The Bleeding Edge: Technology in Pluralistic Music Education Research

Abstract

In this essay I explore several of the connections between technology and music education research, and the risks that can be involved in using technology as a research aid. The essay serves as a companion to some previous chapters written about this subject (e.g. Tobias, E., The Oxford Handbook of Qualitative Research in American Music Education. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2014); (Webster, P., The new handbook of research on music teaching and learning. Schirmer Books, New York, NY, 2002)), but furthers the thinking in those chapters to focus on pluralistic work. The essay includes reviews of some recent research that has featured technology, and critiques of how technology may have helped or hindered those studies. I examine the usefulness of technology as a tool for research design, data collection and analysis. I discuss the implications of reliance on technology for each of these phases of the research process, and interrogate the goodness and appropriateness of software for qualitative data analysis. I also evaluate the most recent scholarship on the benefits and limitations of statistical software for social sciences research. Finally, I examine recent thought on the use of digital multimedia tools, and how this form of data generation and collection may lend itself especially well to a pluralistic approach to music education research.