ABSTRACT
The relationship of arts education to academic and non-academic student outcomes has attracted investigators from a range of theoretical perspectives and research traditions (O’Toole, 2006; Winner and Hetland, 2000). This chapter reflects on the relationship between the distinct quantitative longitudinal and qualitative case study phases of the current study and how the research design enabled integration of the data and the findings at key stages in the research (Tashakkori, 2003). These phases had distinct but connected research aims. As discussed by Mansour, Martin, and Anderson in Chapter 3, the longitudinal study, led by one research team, investigated the links between arts participation and academic and non-academic outcomes, while the case study approach, led by a second research team, examined the pedagogies and practices found in exemplary arts classrooms. During the course of this sequential study, the focus transitioned from the analysis of survey data, N = 643, taken at two points in time over one academic year, to the single and then cross-analysis of nine exemplar case studies that were selected based on the quantitative results. The chapter will reflect on the design of the data collection instruments and their capacity to facilitate independent and integrated analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data. We tease this out by way of example, explaining how engagement was defined and detected in the longitudinal study and how this resonated in the case study research. The chapter will also examine the tensions of balancing the explanatory and exploratory role of the case studies. Finally, the chapter explores the methodological and communication challenges faced by two teams of researchers who are grounded in quite distinct research traditions.
