The researcher as instrument: learning to conduct qualitative research through analyzing and interpreting a choral rehearsal

Qualitative researchers often describe the ambiguities and complexities of extracting meaning from ambiguous and complex data. Although methodological literature provides useful frameworks and heuristics to guide the process of transforming field data into credible findings, learning to analyze and interpret qualitative data also involves a transformation of the researcher as the primary instrument for making sense of the phenomenon under study. This pedagogical action research study involved a ‘case within a case’, in which graduate students, enrolled in a qualitative research class in music education, analyzed and interpreted data from a high school choral rehearsal captured on digital video. This study sought to answer these questions: what pedagogical moves and exercises enable beginning qualitative researchers to practice and refine the skills of data analysis? What pedagogical moves and exercises foster the development and refinement of interpretive perspectives? Implications for teaching qualitative research methods using case materials drawn from music classrooms are described.