Phillips, K. H. (2008). Exploring Research in Music Education and Music Therapy. New York: Oxford University Press. 370 pages. ISBN 978-0-19-532122-7. $39.95

Abstract

Phillips, K. H. (2008). Exploring Research in Music Education and Music Therapy. New York: Oxford University Press. 370 pages. ISBN 978-0-19-532122-7. $39.95. Exploring Research in Music Education and Music Therapy by Kenneth Phillips is a promising resource for the teacher of research in music education or music therapy. The book discusses the various research methodologies employed in both disciplines, and it also contains full text articles of exemplary research in these areas. It is published as a textbook, but it is similar to a course-pack meant to guide students or novice researchers through the ins and outs of beginning research. As stated in its preface, this is a book to help students understand music research and how to read it rather than how to do research. Phillips has collected a lot of useful material into resource. A noticeable strength of this book is its comprehensive treatment of the different research genres used in music therapy and music education. The author frequently relies the writings of other scholars to explain the philosophy behind each methodology. Sometimes these quotes are quite extensive, and this makes the book a wonderful reference and provides a broad base for students' understanding. It is an honest book that acknowledges the contributions of other music researchers in their various fields of expertise. The book is divided into five parts: part one, Research Basics; part two, Historical and Philosophical Research; part three, Qualitative Research; part four, Quantitative Research; and part five, Research and the Classroom. In part one, Research Basics, the first chapter provides a summary of research in music related to music education and music therapy. Phillips describes the purposes of research in these areas, and he lists publications such as handbooks, journals and online databases where research in these areas can be found. The chapter then proceeds to describe the main genres of research used by music educators and therapists, namely, historical research, philosophical research, and behavioral/empirical research as manifest in the various forms of quantitative and qualitative research. The author turns to well known researchers in these genres to explain the purpose of each methodology, for example Michael Mark for historical research and Bresler and Stake for qualitative research. In many cases throughout the book, the quotations from other sources are long but appropriate for the topic being discussed. Rather than citing himself as the chief expert in these various areas of research, Phillips chooses to rely on the expertise of established music researchers in these areas, and he shows no reluctance to quote extensive citations of paragraphs or entire sections of these researchers' writings. The end of the chapter (as with every chapter) concludes with a series of discussion questions and suggested activities for students. Chapter two describes the process of doing research. The author begins by describing music researchers and various factors that may influence them. For example, many research studies in music therapy and music education tend to be one shot studies instead of ongoing lines of research because most scholars do not have the funding to support ongoing research. As such, the reader of research needs to understand that in many cases the music researcher is often under pressure to do research within budgetary and time restraints that prevent a thorough and long-term investigation of the topic. Teachers and therapists are often unable to randomly choose participants for research, and instead they use participants that are readily available. As a result, the findings of these investigations are limited in their ability to be generalized. Phillips concludes the chapter by discussing the individual parts of a research article including the title, the abstract, the introduction, the method, the participants, the materials, the procedures, the results, the discussion and the references. …