DISEÑO METODOLÓGICO

As discussed in Chapter 3, this is a predominantly qualitative study, with some quantitative data embedded within it in order to enrich the qualitative responses. It is not the objective of this research to utilize a statistical sample to produce results that can be generalized to the entire population. As Corbin and Strauss (2008) explain,

“generalization is not the purpose of qualitative research” (p. 319). Rather, data are intended to produce a representation of the way in which practising secondary level music educators perceive the current state of music education in this province.

Quantitative data are provided in order to give context to the qualitative data as part of a thick description of the findings. The quantitative data are derived from teachers’ own reporting of their perceptions of enrolment trends, as attempting to derive meaning from the enrolment data recorded by the Government of Ontario is made problematic by the inconsistency in course labels between schools and school boards.17 By presenting the data in this way, readers are encouraged to make informed decisions concerning the relevance of the findings to their own situations. In a qualitative study, it is the

researcher’s obligation to provide a thorough description of the research context in order to allow readers to decide for themselves the extent to which the findings apply to their own circumstances (Merriam, 2009). It is considered that the most detailed description possible of the survey respondents will aid the reader in contextualising the perceptions of the teachers who responded to the questionnaire and/or participated in an interview.

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Further discussion of the inconsistency in Ontario secondary school music credit system can be found in Chapters 1 and 2.

This chapter is divided into three parts: the limitations for participation, the

findings of the online survey (Phase 1), and the interview (Phase 2) responses. Following a brief description of the limitations for participation, the questionnaire findings (Phase 1) are presented as they occurred in the seven sections of the online survey:

1. Demographics; 2. Course offerings;

3. Grade 9 enrolment trends; 4. Grade 10 enrolment trends; 5. Senior enrolment trends;

6. Extra-curricular music program; 7. Open-ended question.

Data from section one are primarily quantitative in nature as all the questions (other than the school name) require a numeric response. Sections two through six contain both quantitative and qualitative data: teachers were given the opportunity to express which enrolment trends were occurring in their curricular and extra-curricular music programs in addition to why they believe certain enrolment trends may be

occurring. The final section of the survey inquired as to respondents’ perceptions of the future direction(s) of music education in their schools and is, therefore, entirely

qualitative in nature.

This chapter concludes with a presentation of the interview findings (Phase 2). In most cases, the interview questions were designed to follow up on each participant’s survey responses. Interviewees were encouraged to express their observations on music education in their schools and in Ontario overall.

Limitations for Participation

At the time of this study, of the 909 secondary schools in Ontario, 605 were located within the 31 Ontario English Public school boards that qualified to participate in this study (Government of Ontario, Ministry of Education, 2012); however, to ensure that this number accurately represented the number of schools offering music, I examined the curricular offerings in each of these 605 secondary schools. In most cases, electronic versions of the course calendars were available on the school or school board websites. I used these course calendars to ascertain whether at least one music course (indicated by an “AM_” course code) was being offered by each school. If this information was unavailable online, I contacted those schools by phone to inquire about their course offerings. One hundred and thirteen schools did not offer any music courses and,

therefore, did not meet the parameters of this study. In most cases, these schools without music programs were identified as adult education centres, E-learning centres,

technological skills centres, or alternative schools. Each of the remaining 492 Ontario English Public high schools offered at least one music course, thereby qualifying for participation in this research.

Of the 31 school boards (492 schools), 20 school boards granted ethical approval, which left 381 schools that met the requirements of this research. Seven of the school boards granting ethical approval also required approval from individual school principals before the music teacher(s) in that school could be invited to participate; 47 principals declined. Therefore, in the end, the link to the online survey was sent to the music teachers in 334 schools representing 67.9% of the 492 Ontario English public secondary

schools offering music courses. Please refer to Figure 6 for a schematic representation of the process through which the participating schools were determined.

Figure 6. Schematic representation of the process followed to determine participating schools.

In total, 162 surveys were submitted by Ontario music teachers. One survey was not included in the data, as it was completed by an elementary teacher and, therefore, did not meet the inclusion criteria for this study. There were 10 incomplete surveys

submitted in which the participants provided only their demographic information. Online surveys hosted by the SurveyMonkey website present the demographic information as

page 1 and the participant is required to select page 2 in order to access the rest of the questionnaire. This format may have been misleading for those participants who only completed the first “page” of the survey. The 10 incomplete surveys were not included in data analysis. Therefore, 151 questionnaires were included in the final data set,

representing the responses from each of the 20 school boards that granted ethical approval for this study.

Survey Findings

The online survey (Appendix E) was divided into seven sections: demographics, course offerings, Grade 9 enrolment trends, Grade 10 enrolment trends, senior enrolment trends, extra-curricular music program, and the open-ended question.

Section 1: Demographics. The first section of the online questionnaire was