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..