Methodological bricolage

The research design, grounded in the constructivist-interpretive paradigm and the qualitative research tradition, owed much to the methodological approach of bricolage, which was introduced in Section 4.2.4. It drew on Merriam’s (1998) description of a basic or generic qualitative study and on the concept of reflexivity. The study was influenced too by narrative and storied approaches to research, including life stories and life history. The data analysis utilised the concept of interpretive bricolage, which

enabled interpretive frames to emerge as the teachers’ stories were examined in detail. Each of the methodological bricoles (tools) that were woven into the study is introduced below.

4.4.2.1

Basic or generic qualitative study

At its core, the study can be described as a basic or generic qualitative study as described by Merriam (1998):

Many qualitative studies in education do not focus on culture or build a grounded theory; nor are they intensive case studies of a single unit or bounded system. Rather, researchers who conduct these studies, which are probably the most common form of qualitative research in education, simply seek to discover and understand a phenomenon, a process, or the perspectives and worldviews of the people involved. (p. 11)

The written proposal for the study suggested two phases: “Data will be collected from in-depth interviews with selected teachers (Phase One), and from a ‘follow-up survey’ (Phase Two) to be sent to music teachers in all New Zealand secondary schools” (Donaldson, 2005, p. 14). The second phase was to act as a means of triangulation, to increase the generalisability of the findings. In practice, however, the second phase was not undertaken. In 2009, MENZA announced an online survey with New Zealand secondary school music teachers, to gather data about teachers’ experiences within the classroom and in the wider school. I contacted the organisers and, with their agreement, worked with them to shape some of the questions to elicit data relevant to this study. The organisers agreed to provide me with access to the findings, which have informed the discussion in Chapter 10. The findings from the survey were included in Chapter 3 (Section 3.2.2).

4.4.2.2

Narrative and stories

Mary Catherine Bateson (1994) posits that “our species thinks in metaphors and learns through stories” (p. 11). During the past 30 years, narrative inquiry, which hinges to a large extent on both story and metaphor, has been developed into a qualitative methodology in its own right. Clandinin and Connelly (2000), who are amongst its pioneers, comment that “simply stated … narrative inquiry is stories lived and told” (p. 20).

Narrative methodologies require “collaboration between researcher and participants, over time, in a place or series of places, and in social milieus” (Clandinin & Connelly,

2000, p. 20). They hinge on the telling and retelling of stories of experience. While the use of such a methodology was not applicable to this current inquiry, the project, nonetheless, was significantly influenced by narrative thinking and by story. Narrative thinking rejects what Clandinin and Connelly (2000) call the ‘grand narrative’, which evokes “an unquestioned way of looking at things” (p. 22). Instead, it conceptualises life experiences in terms of story, and the ongoing evolution of personal identity, as stories to live by. Narrative inquiry also necessitates ongoing reflection or ‘wakefulness’ (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000), a process which has been employed throughout this study. (See Section 4.4.2.4 for a discussion of the reflexive stance.)

The use of metaphor is an aspect of many narrative texts. This can be seen in Clandinin and Connelly’s (1995) own metaphor of teachers’ professional knowledge landscapes. Metaphorical thinking has been central to the interpretation of the teachers’ stories in this study. It led to the development of the two worlds metaphor which informed the discussion (see Section 4.6.4 and Chapter 10). A narrative approach also informed the research method, in which interviews were conceptualised as a form of conversation (see Section 4.4.4).

Narrative thinking has informed the language used within this thesis and, to some extent, its style. For example, although the term ‘data’ is used to describe the interview- conversations held with the teachers, these are often referred to as ‘teachers’ stories’, which reflects their conversational and storied nature. The commitment to making this thesis accessible to teachers, as outlined in Chapter 1 (Section 1.2), has meant that the written text has been influenced by narrative style. It also avoids, where possible, the use of technical language. My personal story presented in Chapter 1 (Section 1.3) was written as a narrative and the outline of the development of the two worlds metaphor also owes much to narrative style.

4.4.2.3

Life story and life history approaches

As stated in Chapter 1 (Section 1.2), it is sometimes argued that educational research has not been useful to teachers. Life story and life history are approaches which represent attempts by researchers to “sponsor new voices – [through] the world of ‘stories’, ‘narratives’ and ‘lives’” (Goodson, 2003, p. 5) and thus to bring teachers more firmly into the world of educational research. Goodson (2003) maintains that “the great virtue of stories is that they particularize and make concrete our experiences” (p. 28).

In a life story inquiry, a researcher works with participants in order to understand and present aspects of their life experience. Goodson (2003) states that “life story givers provide data for the researcher, often in loosely structured interviews. The researcher seeks to elicit the teacher’s perceptions but is generally passive rather than actively interrogative” (p. 47). A hallmark of life stories is the lack of theoretical interpretation. According to Goodson, concerns about ‘colonising’ teachers’ accounts, and thus potentially creating an abusive power relationship, have confined the researcher “to the role of ‘scribe’, recording in faithful and exact form the teacher’s voice and limiting commentary to a minimum” (p. 58).

While such stories of experience do have a place, the lack of interpretive analysis has been seen as a major weakness. It is because of this that Goodson (2003) urges researchers to explore their data within their studies to find both thematic and contextual understandings. This can be achieved through life history. Life history, thus:

begins with the life story that the teacher tells, but seeks to build on the information provided. Hence other people’s accounts might be elicited, documentary evidence and a range of historical data amassed. The concern is to develop a wide intertextual and intercontextual mode of analysis. (Goodson, 2003, p. 47)

Goodson (2003) describes life history as “a story of action within a theory of context” (p. 47, original emphasis).

Both life story and life history have influenced the orientation of this study. The semi- structured interview-conversations (see Section 4.4.4), and the relatively low key way in which the interviews were conducted have something in common with life story. However, it is life history that has provided the greater influence. Chapters 2 and 3 of this thesis demonstrated that a deep contextual understanding of the music teachers’ lives has been sought. Furthermore, while the five data chapters (Chapters 5 to 9) present the teachers’ stories without evaluative commentary, the data have been interpreted in Chapter 10 using a range of interpretive frames. This is in keeping with life history approaches.

However, this study differs from typical life story or life history inquiries. Such inquiries are often conducted over a long period of time, involving ongoing contact between the researcher and the participants. Given that the aim of this study was to seek an understanding of the experiences of a range of teachers working in diverse settings at

a particular historical juncture, this study did not follow a typical life history methodology.

4.4.2.4

Researcher as instrument: A reflexive stance

Reflexivity is included amongst the methodological bricoles that fashioned this study, because of its significance for the way in which I worked throughout the project. Reflexivity relates to an ability to think about one’s own thinking. Reflexive thinking differs from reflective thinking in that reflection involves thinking about our actions, whereas reflexivity requires us to reflect on our own processes of reflection (Moore, 2004, p. 148).

In the research context, reflexivity can be seen as the “process of reflecting critically on the self as researcher, the human as instrument” (Hodges, 2001, p. 278). Reinharz (1997) links reflexivity to the notion that we have many selves, and so not only do we bring our own self into our field of research, but we also create our self within the field. Guba and Lincoln (2008) also endorse the concept of multiple selves, considering it to be essential that we ‘interrogate’ each of our selves in order to discover the relationships between ourselves and our research enterprises.

An interpretive research project such as this, drawing on methodological and interpretive bricolage, places high demands on the ‘researcher as the instrument’. Section 4.2 has demonstrated that as the researcher I could not be a ‘dispassionate observer’ of ‘objective reality’. Instead, my own background, history, knowledge and attitudes have all played a role in shaping every aspect of the research journey. My own extensive experience within the field of secondary school music education made me especially alert to the importance of challenging my own perceptions, attitudes, values and thinking at every stage of the process.

Early in the research journey I set myself a reflexive project, to reflect on and interrogate my own thinking in relation to three of my ‘selves’ – teacher, musician and emergent researcher. That project, outlined in Chapter 1 (Section 1.3), helped sharpen my awareness and establish reflexivity as a core disposition to bring to the study.