Part+1+Methodology

**METHODOLOGY ** The data for the study was collected during 4 months. It consisted of interviews, classroom observations and site document analysis. My plan was to write a research paper on the use of music by classroom teachers. I conducted my first interview with one of the fourth grade teachers who I knew had used music in her classroom in the past. Although I didn't end up using the data from that particular interview, the conversations that led to and followed it helped me a great deal in narrowing the focus of my inquiry. As I asked my routine closing question "Who should I talk to next?" the teacher next door was mentioned. She is in her fourth year as a teacher currently assigned to teach a monolingual third grade class. She has a Masters degree in education, which she earned while working at this school. She previously taught fourth and fifth grades and prior to that she worked with high school and college students as a counselor. She is in her 30s and single. She is an accomplished gospel singer and she performs on a regular basis. She extensively uses music in her classroom to create a positive learning environment and to teach other subject areas. Conversations with this teacher and my first observation of her students prompted me to turn my project into a case study. To maximize the amount of data collected, a variety of interviewing approaches were utilized. Semi-structured interviews were a typical starting point. They were recorded and transcribed. The transcripts were given or read to the interviewees who were asked to contribute additional comments. The comments were used in preparing the follow up. Unstructured interviews were comprised mostly of clarifying questions. Another type of interview was a focus group of three to five students. Snowballing sampling was utilized to select the students to be interviewed. In addition to the interviews, I spent time in the classroom informally talking to students and taking notes to document those interactions. I attempted to transcribe all the interviews, but as the data contained in the transcripts was becoming redundant, more and more attention was given to the collection and analysis of site documents, mainly students' work. The observations were limited to the classroom. After the first, more general observation, my focus was on documenting the instances where the teacher used music. The music lessons with the music cluster were not observed since the project was focused on the classroom teacher and her use of music. I adopted the role of an outside observer to assure the "naturalness" of the data. The teacher was instructed that the purpose of the study was to analyze data that reflect a natural present situation. She was told not to change her routines and not to demonstrate lessons she has done in the past, unless she was asked to do so. Whenever students were asked to perform a specific task for the purpose of the study, students were instructed in such a way as their responses were as unbiased as possible. All participants were assured that they were at no risk and that their statements were confidential. As I was gathering my preliminary data I decided to use two different sampling approaches. As the project was unfolding, I was open to using others as well, depending on how the scope of my work developed. At that time, I was studying how classroom teachers use music in their classrooms and how it impacts their students. To collect relevant and rich data my sampling needed to be purposeful. I was interested in studying the classes in which music is used during the school day and under the direction of classroom teachers, not music specialists. I was also going to focus on students in those classes who are musically literate and able to articulate their attitude to education. My sample was going to be unique by the virtue of the fact that most of the time students are exposed to music only during music lessons with a music specialist. Having classroom teacher use music in a classroom is a phenomenon limited to situations when that teacher has some form of musical background. That background could be as an amateur or semi-professional musician or other type of performing artist. While talking to students and teachers, I used snowballing sample as planned. As my project became a case study of a single teacher the issues of using such complicated sampling schema became somewhat absolute. I was working with small enough groups of people to be able reach all of them with my observation, interview or casual improvised conversation. As I was talking to the students I asked them to recommend the next students that I should interview. The criterion for selecting those interviewees was that, as I explained to the children, "they have a lot to say about music". Part 2 Literature Review