Concepts and Methods for the Beginning Researcher
By Carol Frierson-Campbell and Hildegard C. Froehlich
About
Drs. Frierson-Campbell and Froehlich believe that inquiry as described in this textbook is first and foremost an ongoing creative-communicative process that begins by asking questions, uses appropriate skills to answer them, and shares what is found with various communities of thinkers (music educators and beyond). Reading, writing, and talking with peers are essential components in that process, which is also referred to as research.
As can be seen in our textbook, questions pertinent to music education reach into many disciplines, among them ethnomusicology, history, musicology, the fields of education and pedagogy, psychology, philosophy, and sociology, to name a few. Dr. Hildegard Froehlich’s spearheading interest in the sociology of music education stems from this interdisciplinary approach to research on the learning and teaching of music.
Dr. Frierson-Campbell’s research first emerged from her background as an orchestral performer and instrumental music pedagogue. However, encountering music education in inner-city schools near her university made her curious about the experiences of music teachers in those settings, which meant asking questions with a sociological and anthropological lens. Working with graduate students helped her see that habits of systematic inquiry makes us see the world differently, and this led to her interest in research pedagogy.