Music Education Research

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A narrative analysis of action research on teaching

composition

Katherine Dagmar Strand

To cite this article: Katherine Dagmar Strand (2009) A narrative analysis of action
research on teaching composition, Music Education Research, 11:3, 349-363, DOI:
10.1080/14613800903144288

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14613800903144288

Published online: 23 Sep 2009.

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 Music Education Research
Vol. 11, No. 3, September 2009, 349!363

A narrative analysis of action research on teaching composition

Katherine Dagmar Strand*

Department of Music Education, Indiana University, 1201 E. 3rd Street, Bloomington,

IN 47408, USA
(Received 19 July 2008; final version received 21 October 2008)
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The purposes of this content analysis of action research studies on teaching

composition are two-fold: to examine action research studies on teaching
classroom compositions to learn more about classroom composition pedagogy,
including the values and beliefs that shaped the instruction and findings; and
secondly, to demonstrate how narrative analysis techniques may help to
amalgamate the research and findings of action research projects and thereby
draw useful pedagogical and theoretical information. Narrative analysis techni-
ques were applied to the narratives of these reports to gather information about
the salient values and issues that determined what was to be studied, and how
instructional practice and outcomes were evaluated. The narrative analysis
revealed the organisational structure of the reports and how the teacher-
researchers validated themselves and their experiences. Patterns emerged in the
literary organisation of the narrative, beliefs about agency and the value of music
instruction, learning and child development. The narrative analysis provided
insights into the definitions of what is considered successful action research, what
is considered successful teaching practice and what is considered successful
classroom composition.
Keywords: narrative analysis; composition; action research

Introduction
There is a growing body of action research studies in music education produced all
over the world. Published accounts of action research initiatives such as the Scarlatti
project in Scotland (Byrne and Sheridan 1998, 2001), the Music Education Research
Centre (MERC) and its Music Action Research Group in Birmingham (2007), the
Morrison Project in Los Angeles County, along and University-led efforts such as in
Pretoria (Schoeman and Potgieter 2007) indicate that action research is coming to be
regarded as both viable and practical for investigating ideas in music classroom
settings. There are now several degree-granting programmes, including the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Montana State University, University of Regina,
University of Lethbridge, Eastman University, St. Xavier, where action research
projects are either required as a summative project or are included as part of a
graduate music education. Additionally, there exist both research reports produced
through all of these venues and an untold number of individual teacher efforts for
professional development within school systems. These trends suggest that action

*Email: kstrand@indiana.edu
ISSN 1461-3808 print/ISSN 1469-9893 online
# 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/14613800903144288
http://www.informaworld.com
 350 K.D. Strand

research is beginning to be considered a valuable tool in the development of a

professional knowledge base.
Action research studies are conducted by teachers with the intent to investigate
the value of specific instructional strategies and curriculum practices in the context
of classroom practice (Bresler 1995; Cochran-Smith and Lytle 1993, 1999; Elliott
1991; McKernan 1991; Oja and Smulyan 1989). Writers on action research argue
that it has the potential to transform personal practice; to empower teachers as
professionals, giving them an opportunity to examine the theory and practice of
teaching (Duckworth 1987; Kemmis and McTaggart 1988; McMahon 1999; Regelski
1994; Stringer 1996). Furthermore, action research may serve the more political aim
of transforming the power relations within the school and classroom (Noffke 1997).
Classroom composition is a popular topic for examination through action
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research (see Appendix 1). The particular challenges related to helping students
compose, exploring the musical learning that occurs in the composing process,
assessing compositions and examining the development of the child as a composer
provide a rich set of questions to examine through action research. As Savage and
Challis (2002) stated in their report of a study on digital arts in the classroom:
It is our contention that this approach to teaching and research is the most useful in
providing an accurate picture of learning with new technologies. It produces an account
of the process within the context of a specific classroom, framed by the social, cultural
and political context of the school. This inside out approach has the additional benefit
of empowering teachers voice, enabling one to reflect on the interactions and
relationships in the classroom with a degree of intimacy not attainable through other
methods. (9)

Because of the unique qualities of action research studies on teaching composition

and the potential transformational nature of the research process and findings, it is
only reasonable to assume that these studies may offer important and unique
contributions to our understanding of classroom composition pedagogy.
Action research reports are unlike other research reports in three ways: the focus
on instruction through the lens of professional knowledge; the use of self-reflection
in analysis; and the report itself as a narrative of the teaching practice in context.
Because of their unique properties, I wanted to find a way to examine the action
research studies on composition in depth. The unique qualities, however, make the
studies problematic to amalgamate. They are highly contextualised, individualised,
interpretive and the reporters themselves are highly involved participants (Cochran-
Smith and Lytle 1993; Kemmis and McTaggart 1988; Oja and Smulyan 1989). As
Josselson (2006) suggested of all narratives, action research narratives seem to stand
as miniatures in a hall of portraits. In order to move beyond considering each study
as a stand-alone example of rigorous teaching practice, some form of metasynthesis
had to be developed. A simple content analysis would compare the process and
research findings but would not capture the richness of the information contained
within the reports themselves, which may include elements of personal, professional
or political transformation (Noffke 1997).
My goal was to find an analysis approach that would allow me to understand the
unique qualities of these studies within the vast literature on teaching composition.
To reach the heart of the action research studies, to capture insider understandings
of the issues related to teaching composition, the experience of examining and
 Music Education Research 351

altering practice, and evaluations of the events during the research process, required
an analysis of the researchers experiences as interpreted by the reporters. I chose to
examine the action research reports through narrative analysis.
The purpose of this study was to amalgamate the body of action research studies
on composition through narrative analysis techniques, and so contribute in
meaningful ways to our evolving understanding of practice and pedagogy. The
further intent was to propose a procedure for the metasynthesis of action research
that might contribute to our evolving understanding of action research as a valuable
addition to disciplinary discourse. The questions that guided the examination were:
(1) How do the research reporters express the value of, and make sense of,
teaching composition in their narratives?
(2) How do the research reporters express evaluations of childrens composing
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process and products in their narratives?

(3) How do the research reporters express personal, professional and/or political
transformation through the narratives?

Methodology
This is a case study of published action research on classroom composition. I used
the keywords action research and music education as identifiers to find studies in
searches of several databases. Each selected report was, therefore, self-identified as
an action research study by the author and editors. There were two delimitations in
the selection criteria. First, reports were not included which may have been action
research studies but were not self-identified as such. My intent was to find a
homogeneous grouping as much as possible to serve as a single case within the
larger population of studies on teaching composition (Merriam 1998; Stake 1995). I
anticipated that action research studies not identified as such by their writers might
be less homogeneous in writing style and content. The second delimitation was that
where a researcher published both a thesis and a report in a journal for the same
study, the journal report was chosen. My intent was to avoid redundancy. There were
12 studies found through this approach (see Appendix 1). The settings of the 12
studies varied by country, placement of research, space and time allotted for data
collection.

Data analysis
In order to analyse the studies using narrative analysis techniques, it was important
to consider which analytical tools might best serve to answer the research questions
(Riessman 1993, 2003). According to Labov (1972, 1997, 2006) and Riessman
(2003), a narrative may be considered a narrative of personal experience, if it
contains narrative clauses with a sequential organisation and temporal junctures.
The events of the narrative are emotionally and/or socially evaluated by the narrator;
that is, not simply reported as raw experience of events, but transformed into
interpreted and meaningful episodes. Even within the specialised and stylised writing
conventions of research reporting, action research reports fit the qualifications of
narratives of personal experience in as much as sections within the reports,
specifically the episodes used as examples to describe the research process and
 352 K.D. Strand

findings, tend to be both sequentially organised and reflective. The challenge for this
analysis was to find an appropriate way to examine the reports as narratives of
personal experience without discounting the stylised research writing prose.
When a story is transformed from spoken to written language, the readers are
self-selected and unfamiliar with the particulars of the story context, thus the
story becomes distended and complicated in relation to a spoken analogue
(Ricoeur 1988). Written stories require attention to the text in addition to the
content of the story. The choice of words and the structure of the language in a
written narrative inform the reader about ways that the storyteller makes meaning
out of the narrated events (Freeman 2004; Josselson 2006). The action research
narratives in this study were all written in the highly stylised reporting form
common to other research reports in which the research experience is explained
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sequentially through reflective prose, marked with explanatory episodes and

ending with a section that reflects upon the value of the study and findings
within the broader context of teaching and researching music. I recognised that
the narratives in these published action research reports were further distended by
writing convention for the specific publications, and even further complicated by
the contributions of invisible voices who participated in the interpretation and
construction of the narrative; the advisors, editors and reviewers who acted upon
the reports prior to publication.
Josselson (2006), following the work of Ricoeur (1970), discussed the challenge of
narrative analysis as a conflict between a hermeneutics of faith and a hermeneutics
of suspicion. When interpreting a narrative, an analyst might either attempt to fully
represent and honour the narrators intentions or to look behind the text to examine
meanings that may be hidden within the language of the text. Josselson suggested
that the analyst ask What is not there? in addition to What is there?
Peacock and Holland (1993), acknowledging that narratives both reflect and
construct reality, suggested taking different approaches in narrative analysis. A
cultural approach examines the narrative as a mirror of reality, an attempt by the
narrator to accurately reflect the reality of the experience on an assumption that
impartial reporting will enhance the objectivity and accuracy of the narrator
(369). This approach was accomplished by examining the efforts by the reporters to
be impartial and accurately report their research process, along with the
presentation of findings as credible, transferable and dependable (Bogdan and
Biklen 1982). A psychocultural approach holds that the narrators form self-
identities by drawing on culturally available plots and symbols and the meaning
that the listener/reader infers from them. Murray (1986), followed by Polkinghorne
(1988) use Fryes analysis of story forms (1957) to argue that only culturally
familiar story forms and characters are considered trustworthy to listeners and
readers, so narrators use these forms and characters to convey meanings. A
narrator may use the form of a romance, characterised by optimism, commitment
and adventure, a tragedy, characterised by early hopes destroyed by realities of life,
a comedy, characterised by incongruity and integration into society or a satire,
characterised by idealistic dreams disillusioned by the ironies and complexities of
adult life (Murray 1986, 290). For this approach, I examined the reports to
discover the story forms chosen by the narrators.
A psychosocial approach focuses on the ways that the narrators define themselves
and the relationship they take to the reader. The narrator uses this relationship to
 Music Education Research 353

make meaning out of the experience. This was accomplished by examining the
narrators points of view (Connelly and Clandinin 1990, 2000; Lauritzen and Jaeger
1997); by the choice of characters who were given voice in the narratives and the
ways that character relationships were drawn. Examining the texts in these ways
allowed me to explore the narrators communicated identities and their implied
values and beliefs (Labov 1982).
The analysis process began with examining the reports to discover the characters,
settings, events, conflicts, incidents, themes and outcomes (Josselson 2006; Murray
1986). I next examined the data to find how the reporters identified themselves
within the narratives (Riessman 2003), how the reporters evaluated the events and
how they represented other characters (Josselson 2006; Riessman 2003). By doing so,
I was able to look for evidence of transformation. I also coded the episodes, the
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contextual stories given as examples, with coding schemes organised and then
expanded upon by Labov (1997, 2006). The episodes were parsed into: (1) abstracts
which provided overviews of the stories; (2) orienting statements which described the
setting, character and context; (3) complicating actions which told what happened
next?; and (4) the most reportable event (MRE) (Labov 1997), the statement that
provided the answer to the question so what? or why the story was told. Finally, I
examined the evaluative statements; those stated or suggested evaluations found in
the narrators use of modal verbs (a verb which modifies another verb to include
intention, such as would or should), comparatives, questioned futures, assign-
ments of praise or blame, to find how they made sense of the reported experiences
and their roles therein.
The overviews were provided in the report abstracts themselves. Orienting
statements were found in the descriptions preceding the episodes. For example,
Howard and Martin (1997) provided an evaluative orienting statement to a
characters composing efforts In 1995, despite increased confidence, A struggled
for some weeks before producing her first draft for piano duet (75). Complicating
actions indicated happenings in time. For example, Howard and Martin continue: A
session with pianists showed A where the sounds conflicted with her concept and
resulted in significant revisions (76). The MRE was generally found at the end of an
episode, as with the Howard and Martin example: In two years involvement, A has
learned to think creatively in music . . . Learning to compose changed the way she
approaches music as a pianist and an O Level student Ill see music very differently
from now on ! more feeling towards it (76). Evaluative terms such as struggled and
despite and the comparatives changed and differently along with assignment of
praise to her involvement in the narrators reported project, each provided
information about the way that the narrators interpreted the experiences of this
character.
Throughout the data reduction and interpretive process, I kept memos and
diagrams to provide an analytical paper trail and compare new data with the
emergent findings. An independent coder used the focused coding scheme on the
episodes and conducted narrative analyses on a portion of the reports. Field notes
from the discussions with the independent coder helped to shape the ongoing
analysis.
 354 K.D. Strand

Findings
The findings from the analysis revealed common threads in story form, in beliefs
about the value of classroom composition, issues and assumptions related to
teaching composition and in the expressions indicating transformation.
The studies were found to examine a variety of topics. Some were reports of
exploration with software in the music classroom (Gardiner 1999; Jennings 2001;
McDowall 2003; Savage 2005; Savage and Challis 2001, 2002; Tisbert 1998). Some
reports were specifically about instruction in the elementary classroom setting
(Johnson 2004; Miller 2004; Perconti 1996; Strand 2006), while the remaining study
(Howard and Martin 1997) was an overview of a large-scale instructional
programme to prepare a future generation of composers. The characters in the
reports included the narrators, teachers who were researchers themselves or
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supervisors who worked with music teachers, teachers who worked with the narrators
in some way and the students. The researchers voices were predominant in the
reports and their episodes. Co-teacher researcher voices also contributed to the
written narratives. Children were represented as individuals in episodes or as a
group, reported as one unit (i.e. the second grade or the class). Finally,
instructional theories and instructional software emerged as characters with agency
in all but one Howard and Martins report.

Expressions of meaning-making about teaching composition

The narrators expressed their attitudes about the value and purpose of teaching
children to compose by direct and indirect means. In many reports, the goals for
instruction and composing projects were articulated, as well as the obstacles that
they anticipated the children might face.

Composing as the means, not the ends

The reporters wrote that they considered the value of composition lie in its ability to
motivate learning and develop complex thinking skills. Gardiner (1999), for example,
examined the possible transfer of thinking skills learning in composing tasks to math
domains, examining test scores to measure success in the attainment of thinking
skills. Johnsons (2004) study was specifically designed to use composing tasks,
taught through a transformative instructional approach, to teach students to read
and write rhythmic notation. Johnson, interestingly, linked notation reading skills
back to more successful performance capabilities as well, stating: students were not
retaining a basic music vocabulary, in particular; note and rest names and
understanding of their values, and therefore were unable to independently create
quality musical compositions (3).
The genesis for several studies was an attempt to operationalise learning theories
in instruction and observe the effects. Constructivist theories were named in several
studies, as were theories of transfer and creative thinking processes. In such reports,
the narrators described composition as a means to an end. Only two studies
(Howard and Martin 1997; Miller 2004) named creating composers as an ultimate
goal.
 Music Education Research 355

In many cases, composition was described as a vehicle through which learning

and motivation may occur. The metaphor of a vehicle is of particular interest,
implying that the composition process itself is not the end-goal for musical learning,
but rather a way to approach the end goals. For example, a teacher working with
McDowall (2003) explained that she had learned more about constructivism and
imagined the value of future composing efforts through that lens:
I think that all of that knowledge will link up with other things that they will do. They
might not be able to verbalize that but thats what constructivisms all about, they link
their knowledge and build new understandings. (87)

Focus on the task or the tool

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Studies of instructional software primarily addressed some practical issues that the
reporters named as problematic for student composing efforts. In these reports, the
ability for students to compose was linked to the students abilities to explore musical
sounds with the software and their enjoyment in using the software to compose. For
example, McDowall (2003) provided an example of success citing Childrens
involvement with the MidiPads often had a playful quality, ranging from random,
physically vigorous ! often delighted! ! exploration of sounds produced by pads,
through to careful planning and performance (86). Savage (2005) linked success
similarly to enjoyment: Pupils enjoyed exploring the sounds within a pedagogical
framework of exploration and discovery, rather than in the context of right or wrong
compositional choices (171). The metaphor of tool was common throughout the
reports, implying that the students focus would be upon the composition task itself.
Jennings questioned the truth of this assumption as he evaluated the complex
relationship of creator, created and tool, writing: . . . what we think about and how
we think about it are, to some extent at least, a function of the tools we are using
(36). The relationship of student to tool and task were otherwise unquestioned, with
the bulk of the reports examining simply how specific software may aid students in
the composing process.
In these reports, the stated purpose of the tools was often to help students avoid
problems that they might encounter with other musical behaviours, which were
written of as tools as well. For example, Jennings (2001) reported that:
As Kevin doesnt play an instrument or read staff notation, it is almost impossible to
conceive of him making a piece of this complexity or engaging with these musical
concepts without being facilitated by this or similar software. (Jennings 2001, 33)

The practical problems included organising efficient instruction, having enough time
to compose, assessing for note-reading acquisition, assessing for conceptual learning,
locating and nurturing talented young composers and finding ways to compose
without performing on instruments or reading notation. Success in the research
findings was determined by the extent to which the students were able and interested
in composing through the use of tools and application of learning theories.
The reporters consistently evaluated each of these issues as constraints to
childrens composing process, to be avoided altogether or in some way ameliorated.
As McDowall (2003) explained:
 356 K.D. Strand

Technical considerations such as instrumental skills and standard music notation

reading, which can act as severe impediments to musical participation, were not relevant
and children were able to venture into realms that were far beyond the common
constraints of musical participation in the early years. (86)

Strand (2006), however, reported that the relationship between students developing
performance capabilities was a side-effect of learning to compose in a classroom
without computer technology:
They each created a rhythm pattern and chose an instrument on which to perform, then
arranged the patterns to create their own compositions. The members of one group
challenged each other to switch patterns so the rhythm complex remained the same but
the performance difficulty would increase . . . the high road transfer aspect of this set of
artifacts related to performance skills rather than concept transfer. (29)
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The attempts to avoid potential problems for students in their composition efforts
reflects a belief that musical behaviours should be isolated in order to provide
effective training in each. Contrasted with Strands (2006) description of interactions
between learning in performance and learning in composition, other narrators
expressed beliefs that performing would obfuscate childrens composing efforts.

Expressions of evaluation of childrens composition process and products

In these reports, the ability to compose was considered a skill attainable by all of the
students. Their initial exploratory or problematic efforts were transformed into more
successful actions through age, experience and training.

Criteria for success

Reporters evaluated the composition process and the childrens products, indicating
how they perceived value in teaching composition. Composing was considered
successful if the products had higher levels of complexity related to musical texture,
timbre and overall length, and if the composers used musical concepts related to
understanding of the musical elements. Student composers were evaluated as
successful if they were reported to begin the composing process with an intention
about the end-product and if they demonstrated the thinking skills of expert
composers.
Student success was tied to their use of software, their explorations or the
learning theory that was operationalised in the classroom. Missing from these
studies, interestingly, was any discussion of the relationship between teacher!student
personal interactions and composing success. Personal attention and mentoring was
considered secondary to the value of the software or learning theories in the reported
research findings and discussion.

Childrens voices
The learners themselves, the children in the classroom, were given voices in the
nested episodes within the reports, in which they expressed their beliefs about the
composing process or their evaluations of the composition products. They neither
evaluated the instruction nor the quality of the software, nor did they have a voice in
 Music Education Research 357

the narratives surrounding the episodes. As such, the texts implied that the children
were the recipients of knowledge and skills, the subjects of the examinations or
sometimes the agent of conflict between the researcher and the learning theory or
instructional tool.

Expressions of transformation
The voice of the narrator
The use of voice by the narrators (first person, first person plural and passive voice)
was inconsistent both across reports and within reports. Some reports were written in
first person, some in a mixture of first person with an active voice and a passive
voice. One report was written entirely in third person, in which the narrator referred
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to himself as the teacher. Eight of the reports used passive voice when describing
the research process. Jennings, in his story of incorporating a specific software
package to teach composing commented on the problematic nature of the dual
identity in this way:
In order to understand these processes, it is necessary to observe closely, continuously,
and at various levels of detail. The degree of separation required by this type of
observation poses clear problems for the participant researcher. (Jennings 2001, 26)

The use of passive voice is not uncommon in research reporting, so I assumed that
the narrators were likely to have been working within convention. However, the
inconsistencies both within and across these reports indicated some confusion about
the narrators identities for writing convention or within the research process itself.
The changes in writing style suggested that they may have seen their roles as teacher
and researcher as separate selves.

Story forms
The complete narratives followed conventional research writing with a statement of
purpose or problem, identification of a question(s), descriptions of interventions, a
description of findings in which episodes of classroom experience and student
learning were provided as exemplars and an evaluative conclusion. Within the
episodes there were stories of individual students and student reflections. In reports
where the narrator was a university professor or supervisor, the teacher-researchers
and students were only given voices in the episodes, where their reflective comments
punctuated the reporters findings.
When the action research reports were examined, they all were found to take the
conventional story form of a romance. Murrays (1986) description of the
organisation of the romance is helpful here to explain to story constructions:
The heroes of classic forms of romance must also face three tests . . . The first test (agon)
involves conflict between the hero and the evil force. The second test (pathos) is the final
death struggle between the combatants . . . The third test (anagnorisis) is the discovery
of a transcendent meaning or truth as part of the process of renewal after the struggle.
(288)

In each report, the narrator began by finding a new learning theory, instructional
strategy or software, and expounded upon its virtues. The researcher and/or the
 358 K.D. Strand

object/theory were tested and new insight and success resulted from the trial. In the
presentation of the reports as romances, both the classroom and the children were
possible conflicting agents; trials for the researcher-theory/software pair to pass
through in order to reach a deeper insight. Interestingly, the romance story form was
presented even in the face of little instructional success. Johnson (2004) reported that
the adoption of a transformative approach to instruct an experimental group, while
the control group was taught in the older rote-instructional method. Even though
there was no difference found in learning between the groups, Johnson reported that
the new teaching strategies were valuable and to be kept, expressing her determina-
tion to hold fast to the new instructional approach:
There was also a statistical significance in the amount of gain or loss between the pre-
and post-tests of the control and experimental groups. This leads one to believe that the
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type of teaching strategy does have an effect on students achievement. In the case . . .
the control group showed a greater increase than the experimental group . . . Of what
consequence are the experimental groups higher final scores? Because the probability
(0.13) is greater than the significance level (0.05), the null hypothesis is not rejected . . .
However, this does not mean that the null hypothesis is true, that using an integrated,
transformative approach for teaching music composition does not produce a greater
increase in understanding. (35)

Consistent with a romance story form, the reporters expressed personal transforma-
tions in their orienting statements by explaining the reason for the adoption of ideas,
tools or strategies that inspired the research. Software, constructivist theories and
teaching strategies were adopted in each case, inspiring the research projects. For
example, Miller (2004) explained:
Teaching for 20 years among a group of elementary teachers who have been interested in
literature-based education has influenced me . . . as they became convinced that writing
was the critical other half of reading, I began to ask myself if I, too, had been leaving out
half the process. (60)

Expressions of personal growth or transformation

The reporters expressed personal change or growth, or growth for the teachers whom
they wrote about, by explaining how they learned from mistakes made during
planning and teaching and by proposing adaptations to their instruction as a result
of initial problems. For example, Johnson (2004) reported:
The independent variables in this study relate to changes in teaching strategy. The
researcher discontinued the drill of note names and values in the second year of the
study. Open-ended composition assignments, in which the students sought out help
from peers and the teacher to solve problems and complete the composition, replaced
drill and rote learning. (5)

They also expressed personal growth in the conventional research report manner,
through statements by anticipating future possibilities and changes. Phrases such as
Although this research is ongoing . . . attended many studies to allow the reader to
understand that the process of instructional development is endless and reporters
imagined possibilities for their and others instructional practices. These possible
futures were couched in modals such as might, could and would.
 Music Education Research 359

Expressions of professional and political transformation

Expressions of transformation for the profession were found in the evaluations of the
instruction and personal transformation, most commonly in the discussion sections
of the reports. The transformative statements took the form of advice to teachers,
with suggestions that music teachers should adopt certain software, as exemplified in
a statement by Savage and Challis (2001): A foundational aim of the project was an
attempt to demonstrate the empowering and facilitating nature these new
technologies can have for all pupils when used imaginatively and constructively in
the classroom (140), to adapt teaching strategies to allow for student exploration
and expression and/or to revise future instruction to operationalise constructivist or
cognitive apprenticeship teaching approaches.
Expressions of political transformation were absent from the studies. Alterations
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to the discipline of music education or the education process were not addressed,
either directly or indirectly. Similar to findings by Cain et al. (2007), the focus of the
reports was on teacher-transformation and the development of personal profession-
alism, rather than changing the role or status of music teaching, exploring the impact
that the researchers might have on developing theories, evaluating instructional tools
such as software or changing the fundamental nature of the educational experience.
There were no efforts in the reports to promote political (Noffke 1997) change in
education or convince the reader to acknowledge the voice and power of children
(334) as Noffke suggested.

Discussion
Based on these findings, I found that a narrative analysis approach was useful to
amalgamate the action research studies on teaching composition. This approach
allowed me to uncover the unique qualities of these studies by examining the
transformative characteristics of the research process as described in the narratives
and the evaluative terms used by the reporters, thereby uncovering implicit beliefs
about students, composition and the role of the teacher in the students composing
processes. The examination is limited to speculation about the reporters intentions,
however. Interviews with the reporters to learn their motives for engaging in research
and its publication and their beliefs about teaching composition, observations of on-
going research and an examination of the editing process would all be required to
wholly examine the issues raised by this study.
The language used to describe the students, who were subjects of the studies but
often treated as objects in the reports, may reflect implicit beliefs on the part of the
reporters. Implicit in the focus upon theory and software may be a tendency to
regard children as objects to be manipulated rather than as socially engaged
participants. Or, the reporters use of the reports to claim new knowledge
(Polkinghorne 1997) may have implied that the reader should understand classroom
relationships as assumed and therefore neither new nor important knowledge. An
analysis of a broader variety of research reports on classroom composition may help
to discern whether these implications reflect a trend in our belief about the learners
actions upon learning environments or whether this finding is limited to the
examined action research reports.
 360 K.D. Strand

Considerations for further action research studies may include examinations of

some of the implied assumptions found in this study. For example, action research
studies may explore the relationship between the learner, the teacher, the tools of
composition and the composing process itself. Action research studies may examine
questions such as: Does interaction with any tool increase a childs composing
ability with other tools? Does the development of notation reading and
performance skills hinder young childrens composing process, or as Stauffer
(2002) suggests, does performance skill development enhance young childrens
composing potential? Do children benefit more as composers from interactions with
their teachers or from innovative and engaging composing tools? How do children
see the value of composing, and how do they evaluate the relative success of
instructional strategies in their classrooms?
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The findings from this study also prompt questions about the nature of action
research reporting. The reporters generally optimistic tone, unlikely to question the
theories or software, made me consider that I found no stories in the form of a
tragedy, satire or comedy. There were neither examples of a theory or piece of
software that failed, misbehaviour in the classroom, nor of children who were
unsuccessful as a result of the new teaching strategies. Not one teacher rejected an
adoption/romance by the end of these narratives. This finding may have been due to
the limitations in the initial choice of reports to examine. Had I chosen doctoral
dissertations rather than the shorter reports written for research journals, I may have
found a wider variety of stories embedded in the longer reports. Similarly, the
inclusion of studies not self-identified as action research reports but which could
qualify as action research may have produced more varied results. Limiting my
exploration to studies of composition may have had an impact on this finding as
well. An examination of a wider pool of published action research, on a variety of
research topics, may indicate different trends. A comparison of self-identified action
research with action research reports not self-identified as such may prove an
interesting way to explore how writing styles may vary between the two.
The narrators wrote about personal and professional transformations, suggesting
that the music education profession can benefit from following their examples. As
such, these studies do create practical applications and provide real-world benefits.
They do not, however, inform any learning theories or even the tools used in the
examinations, as all the transformations experienced and suggested were personal in
nature. Rather than focusing on personal transformation, action research studies
could be designed to address professional transformation. For example, a study
could be designed to examine software in the classroom in order to describe the ways
that it must be modified for individual students. Or, teachers might examine the
ecological validity of a learning theory to describe their interpretations and the ways
in which the theory had to be modified for their classrooms.
These studies did not address political transformation. It may be that the field of
classroom composition is too immature to speak of learning theories or the tools
developed to aid instruction. However, while the publication avenues in our field may
entertain certain types of transformative experience in research, we may not yet
entertain the possibility that action research can promote large-scale political
transformation. It may be that various actors in the publication process may serve as
filters through which only action research studies expressing certain forms of
transformation may pass, or that writing convention inhibits researchers efforts to
 Music Education Research 361

address political transformation. Decisions about how to write a research report and
what knowledge to claim are mediated by a host of issues, as Polkinghorne (1997)
describes:
Within the conventional approach, successful knowledge claims, that is, those that pass
the muster of the journal review process, serve other functions beside adding to a
disciplines body of knowledge. They are used as an index for promotion and tenure
decisions. A researchers career advancement is often tied directly to the number of
knowledge claims that have made it through the review process to publication. Thus,
tampering with the conventional format and presenting ones research to reviewers in a
different format is serious business. (5)

If action research is to fulfil the potential for personal, professional and political
transformation (Noffke 1997), new conventions of reporting may need to be
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examined that better capture the intricacies of personal interaction in the classroom,
teachers improvisational decision-making processes and how they determine the
success of student learning (Polkinghorne 1997).
While we have continued to learn about childrens composing processes, specific
tools, and how theory can undergird teaching practice, it may be valuable to use
action research and narrative analysis to begin asking deeper questions about our
assumptions regarding the nature of teaching and learning in music. It may be that
there is more depth to plumb than we have currently allowed ourselves. Specific
studies to test the value of composing tools, to investigate currently accepted
learning theories and to examine the philosophical underpinnings of our practice are
all possible avenues for future action research narratives. Furthermore, explorations
into new reporting conventions may yield valuable new types of knowledge to our
field. It is hoped that the field of music education research may welcome such
revolutionary research as it begins to emerge.

Notes on contributor
Katherine Strand is an associate professor of music at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana
University, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate music education courses. Her
research interests include classroom composition and creativity, action research, and
integrated arts curricula. She has presented research at the Music Educators National
Conference, College Music Society Annual Conference, Narrative Soundings: Narrative
Research in Music Education (I and II), RIME (Research in Music Education) Conference,
and the Mountain Lake Colloquium. Her writings have appeared in the Journal of Research in
Music Education, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Arts Education
Policy Review, Journal of Music Teacher Education, Philosophy of Music Education Review,
Music Educators Journal, Teaching Music, General Music Today, the Musicator, the
proceedings from the 6th International Conference on Music Cognition and Perception,
and in J. Kerchner & C. Abril, (Eds.), Musical experience in our lives.

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Appendix 1. Action research studies examined

1. Gardiner, M. 1999. The relationship of two WEB project activities to math learning and
analysis. The WEB project. http://www.webproject.org/action.html (accessed March 2,
2007).
2. Howard, J., and J. Martin. 1997. Developing musical creativity: The Singapore Young
Composers Project as a case-study. Research Studies in Music Education 8: 71!9.
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Research Studies in Music Education 14: 14!39.
4. Johnson, N.E. 2004. Will teaching music composition through an integrated, transfor-
mative approach or a nonintegrated, mimetic approach produce a greater increase in
student understanding of note and rest values? In Winona Action Research in Music
Education, ed. T.F. Sherman and M. Lundquist, ED494238. www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDi-
gest/content_storage_01/0000000b/80/35/ad/el.pdf (accessed January 1, 2008).
5. McDowall, J. 2003. Music technologies: New literacies in the early years. Proceedings of
the International Federation for Information Processing Working Group 3.5 open
conference on young children and learning technologies at Melbourne, Australia, eds.
J. Wright, A. Mc Dougall, J. Murnane & J. Lowe., Vol. 34. 83!8.
6. Miller, B.A. 2004. Designing compositional tasks for elementary music classrooms.
Research Studies in Music Education 22: 59!71.
7. Perconti, E.S. 1996. Learning to compose and learning through composing: A study of
composing process in elementary general music. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
University of Idaho.
8. Savage, J. 2005. Working towards a theory for music technologies in the classroom: How
pupils engage with and organize sounds with new technologies. British Journal of Music
Education 22, no. 2: 167!80.
9. Savage, J., and M. Challis. 2001. Dunwich revisited: Collaborative composition and
performance with new technologies. British Journal of Music Education 18, no. 2: 139!49.
10. Savage, J., and M. Challis. 2002. A digital arts curriculum? Practical ways forward. Music
Education Research 4, no. 1: 7!23.
11. Strand, K. 2006. Nurturing young composers: Exploring the relationship between
instruction and transfer in 9- to 12-year-old students. Bulletin of the Council for Research
in Music Education 165: 17!37.
12. Tisbert, J. 1998. MIDI composition: Mastering music skills through computer assisted
composition. The WEB project. http://www.webproject.org/action.html (accessed March
2, 2007).