Positioning video in classroom research: Ontological and epistemic tensions

Abstract

While the use of video as a data collection tool in classroom-based research is widespread, a tension exists between different approaches to the use of video as a research tool. Researchers vary in the ontological status that they afford video footage and the way they use footage to construct knowledge claims. This paper presents a set of metaphors that describe how video may be positioned in research projects in order to identify the ontological status afforded video data and the epistemic implications this entails. We argue that the different ways that video is positioned in projects lead to the footage collected having different ontological status and we present three illustrative example projects to exemplify these differences. Applying the metaphors to the example projects reveals a tension between the researchers' carefully constructed framing of ontological and epistemic positions. Our analysis suggests that using footage as evidence to support knowledge claims privileges an ontological and epistemic position which views video footage as a replayable record of sense data, align with a positivist position. In each illustrative project, the ontological status of footage was layered – it was both an objective record of activities of interest, but also was treated as a subjective and fallible data source when used to construct claims about teacher experience. Our analysis highlighted the complexity in the use of the video as a research tool for classroom research and the need for more nuanced ontological and epistemic understanding to make informed decisions in research design and to support knowledge claims.