Current Graduate Research in Art Education
&
Five-faces of Arts-Based Research
(paper in ANGEL)

 

 

Introduction to Research

What is qualitative analysis?
Content analysis, archival research, historiography

• (Discuss Ellen Ballock ’s 2007 dissertation, The Development and Evaluation of a Self-Study Process for Critical Friends Group, chapter 3 on her research design)

Ellen Key Ballock ’s 2007 dissertation Chapter 3: Research Design (pp. 48-72).

Finding a research topic:
Problematizing and Problem Statements, Constructs, & Construct Maps

Developing a research question:

• purpose of research (i.e., why)
• context & background of the problem
• specific contexts (i.e., who, what, when)
• researcher roles (situating locations): Power Relations—agency/subjectivity. What is the relationship between the subject of research and the researcher? (discuss Lal and Díaz-Greenberg readings)

Research mapping assignment introduced (Past examples of Research Maps & Problem Statements). Optional to use FreeMind (free software) to visualize connections.

Lal, Jayati (1999). Situating locations: The politics of self, identity, & other in living and writing the text. In S. Hesse-Biber, C. Gilmartin, & R. Lydenberg, R. (Eds.). Feminist approaches to theory and methodology: An interdisciplinary reader (pp. 100-125 & references 126-137). New York: Oxford University Press. [electronic reserve]

Díaz-Greenberg, R. (2001). Breaking through the silence. In L. Ramírez & O. M. Gallardo (Eds.). Portraits of teachers in multicultural settings (pp. 27-40). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
[electronic reserve]

Mapping Research Problem Statements: Discussion to help your peers identify their strengths and bring forth their interests. Group brainstorms together on different approaches to each other's problem statements, and different ways to focus them. Listen to your peers discuss their research ideas, and help them identify:

• role as researcher (i.e., theoretical frame & methods)
• research questions (i.e., theoretical frame & approach)
• specific contexts (i.e., who, what, when)
• underlying assumptions (i.e., constructs & theoretical frame)
• purpose of research (i.e., why)
• context & background of the problem

Post in ANGEL prior to class your first draft of a research problem statement and research map.

Select a theoretical perspective from the following Actor-network theory, feminist theories, critical theories, critical race theories, social action, discourse analysis, phenomenology, or other theories not listed, and select a reading from the links provided or from your own search beyond the references listed, that is about or uses that theory in research and provide an informal presentation on the theory and its application for class discussion on 10/2.

Conducting a Literature Review:
How to Find & Critique Research

Meet at 2:30 p.m. at the Pattee/Paterno Library in room Pattee W315. We will have a 1.5 hour hands-on workshop conducted by Henry Pisciotta, Arts Librarian.

4:15-5:30 p.m.

Discussion of your prior-to-class reading of "Literature Review": What it is, how to present it in a study, and how to conduct one. You will not write a literature review in this course, but will develop an outline based on your problem statement for future reading and writing of a lit review. You will learn strategies to log your search, and ways to organize the many possible studies you find for future reference.

Introduction to "3 Critiques of Research" assignment. Due: 10/30-11/13 depending on your presentation date.

Go to course online. Click on "Literature Review" and read the 3 sections doing the activities along the way. The lit review assignment is described in-depth in the 3rd section. The lit review assignment is due Dec 4.

Importance of a theoretical interpretive framework for conducting research to guide what data to collect, analyze, and interpret. Student informal presentation on a theory and its application.

Re-visit Problem Statements informed by theoretical interpretative frameworks presented and this week's readings: Group brainstorms on different approaches to each other's problem statements, and different ways to focus them, along with suggestions on a "purposeful sample" for interview data.

Introduction to Interview Assignment: Develop a question derived from some aspect of your research map that you would like to explore through interview. Conduct an interview on an issue that relates to your problem statement. Bring a transcription of the interview to class on 10/9. Write an essay, due 10/16, to include self-disclosure, method, theoretical frame, context, analysis and interpretation(s) of the interview data. Length, 1000-2500 words. Use APA style writing guidelines, 2.

Select from one of the 4 readings on electronic reserve to discuss in class in relationship to interviews.

Bach, H. (2007). Composing a visual narrative inquiry. In D. J. Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 280-307). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

de Mello, D. M. (2007). The language of arts in a narrative inquiry landscape. In D. J. Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 203-223). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Lather, P. (1991). Research as praxis. In Getting smart: Feminist research and pedagogy within the postmodern (ch. 3, pp. 50-69). Westport, CT: Bergin & Gavey.

Lather, P. (1991). Feminist perspectives on empowering research methodologies (ch. 4, pp. 70-85). In Getting smart: Feminist research and pedagogy within the postmodern. Westport, CT: Bergin & Gavey.

Oct. 9

Layered Analysis: coding, sorting, & pattern seeking

What counts as evidence?

Bring a copy of a transcription of your interview. Also, if easily available, bring a set of color markers, gluestick, cards, & scissors.

Discuss interview & analysis process, &
software programs for qualitative analysis—pros & cons

Meet at 2:30 p.m. at the Information Sciences & Technology Building, room 201A.

Dr. Eileen Trauth will lead off with the framing of her research (i.e., motivation, role of theory) on “Individual Differences in the Social Shaping of Gender and IT” and provide an overview of the research design (i.e., design of data collection, design of data analysis), along with examples of research output (i.e., papers written). Her graduate research assistant, Haiyan Huang, will follow with topics related to the coding and analysis of data using QSR product: N6 software. Questions throughout are encouraged.

QSR NU.DIST & NVivo is a computer assisted qualitative analysis software for non-numerical unstructured data, indexing, sorting & theorizing. Intro to NVivo.

QDA Miner: mixed-method qualitative analysis

http://www.scolari.com/

Or for only quantitative software packages go to: http://gking.harvard.edu/stats.shtml

For the 2nd half of the class we'll find a place to gather in IST and discuss what you learned from conducting interviews, analysis of the interviews, and writing your interview essay.

Due: Interview Essay.

Art education faculty present their research with a focus on their research processes, the methodologies, and theoretical frames employed, and respond to the following 5 questions developed by students.

1) What do you consider important art education research?
2) What are the characteristics and components of a good dissertation/thesis?
3) How do you develop research questions?
4) What sources do you find the most useful when doing research?
5) One can look at a problem in different ways. When thinking about methods of research, we have been using the metaphor of the hammer. To build a house you need more than a hammer. How do you use methodology? and; Do you try to diversify your methods of inquiry to allow different understandings of your research question emerge? In looking at a problem, do you sometimes imagine a couple different strategies or ways to answer it and then choose which one?

• 2:30 p.m. Dr. David Ebitz, Theorizing Museum Education
• 4:45 p.m. Dr. Grace Hampton, Fulbright Research in Nigeria

Continue discussion of what you learned from conducting interviews, analysis of the interviews, and writing your interview essay.

Research Proposal Formats ("proposal" assignment introduced, due Dec. 19, 1 p.m.).

Research Proposal Formats

• thesis proposal by Karen Hembree, 2001
• dissertation proposal by Hui-Chun Hsiao, 2006

Optional Reading: Ebitz, D. (in press). Transacting Theories for Art Museum Education. P. Villeneuve (Ed.).

Optional: Tracie Kahler and Jodi Mathieu, research compliance coordinators at the Office for Research Protections, will present: "Human Participant Research: Pilot Testing and Secondary/Existing Data—IRB Review and Approval," noon Oct. 26, 102 Kern Building, University Park. This session will assist researchers in determining when review and approval is needed for the pilot testing phase of a research study.

Art education faculty presentations

• 2:30-4:00 p.m. Dr. Christine Marmé Thompson, Children's Culture & Graphic Representation
• 4:15-5:30 p.m. Dr. Kim Powell, Arts-based Research Approaches to Understanding Built Environments

Optional Readings:

Marmé Thompson, C. KET aesthetics [ANGEL]

Powell, K. (in press). ReMapping the City: Palimpsest, Place and Identity in Art education Research. Studies in Art Education [ANGEL]

Art education faculty presentations & student research review presentations

• 2:30 p.m. Research Article Critiques by Myoungsun Sohn
• 3:15-4:15 p.m. Dr. Wanda Knight, Autoethnography: Entangled Social Realities of Gender, Class, & Race
• 4:30-5:30 p.m. Dr. Patricia Amburgy, Popular Art: A Study of Preferences in Art

Optional Readings:

Knight, W. (2007). Entangled Social Realities: Race, Class, and Gender—A Triple Threat to the Academic Achievement of Black Females. Visual Culture & Gender, 2, 24-38.

Class begins on at 3:30 p.m.
3:30-5:30 p.m. Discussion of critiques of research articles.

Due: Critiques of 3 Research Articles

2:30 p.m. Ingvild Digranes, The Norwegian Research in Art Education Context

Quantitative Research

Experimental Designs & Application of Inferential Statistics

Survey & Other Nonexperimental Designs. Principles of hypothesis testing.

 

(Descriptive Statistics & Central Tendencies, Chi Square, Degrees of Freedom, Probability, Sampling)

Due: Literature review outline, log, & rated/coded bibliography

Publishing Research
Open session, questions, discussion