A Study on Audio-Visual Data Analysis in Educational Research:

Focusing on Special Needs Education

Abstract

Audio-visual data analysis has generally been understood as a method for ethnomethodological studies in sociology. At the same time, especially in the sociology of education, it is also notable that video data analysis has been developed as one kind of educational research method rather than purely as an ethnomethodological research method. Focusing on such original developments, this paper examines the possibility of video data analysis in the realm of educational research.

Firstly, this paper reviews the characteristics of audio-visual data analysis as a kind of qualitative research method and considers a number of studies analyzing video-taped interactions in the sociology of education. The paper then attempts to reconstruct the process of making an audio-visual data analysis of interactions between teachers and children with special needs in the elementary school, and focuses upon both the vocal and nonvocal behavior of the participants by providing a simplified transcript and a more complicated one in varying stages of analysis. Through this reconstruction, the characteristics of audio-visual data analysis and the differences between audio-visual data analysis and other research methods are revealed. In addition, methods for the transcription and analysis of a participantʼs conversation, behavior and gaze are also considered.

Finally, this paper considers the efficacy of audio-visual data analysis in the exploration of a participantʼs orientation to education. Referring to the concept of “crucial setting,” this paper suggests that the audio-visual data analyst needs to explore descriptions which show a participantʼs orientation to education through analysis. As audio visual technologies become more readily available, audio-visual data analysis as a qualitative research method is likely to become more sophisticated. However, this suggests that the analyst needs to pay more attention to the issue that concerns the significance of such study in the sociology of education. In other words, we are required to investigate anew why we make analyses of interactions using audio-visual equipment.