A children's song and dance, Ring around the Rosie, is traceable back to at least 1790 in the United States and 1796 in Germany. It was widely held that it was a reference to one of the last outbreaks of the bubonic plague (The Black Death that struck England in the 1660s). Some folklorists disputed the connection, though this belief in the song and dance's origin was widespread. Assume you were alive in 1790 in England and attempted to find the origins of that song and dance. Would you have chosen narrative inquiry, content analysis, or historic analysis as your methodology? Why?

A content analysis would be able to look at the content and the "latent content" of the song to determine if links can be made to the bubonic plague (Lock &Seele, 2015, p. S25). However, this has already been done and while some of the words seem to reference a disease, the links are circumstantial and do not seem to point to a conclusive source of the song. A narrative inquiry would provide individual's experiences with the song however Hartz (2012) cautions that "individual concepts of reality are unique constructs highly influenced by one's own experience and social environment" (p. 153).

This information would be useful in tracing the song back in time, however, the narrative may not be completely reliable since 130 years passed between 1660 and 1790. The researcher would not be able to trace back to the source through an original source. The information about the origins would be second hand at best.

A historical analysis would be the best approach for this topic. In the 1790's, a researcher may be able to trace this song back to its origin. For instance, they may be able to study old letters and diaries to find references to kids playing the game. If they could find references before 1660s, then it obviously originated from another source. Sweeney (2005) notes that "rigour at the data collection stage requires the researcher to search out meticulously every available source of evidence in pursuit of particular lines of inquiry that emerge from the ongoing analysis of data" (p. 68).

This historical data can be used to put together a geospatial timeline that can be used to trace the song back to its time and place origin. If the song was established in the aftermath of the bubonic plague, then the data would start during or shortly after the plague outbreak. Even tracing it within a few years would add to the body of evidence supporting this claim.

Hartz, B. (2012). The emergence of narrative inquiry in music education research. Contributions to Music Education, 39151-154
Lock, I., &Seele, P. (2015). Quantitative content analysis as a method for business ethics research. Business Ethics: A European Review, 24(Suppl 1), S24-S40. doi:10.1111/beer.12095

Sweeney, J. (2005). Historical research: examining documentary sources. Nurse Researcher, 12(3), 61-73.

A children's song and dance, Ring around the Rosie, is traceable back to at least 1790 in the United States and 1796 in Germany. It was widely held that it was a reference to one of the last outbreaks of the bubonic plague (The Black Death that struck England in the 1660s). Some folklorists disputed the connection, though this belief in the song and dance's origin was widespread. Assume you were alive in 1790 in England and attempted to find the origins of that song and dance. Would you have chosen narrative inquiry, content analysis, or historic analysis as your methodology? Why?

In looking at the meaning of a song, I would likely use a historic analysis as my methodology. A narrative inquiry is a great way to gain information, but without being able to interview the direct author, I would feel that narrative inquiry would leave the researcher wanting more in regards to understanding origin. However, if the exact author could be identified, a narrative inquiry would be extremely effective in finding the origin of a song. Content analysis is something that can be done even now in regards to literature meaning, but I imagine that this is why we already have the connection to the bubonic plague.

Historic analysis would allow the researcher to examine documents of the time, songs of the time, documents surrounding the Black Death of the 1660s, and discuss with contemporary artists of 1790 to see if there were connections to the song and dance and work to determine likely origins of the song. I had a good time looking at different historic research of songs and music as a musician, and found a fascinating article about Australian Aboriginal music, and feel like there could be a lot of information gained by looking at the local cultural climate of England in the 1790s and finding connections (Treloyn et al, 2016).

Treloyn, S., Martin, M. D., & Charles, R. G. (2016).Cultural precedents for the repatriation of legacy song records to communities of origin. Australian Aboriginal Studies, (2), 94.

A researcher is planning to conduct a narrative study on the way non-traditional learners define their social role on the college campus. After this, the researcher would then construct his/her narrative of the study, using such storytelling conventions as scene, characters, and plot.

Discuss the data collection instruments appropriate for this study.

Several methods of data collection would be available for this type of undertaking. Personal interviews using face to face, telephone, or email, and using a combination of semi structure and open-ended questions might help the researcher determine if some sort of theme develops from the guided questions format. Also the researcher could make field notes or use video recordings as he/she observed non-verbal communication such as gestures, signs in order to understand the elements of the conversation (Grand Canyon University, 2016).

In a study conducted by Ross & Green (2011), the authors used a narrative approach to understand service issues for those afflicted with anorexia nervosa. They collected interview data using open ended questions regarding their experience designed to facilitate the story telling according to participant's personal experiences.

How would a narrative approach differ from a phenomenological approach for this topic?

The narrative approach allows for personal units of meaning of words and phrases that are expressed by the individual as they detail thought processes and emotions allowing for themes to emerge as the story unfolds grounded in the experience (Ross & Green, 2011). Additionally, the narrative is a story that includes a beginning, middle and end including elements of a story such as scene, characters and the plot so that causal inference may become apparent. Finally, although the phenomenological approach is also interested in the human experience it captures the essence of the story without focusing on order of events by attempting to explain characteristics and how they came to be (Dahlberg, 2006).

References

Dahlberg, K. (2006). The essence of essences - the search for meaning structures in phenomenological analysis of lifeworld phenomena. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health & Well-being, 1(1), 11-19. doi:10.1080/17482620500478405

Grand Canyon University (2016). Semiotics, hermeneutics, narrative inquiry, content analysis, and historical studies. PSY 850-Lecture 5.

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Ross, J. A., & Green, C. (2011). Inside the experience of anorexia nervosa: A narrative thematic analysis. Counselling& Psychotherapy Research, 11(2), 112-119. doi:10.1080/14733145.2010.486864