following section on research locations and settings-‐there is an opportunity for the docents to develop strategies that engage school children in a critical and empathetic manner that empowers them to consider the Lynden’s offerings in relation to their own.
Similarly the university students of the Buildings-‐Landscapes-‐Cultures Field School take on a multi-‐faceted role of learner-‐researcher-‐teacher when interacting with the residents and community members of the neighborhood and examining their own places of privilege. The UWM students must recognize their own biases and privilege in different situations and carefully consider the broad range of artifacts available to them and the mode of delivery that best suites the diverse range in cultural aptitude for learning and interacting with the individuals of the community (McFee, 1991). The UWM students’ recognition of the community and its members as co-‐constructors of valuable and meaningful knowledge creation may be an opposing force to the notion of Othering in this circumstance.
The comparative case study approach attempts to gain a firm grasp of
understanding ideologies of place, people’s interactions with specific places, and place-‐
based learning by creating a space where participants may recognize and even unlearn
their stereotypical knowledge of place while analyzing and theorizing what it means to teach and learn within diverse populations and environments. The patterns,
relationships, understandings, and meanings associated with enactments of place will make sense of the case in relation to the social environment of the Lynden Sculpture Garden and Buildings-‐Landscapes-‐Cultures Field School respectively and comparatively.