The Challenge of Locating Context(s) in Archived Video Records

• In Event: The Problem of Context(s) When (Re)constructing Data Sets From Archived Records

Abstract

Objectives
This presentation explores challenges identified in tracing the evolution of classroom principles of practice for “respect”, when drawing on archived video records and textual artifacts, along with secondary data from dissertation studies undertaken on the same archive by other researchers. This presentation makes visible how limitations of archival video records constrained the types of data that could be constructed, and therefore impacted claims that could be warranted. Particular attention is given to describing contextual information that was, and was not, available to be seen/heard within the archived video records for use as data.

Theoretical Framework
This study employed an ethnographic logic of inquiry informed by the tenants of practice-centered anthropology (Agar, 2006), an interactional sociolinguistic perspective (Cook-Gumperz & Gumperz, 1992); Blumer’s (1969) conception of symbolic interactionism; and Gidden’s (1993) theory of structuration. The study builds on arguments about discursive construction of common knowledge (Edwards & Mercer, 1987), classroom norms, and principles of practice. Underlying the analysis is the concept of context(s) as socially constructed through the ways agents import historically relevant presuppositions into their current situation, manage their actions based on expectations of the future, and act in concert with each other to (re)formulate interactional contexts.

Methods of Inquiry
Classroom activities were event-mapped. Classroom maps, as visible from the perspective of the video camera, were constructed to index the location of classroom participants; transcripts were constructed as tools for discourse analysis. Discourse analysis examined how classroom participants formulated a commonly understood referential system for “respect,” contextualized presuppositions and expectations into unfolding moments of discourse, and cooperated to contextualize interactional contexts.


Data Sources
This study was based on audio-visual records documenting the first two days of a fifth grade class; reproductions of 28 student essays; and classroom maps, event maps, and transcripts drawn from previous dissertation studies of the same classroom.

Substantiated Conclusions
This study demonstrated that: the parameters of social contexts are (re)formulated through interactions over time; what counted as “respect” shifted as what counted as context was (re)negotiated; a norm for “respectful” action was introduced, upheld through interaction and reaffirmed and redefined; and through their interactions, agents drew on contextual information not visible in the current moment (or in the video records of that moment).

Significance
This study generated empirically grounded analysis of ways classroom participants drew upon and created context(s) while (re)negotiating meanings of social processes and practices. This study uncovered practical and theoretical limitations of video records’ capacity to make visible contextual information about the bits of social life being documented and argues that video records are not complete representations of classroom life. By comparing the analysis of this study with analyses of other studies performed by different researchers on the same records, this paper underscores researchers’ individual abilities to derive different data/insights from the same records and argues the data that can be derived from video records is partially dependent upon the researcher’s relationship to the records.

Author

• John Winston Hammond, University of California - Santa Barbara