RESEARCH METHODS
Over the course of years of learning and teaching, my life in pedagogy, I have become familiar with a number of diverse educational methodologies. Being an autodidact has made me understand that I must be ready for the surprise of any moment, and must respond creatively— always keeping in mind the objective that my students receive the best possible education. ‘Reacting to day-by-day discoveries as a self-taught teacher has helped me institute changes and thereby obtain much better results than could have been reached under a readymade teaching methodology. Taking advantage of what I learned from my reactions as a teacher, I decided to undertake my research with a methodology of investigative action, always keeping in mind that “Teachers are instinctive action researchers because they continually observe students’ creative behaviors, collect data about students’ development and modify pedagogy ‘with the goals of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effecting positive changes in the school environment and on educational practices in general, and improving student outcomes” (Mills, 2011, p. 4 in Bigger, 2015, p. 43).
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In this context, one must always be aware that “Methodology describes the moral principles, social rules and scientific methods that a researcher follows to conduct research...to be able to discover how [it would affect] students’ creativity, I needed a methodology that would allow me to conduct research from students’ observable creative behaviors while reflecting on my student teaching” (Stein,1989, in Bigger, p. 42).
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The research methodology I utilized is “Action research—purposeful research conducted by an educator to gather data about curriculum, teaching, and learning using a four step process: 1) identifying an area of focus, 2) collecting data, 3) analyzing and interpreting data, and 4) developing an action plan that is designed to impact classroom environments without interfering with students’ learning” (Treffinger, 2002; Mills, 2011, in Bigger, p. 42 ). In my investigations, I employed the action research methodology, meanwhile also applying certain Indigenous methods, especially those related to the teaching of dance. By means of relational accountability techniques within Indigenous methodology, researchers can “come to know how individual knowledge systems interact with the whole and how a human expresses herself in relation to different forms of knowledge” (Datta, 2017, p. 36).
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The importance of the role of Indigenous methodology in this matrix cannot be underestimated. “Indigenous methodologies is about the insertion of Indigenous principles into research methodology” writes Sarah Wilson—a guiding tenet of my approach (p. 36). Indigenous methodology appears in the investigation’s “paradigmatic focus,” i.e. the choice of methods and means used to fulfill its objectives: “Why a particular method is chosen, how those methods are employed (that is, how data are gathered) and how the data will be analyzed and interpreted” (Kovach, 2010, p. 41, in p. 36). Also, of significant importance in guiding my research methods has been the ground- breaking work on “decolonization” of Linda Tuhiwai Smith, whose Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples appeared in 1999. “Tuhiwai Smith's book,” writes one reviewer, “challenges traditional Western ways of knowing and researching and calls for the ‘decolonization’ of methodologies, and for a new agenda of Indigenous research. According to Tuhiwai Smith, ‘decolonization’ is concerned with having ‘a more critical understanding of the underlying assumptions, motivations and values that inform research practices”’ (Wilson, 2001, p. 14).
The methodologies utilized in this research are also informed by progressive philosophy and constructivism, which emerge in importance with the learning in question indexed to an actual system that changes from day-to-day. The participants of this new proposal were tasked with experimenting how to make connections between their actual cultural context and the Indigenous cultural context, following the lines of the system in which they live and practice. In the same way, this investigation seeks to contribute to the system by offering an essential knowledge to the participants which will influence their feelings and their personal and cultural values. Under the aegis of the action research carried out in the workshops of Peruvian indigenous dance, the members of participating groups were able to count on a framework wherein they could freely manifest their thoughts, critique the experience, and obtain mythic wisdom while attaining new capacities.
This study made use of tools of action research, autoethnographic resources, and analytical exploration, and, via further observation, analysis of interviews with participants, teachers, administrators and parents. Of equal importance was the analysis of documents and of my own experiences, i.e. those of a non-Indigenous dancer and arts educator. This project involved three independent groups, who participated in workshops of Andean Peruvian dance within curricula already present in the educational communities. The first workshop was held once a week for one hour on Saturdays, during a period of four months, at the Peruvian Folk Dance Center Academy. This is an organization dedicated to the community and conservation of dances of Peruvian origin. Ten students between 5 and 10 years of age were included in the study, which resulted in surprising educational work. The second workshop took place in St. Robert Bellarmine School in Jefferson Park, and comprised four groups with 80 total student participants who ranged from fifth to seventh grade, and from 10 to 13 years of age. This is a Catholic school with a 95% white student body; I work here as a Fine Arts teacher, lecturing one hour a week during the year’s first semester; I am always discovering new cultural and artistic values through this work. The third workshop met for three hours, once a month, at a teacher training program which ran for 5 months at Chicago’s America Dances Folk Dance Company. This organization is dedicated to the teaching of folk dance and culture. Its participants were 20 primary school teachers from Waukegan Public School. Here the teaching sessions sought to develop significant learning in each participant, while at the same time further honing the cultural, artistic, social and critical aspects of the program. The students’ practice included appreciation, discussion, and performance of Peruvian Indigenous dances.
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This research has documented the meaningful learning achieved by the groups through the use of audio and video interviews carried out both during and after the workshops. Surveys were also taken, which related to the perspectives and competencies presented during the development of the study; a critical examination of the Peruvian indigenous dance workshops was also made. In the same way, I was able to conduct an interview of a professional in the field of Arts Education, a master of American Indigenous dance, a master of Mexican Indigenous dance, and a master of Peruvian Indigenous dance in order to comprehend the results obtained.