Zooming in on the Qualitative Paradigm in Art Education: Educational Criticism, Ethnography, and Action Research.

Abstract

Within the qualitative paradigm there are sev eral related approaches each with distinct disciplinary and intellectual traditions. These approaches differ in their aims, in the issues they explore, in the tradition in which they are embedded and in the writing style in which the recount is written. Other differences have to do with the specific perspectives from which researchers conduct their research and the various roles they assume in the study. In this paper, I examine three genres of: (a) eductional connoisseurship and criticism; (b) ethnogra phy, and (c) action research, focusing on their intellectual roots, characteristics, and meth ods. Research in each of these genres can ad dress fundamental gaps of knowledge in ed ucation. The understanding of the assump tions, methods, and contributions these genres make to the theory and practice of art instruc tion can help expand the boundaries of knowl edge in art education research. Educational researchers in America have increasingly come to value what re searchers elsewhere have long empha sized: the personal and political nature of education. Part of this awareness is reflected in increased interest in the unique circumstances of school pro grams. The classroom community and societal contexts have become more than abstract variables. The study of local, situated knowledge can be handled in a disciplined and scholarly way with qualvariables. The study of local, situated knowledge can be handled in a disciplined and scholarly way with qual itative inquiry. Just as art and education trace their roots back across the centuries ultimately to the crude and custom-driven habits of societies, qualitative inquiry has its roots in the intuitive and survivalist behavior of early peoples. For ages people have op erated on hunches and emotions, in creasingly using those that brought them safety and satisfaction. Gradually we saw the wisdom of what we already were doing?observing, questioning, keeping records and interpreting, and respect ing the experience and ruminations of others. Gradually we formed rules for study and names for our sciences. Art educators, too, increasingly drew from philosophers and social scientists to cod ify research procedures (Bresler & Stake, 1992). Qualitative research is a general term which refers to several research strate gies that share certain characteristics: (1) a constructivist notion of reality; (2) em phasis on interpretation of both the par ticipants and the researcher; (3) a holistic way of approaching reality which is seen as timeand context-bound rather than as governed by a set of general rules; and (4) a highly contextual description of people and events (Bresler & Stake, 1992; Geertz, 1973; Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The concept of reality is perhaps the most fundamental assumption from which each of the other characteristics is de rived. Most qualitative researchers main tain that knowledge is a human construc tion. The aim of qualitative research is not to discover reality, for by constructiv ists' reasoning this is impossible, but to focus on different interpretations of that reality by constructing a clearer experi ential memory which helps us obtain a more sophisticated account of things. Sophistication is partly a matter of with standing disciplined skepticism. Though the comprehension we seek is of our own making, it is a collective endeavor (Bresler & Stake, 1992). Researchers interested in the unique ness of a particular act of teaching or learning find value in qualitativi studies VISUAL ARTS RESEARCH ? 1994 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois 1 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.84 on Wed, 15 Jun 2016 06:21:09 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms because the research centers around physical, temporal, historical, social, po litical, economic, and aesthetic contexts. At the beginning, middle, and end of a program of research, the researcher needs at times to concentrate on in terpretive understanding (verstehen). The process of verstehen involves the ability to empathize, to recreate the experience of others within oneself. A related as sumption in the qualitative paradigm in volves the relationships of the researcher and the researched: the researcher is not seen as separate from the researched. To quote the famous Geertzian phrase, he is, like his fellow human beings, an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun (Geertz, 1973). Because researchers are part of the real ity they study, they can never be neutral. Instead, their goal becomes the taming of subjectivities (Peshkin, 1988), to be aware and conscious of their biases and prejudices and to monitor them through the process of data collection and anal ysis. Within the qualitative paradigm there are several related approaches each with distinct disciplinary and intellectual tra ditions. These approaches differ in their aims, in the issues they explore, in the tradition in which they are embedded and in the writing style in which the recount is written. Other differences have to do with the specific perspectives from which researchers conduct their research and the various roles they assume in the study. Each of these genres can address gaps of knowledge in education, and art ed ucation in particular. The understanding of the assumptions, methods, and con tributions these genres make to the the ory and practice of art instruction can help expand the boundaries of knowl edge in art education research. In this paper, I examine the three genres of (a) educational connoisseurship and criti cism; (b) ethnography; and (c) action re search,1 focusing on their intellectual roots, characteristics, and methods. For each genre, I present briefly its intellec tual origin, and its main characteristics, in terms of goals, issues, and methods. Each discussion of a qualitative research genre is accompanied by a description of a study in arts education conducted in this mode. Educational criticism is il lustrated by Tom Barone's evaluation of a secondary school arts program in a rural, Appalachian community. Educa tional ethnography is illustrated by Mar jorie Wilson's study of communitas and peak experiences within a University set ting. Action research is illustrated by Jim Bolton's study of his own classroom within a British secondary school. The paper concludes with a discussion of the commonalities and differences among these genres and their respective con tributions to the theory and practice of art education research. Art Criticism as a Methodological Model

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