Conclusions in the Making: Approaching Qualitative Understanding in Video-Based Classroom Research

• In Event: Roundtable Session 46
  In Roundtable Session: Methodological Choices and Their Consequences in Education Research

Abstract

Objective
The purpose of the paper is to illustrate how decisions made in research design impact upon the researchers’ capacity to interpret participants’ practices and to promote a discussion of ethical criteria for the evaluation of classroom research. This paper:
1. Describes a process of interpretation of audio and video data from multiple cameras trained on the teacher, student groups and the whole class during science lessons
2. Illustrates variability in interpretation as dependent upon the data sources available, and;
3. Provides an explanation of the moral criteria used to guide the research practice.
Theoretical Framework
This study is grounded in discursive psychology, an approach to psychology foregrounding relational and performative aspects of learning and socialisation. This approach is relatively new in science education research (Author et al, XXXX; Lemke, 2001), where cognitive psychology has been employed traditionally. The study reframes the long-standing problem of student disengagement in school science using the concept of ‘agentic positioning’ and by studying the ‘balance of agency’ (Kalantzis & Cope, 2008) in a science classroom. This approach replaces individualistic ontologies of cognitive psychology and shifts the emphasis from shortcomings of the learner to social practices and the learner’s enrolment into these practices. Human agency is defined not in terms of intentions or knowledge, but in terms of positioning in conversation.
Methods
The ontological commitments of the research approach imply a central interest in recordings and records (rather than reports) of verbal and nonverbal aspects of discourse (Edwards & Potter, 1992). The “complementary accounts” design was employed.
Data Sources
Part of a larger project funded by the Australian Research Council, data selected for the study include video recordings of a science classroom over twelve lessons using four cameras and seven audio tracks, post-lesson, video-stimulated interviews with students and the teacher, lesson planning documents, students’ written work and the researcher’s field notes.

Results
Two phases of the qualitative data analysis are contrasted: a preliminary analysis using audio data from the classroom during teacher and student interaction and the final analysis using multiple video cameras to supplement the audio data. The analysis shows that data sources available can significantly impact upon interpretations of classroom practice and judgements made regarding the effectiveness of the teacher. Moral criteria for evaluating educational research concerned with classroom practice were developed as an outcome of the research, including “privileging persons” (Harré, 1997; Shawver, 2001) and “dialogic interaddressivity” (Matusov, 2011, p. 103).
Scientific or scholarly significance
The adequacy of methods used for the interpretation of classroom practice is an important contemporary discussion, because teaching standards for accreditation, promotion and accountability measures in many countries are based on such research. The implication of this research is that the researchers’ or evaluators’ perspectives alone can be inadequate in evaluations of effective practice and there needs to be more attention paid to moral criteria for the evaluation of research design.

Author

• Jennifer Lynne Martin, The Australian Catholic University