Multimodal Symphonic Analysis: Methodology for Synchronously Analyzing Socially Situated Pedagogical Events

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 1:45 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Futures of Qualitative Methods and Analysis (Table 3)

Abstract

Educational scholars today have growing access to multimodal data, including enhanced video recording of classroom activities, which can both strengthen and complicate inquiry. In this paper, we describe Multimodal Symphonic Analysis, a social semiotic approach designed to synchronously analyze oral, textual, visual, and physical modes together to understand how they transact, interact, and play in concert. We share core components of this methodology and show how we applied this approach in a multimodal study of teacher storybook reading to extend our understanding of literacy pedagogy. We suggest that this methodology could be fruitful not only for scholars of teaching and pedagogy, but also could be adapted for broader research that collects multiple modes of data in educational settings.

Authors

• Sabina R. Neugebauer, Temple University

• Elizabeth E. Blair, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater