The Inter-Reflexive Possibilities of Dual Observations: An Account from and through Experience

Source: International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Volume 22, Issue 4 July 2009, pages 417 - 429.

The authors investigate the methodological possibilities of dual observation and 'inter-reflexive' interpretation as they have experienced this in a longitudinal ethnographic case study of music teaching and learning in an English Cathedral Choir School.
The authors' goal is to understand the ways in which their particular historical, social and cultural perspectives lead them to partial yet complementary sensings, seeings, hearings and feelings in this setting. Furthermore, the authors examine the ramifications of this for the interpretations they bring to observational data and the subsequent development of interpretive narrative accounts. Through an analysis of their respective narrative accounts of their first observational encounter in the research setting and subsequent 'inter-reflexive' interpretation, the authors seek to interrogate the ways in which a plausible, credible and believable narrative can be developed through the separate and joint analyses of storied reflexive observation.