Bailey (2008: 129) argues that transcription is ‘an important first step in data analysis’ as it involves ‘close observation of data through repeated and careful listening’. I transcribed semi-structured interviews and video reflection interviews as soon as possible after recording. I listened to each recording multiple times in order to transcribe the conversation as accurately as possible, including details such as tone of voice, emphasis, hesitations, repetitions, interruptions, reassuring sounds (e.g., ‘umm’, ‘uhhuh’), audible breaths in and out, coughs and laughs.38 When transcribing video reflection interviews, I noted down when video footage was played, paused and replayed, as well as whether participants spoke during or after video footage was played. Importantly, Bailey (2008: 130–131) argues that ‘[i]t is impossible to represent the full complexity of human interaction on a transcript’. Inaccuracies, misinterpretations and loss of nuance are inevitable during the transcription process. Therefore, rather than simply being a straightforward ‘technical procedure’, transcription is an ‘interpretive process’ which involves making decisions about how to best represent speech in written form (Bailey, 2008: 130).
38 In the interview quotations that appear in this thesis ‘[...]’ is used to indicate an omission of speech, and ‘...’ is used to indicate a pause (with each full stop indicating a 1 second pause).
The next stage of data analysis involved the ‘coding’ of semi-structured interview transcripts, video reflection interview transcripts, and my own participant observation/autoethnographic fieldwork notes.39 This involved labelling passages of text (phrases, sentences and paragraphs) with ‘codes’ (recurrent or significant themes). As Charmaz (1983: 186, original emphasis) explains, ‘[c]odes [...] serve as shorthand devices to label, separate, compile, and organize data’. Drawing on the principles of ‘grounded theory’ (Glaser and Strauss, 1967), codes were developed using an ‘inductive’ approach; rather than requiring data ‘to fit into preconceived standardized codes’, codes emerged from the data as it was analysed (Charmaz, 2000: 515). There were two key stages in this coding process. First, approximately 3 months into the fieldwork process, I coded the initial data that I had generated (printing out transcripts and fieldwork notes, and coding the data by hand) and created a ‘spider diagram’ on A2 paper highlighting emerging themes. The implications of this analysis then informed the next stage of data collection. Second, at the end of the fieldwork process I undertook a systematic (re)coding of all the data I had generated on the computer. I opted to use a system of Microsoft Word documents to organise the data into different codes. These two stages of coding involved a to-ing and fro-ing ‘from the material to ideas, back to the material’ (Crang, 2005: 225) as I refined and reviewed the codes I had identified.
During the coding process, I attempted to ‘listen’ to the data and to allow themes to emerge from it; however, my own ideas were inevitably drawn into the identification of codes. As a dancer, I came to the research with my own experiences of participation in dance classes, shows and exams which will have (sub)consciously informed my interpretation and analysis of the data (and prior to this, research design and data collection). Furthermore, Sandelowski (1998: 376) explains that during write-up, the researcher selects and ignores certain sentences, paragraphs and themes, disciplining and assembling the data to tell a particular ‘story’. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge that whilst attempting to stay true to the data, in the write-up of this thesis ‘I have unavoidably selected and framed in particular ways participants’ experiences and words’ (McNiven, 2014: 18). Due to word limitations and time restrictions, I have also not been able to write about ‘everything’ that I found, instead highlighting the themes that I felt were most important. I found that during the writing up process this sometimes left me feeling like I was doing an ‘injustice’ to the young people whose lives I was investigating and whose story I was attempting to tell.
Throughout the analysis chapters, I decided to integrate the data from the three different fieldsites (rather than providing three separate ‘case studies’) because when analysing the data I found that many themes cut across all three fieldsites and I wanted to emphasise the similarities between the
39 This research is interested in exploring participants’ own accounts of their embodied experiences; therefore, I analysed the transcripts from the video reflection interviews, but not the video footage itself.
experiences of young people in different contexts (see also Section 3.3). However, within the analysis chapters certain sections sometimes draw on research data from one or two of the fieldsites only. In these instances, I felt that a particular aspect of young people’s participation in dance that was specific to one fieldsite warranted greater attention (e.g., in Chapter 6, Section 6.3.3 I focus on young people’s experiences of participation in the dance school show which formed a significant part of my fieldwork), or because during the process of conducting fieldwork I did not generate data about a particular topic at a particular fieldsite (e.g., in Chapter 4, Section 4.2.3 I focus on research conducted at the dance school and secondary school only because I explored issues surrounding body shape and size during interviews at these fieldsites but not at the dance group) (see Section 3.1 where I discuss the ‘context-sensitive’ approach to conducting the research). In addition, I did spend significantly more time at the dance school than at the secondary school and dance group (see Table 2), so I inevitably draw more heavily on data from this fieldsite.
Throughout the analysis chapters, I also integrate data generated using different research methods (i.e. quotations from semi-structured interviews, quotations from video reflection interviews and extracts from my fieldwork diary) drawing on different kinds of data to support each other. Thus, throughout the analysis chapters I use my own experiences of participating in dance to support data from the young people who participated in the research. However, because of the nature of the different types of data and the themes explored, some data was more useful in some analysis chapters than in others; for example, in Chapter 4 I draw predominantly on semi-structured interview data to explore the space of dance within young people’s everyday lives, whereas in Chapter 6, I integrate data from semi-structured interviews, video reflection interviews and my own fieldwork notes to explore the emotional experiences involved with dancing.
3.7 Conclusion
In this chapter, I discussed the research methodology. In Section 3.1, I described the research design and approach. The research used a multi-sited case study design and was conducted using a multi- methodological qualitative approach that aimed to develop a contextualised understanding of young people’s everyday experiences of participation in dance and to ‘get at’ young people’s embodied, emotional, sensory and kinaesthetic experiences of dancing (see also Chapter 2, Section 2.2.2). The research was conducted in a flexible, responsive, context-sensitive and reflexive manner. In Section 3.2, I considered some issues involved with doing research with young people, arguing that my understanding of young people as competent social actors influenced my decision to use research methods that allowed young people’s voices to be heard. In Section 3.3, I described the three fieldsites (The Southern School of Dance, Greenleaf Secondary School and DS Dance) and provided a
justification for their selection. I argued that the fieldsites involved different ‘modes’ of participation in dance, allowing me to explore a diverse range of motivations, experiences and meanings that young people associated with dance, and to highlight commonalities between young people’s experiences of dancing in different contexts. They also involved young people’s voluntary participation in dance in non-elite settings over the long-term. In Section 3.4, I discussed the process of participant recruitment at each fieldsite and provided some information about the research participants. In Section 3.5, I described and reflected on the research methods used at each fieldsite: participant observation and autoethnography, semi-structured interviews and video reflection interviews. I gave an extensive reflection on the video method, including a consideration of some of the technical issues involved, young people’s experiences of being filmed and watching back the footage, and the interview data generated. In Section 3.6, I discussed the grounded approach to data analysis, and reflected on how the data is drawn together throughout the analysis chapters.
In the following three analysis chapters, I discuss the research findings. The overall aim of the research was to explore young people’s motivations for, and experiences of, participating in dance classes, rehearsals, exams and performances at the dance school, secondary school and dance group for young people with Down’s syndrome and their siblings in the UK. I address this aim through an engagement with four key research questions (see Chapter 1, Section 1.5). These research questions map directly onto the three empirical chapters which focus on three different themes that emerged through the process of data analysis (see Section 3.6 above). In Chapter 4: Spaces, I address the first and second research questions by exploring the space of dance within young people’s everyday lives and the space of young people’s dancing bodies. In Chapter 5: Relationships, I address the third research question by focusing on the relationships that young people formed with each other and their dance teachers. In Chapter 6: Emotions, I address the fourth research question by discussing the emotional experiences involved with dancing. Through these empirical chapters, I seek to highlight the multiple and complex ways in which dance is understood, experienced and situated within young people’s everyday lives.
Before beginning the empirical chapters, I want to make one preliminary point in relation to young people’s motivations for participating in dance: although a few participants did explain that physical exercise was a primary motivation for their participation in dance, most said that exercise was a secondary reason or an ‘added bonus’. In fact, during interviews many young people did not mention physical exercise or fitness until I introduced it as a topic for discussion; instead, they explained their motivations for participation in dance in relation to the importance of dance within their everyday lives, the relationships that they had made with friends and teachers, and the
emotional experiences involved with dancing (including escape, emotional release, achievement and enjoyment). These themes provide the focus of the three empirical chapters. It also indicates the need to be wary of ‘reducing’ dance to a form of physical activity, which has been a tendency in recent policy contexts (see Chapter 1, Section 1.3).