Demographic Research: The Big Picture in Research
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| Title: | Demographic Research: The Big Picture in Research |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Burton, David |
| Source: | Art Education. 2019 72(1):46-49. |
| Availability: | Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 4 |
| Publication Date: | 2019 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Descriptive |
| Descriptors: | Art, Art Education, Research, Demography, Art Teachers |
| DOI: | 10.1080/00043125.2019.1534437 |
| ISSN: | 0004-3125 |
| Abstract: | Unlike other types of research that tend to hone in on narrowly defined problems, demographic research takes the broad view, embracing every aspect of the field of education. It constructs as wide and inclusive a picture of art education as possible. For art educators, it probes deeply into how they relate to art and art education as students, art teachers, art educators, parents, administrators, policy makers, and communities would. By gathering information from as wide, as diverse, and as complete a spectrum of people involved in art education as possible, art educators can create a much more multidimensional, multilayered, integrated, and comprehensive view of the field. In this article, the author illustrates how demographic research has contributed to his own research and art education research as a whole through discussion of his own demographic studies. He determines that if educators could generate cycles of national demographic surveys for each level of education (elementary, middle school, high school, postsecondary) and other areas of art education (supervision, museum education, etc.) every 5 years, they would produce an ongoing and credible profile of the profession. |
| Abstractor: | ERIC |
| Number of References: | 12 |
| Entry Date: | 2018 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1200051 |
| Database: | ERIC |
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| FullText | Links: – Type: pdflink Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwHfyIHsp_GgrR5TvCNkNsKRAAAA4zCB4AYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHSMIHPAgEAMIHJBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDExt-cE7MDR5FYlAIQIBEICBmwSQqFKHNtEkHwbmqBJcZq51xY3xNuHmS6ZSM6b7FUSgntXiY7Zr6RDoqAPxQw2RIjNN3GGon23VLN0Ascdbx8bNhbN32F7GbvLaSvvNl3pr2mCuWtfPYBXsYfJnGrH3TvkA9eBxpxIzS-8nbt883kkWJkFwnEQ5XGquC4oeXiYUuCC-Yry9u_bkFpPYb-L1Nj9iw-W67scdazKb Text: Availability: 1 Value: <anid>AN0133530440;are01jan.19;2018Dec14.09:07;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0133530440-1">Demographic Research: The Big Picture in Research </title> <p> <bold>Demographic research looks at the "big picture." It gathers basic information about the current status and conditions across the entire breadth and compass of art education and, in turn, has real implications for every art educator.</bold> Unlike other types of research that tend to hone in on narrowly defined problems, demographic research takes the broad view, embracing every aspect of our field. It constructs as wide and inclusive a picture of art education as possible. Demographic research is about people, their lives, their work, and their needs. For art educators, it probes deeply into how we relate to art and art education as students, art teachers, art educators, parents, administrators, policy makers, and communities would. By gathering information from as wide, as diverse, and as complete a spectrum of people involved in art education as possible, we can create a much more multidimensional, multilayered, integrated, and comprehensive view of our field. Such a big picture gives us a clear idea how each of our actions and decisions as art teachers and as art researchers "fits in." Demographic research answers, to paraphrase Paul Gauguin, "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?"</p> <p>Demographic research takes the broad view.</p> <p></p> <p>I have conducted a variety of demographic research for over 20 years. In this article, I wish to illustrate how demographic research has contributed to my own research and art education research as a whole through discussion of a few of my own demographic studies.</p> <hd id="AN0133530440-2">Why Is Demographic Research Important?</hd> <p>Like the universe, the horizons of art education are constantly expanding. Imagine, if at any given moment, we could have a clear, broad, and deep perception of all the relevant conditions in play within art education. How would that affect our day-to-day instruction in our art room? How would that affect our selection of research questions we wish to pursue? What planning and policy decisions would we make?</p> <p>Demographic research is generally carried out through surveys that are as inclusive and broad in scope as possible (Tollefson-Hall &amp; Bobick, 2013; Chapman, 1982; Chapman, 2005; Leshnoff, 1997; Burton, 1998; Burton, 2001a). "Demographic" refers to large and diverse populations that are as inclusive as possible. We could survey members of a class about their interests in art, but this would not be a <emph>demographic</emph> survey. For that, we need to reach out to much larger numbers of people who live across vast swaths of territory. Generally, demographic research refers to inquiries that have state, regional, or national scope.</p> <p>On the surface, demographic research may appear simplistic. On the contrary, its progression quickly leads to greater complexity and depth. An initial demographic study may present a simple array of questions as we find them at a particular moment in time; however, the interpretation of the data drawn from these questions inevitably reveals an underlying context indicating how each relates to the other. Contexts lead to new parameters—other relevant dimensions—that can frame a de facto context into a more defined demographic matrix. Relating the big picture, the context, the matrix, particularly over time, leads to a more complex and integral understanding of art education as a whole that can guide our specific actions and policies. Demographic research goes far beyond the big picture—it leads to our perception of the essential <emph>infrastructure</emph> of art education itself.</p> <p>Undertaking a national survey may seem like a monumental task beyond our meager means and comprehension. Curiously, as long as the population sample is reasonably random, only about 400 responses are necessary. According to Fink (1995), as the sample size increases, the variability of responses decreases significantly (p. 34). Beyond the magic threshold of 400, the responses tend to become similar, allowing 400 responses to be sufficient enough to generalize. Usually, one or two thousand people need to be solicited as participants to make the survey sufficiently random and to generate 400+ responses.</p> <hd id="AN0133530440-3">How Is Demographic Research Done?</hd> <p>Demographic research is easy to do, inexpensive, and requires no complex statistics. As noted before, demographic research aims for as large and diverse a target audience as possible. Ideally, surveys extend to state or national scope. That generally requires limiting the topic(s) being surveyed and selecting only a sample of the population that is targeted. In 2001, I conducted a national survey of instruction in secondary art education (Burton, 2001a). To maintain a reasonable length, the survey focused only on instruction and was limited to the secondary school level. (Elementary art education differs so dramatically from secondary art education that trying to cover both in one survey would prove too daunting a task.) Nonetheless, I was able to gather a great deal of valuable data that led to further research.</p> <p>Demographic surveys employ simple quantitative measures that answer two basic questions: How many? (how frequently?) and How much? (to what degree?). Answers are assigned numerical weights that can easily be compiled, averaged, and converted into percentages. (Demographic research rarely goes beyond decimals and percentages.) If the raw data are available, subcategories, such as "gender" compared with "ethnicity," can easily be cross-calculated, giving another layer of complexity and acuity.</p> <p>Qualitative data can also be used if it can be quantified, for example, through a ranked scale, such as "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree," a Likert scale, or through quantified content analysis.</p> <p>Good surveys are relatively short—no more than 20 to 30 questions. (If a survey is too long or too complex, people won't respond to it.) Limiting a survey to a few questions means that each question must elicit the maximum amount of data. Therefore, the <emph>quality</emph> of questions is imperative. Questions must be precise and absolutely clear. A best practice is to test each question with a few colleagues to make certain it means what it says and says what it means. As needed, questions should be revised to make them as clear and articulate as possible. Chosen questions should be able to "stand the test of time," as if the survey will be replicated sometime in the future. The art of demography lies in being able to write clear, prescient questions.</p> <p>Many demographic surveys are conducted online. With platforms such as Survey Monkey, Question Pro, or Google Forms, respondents can easily and quickly complete a survey. The program used can calculate the results and present them as percentages or in graphic charts.</p> <p>Online survey programs are both efficient and inexpensive. It is important to advertise the survey so the widest array of potential respondents can take it. Ads can be placed in professional publications such as <emph>NAEA News</emph> or NAEA Division blogs.</p> <p>One problem that arises is when respondents are not randomly selected but are self-selected. Many art teachers are not NAEA members, and some U.S. elementary students receive their art instruction from classroom teachers. Announcing surveys on blogs or other websites of other professional organizations can widen and diversify the target audience.</p> <p>Just as demographers seek a wide perspective, they also take the long view. They project the trajectory of time as well as the panorama of breadth. Demographic research should be repeated periodically. The same (or similar) surveys should be repeated every few years. In this way, we obtain the current profile of our field, and we are also able to watch trends emerge over time. Demographic research can be planned out decades in advance, with each survey considered a milestone in a lifelong journey.</p> <p>A second demographic art involves being able to interpret the results meaningfully. Percentages, in themselves, do not mean much. They are like the symptoms of an underlying condition. The researcher needs to go beyond stating the obvious symptoms and diagnose the underlying condition accurately and meaningfully. Relating the parts (demographic data) to the whole (the big picture) provides that meaning.</p> <p>Meaning does not always require big percentages. Sometimes a small but interesting anomaly is enough to evoke our attention, especially when it indicates change in a trend.</p> <p>Meaning does not always require big percentages.</p> <p></p> <hd id="AN0133530440-4">Preexisting Demographic Data Bases</hd> <p>A second source for demographic research comes from databases that already exist, such as the National Census Bureau, the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), or the Educational Testing Service (ETS).</p> <p>I conducted two secondary analyses based on data from the NAEP (Burton, 2001b; Diket, Sabol, Burton, Thorpe &amp; Siegesmund, 2002; Burton, 2016). NAEP surveys are conducted once every decade. They focus on just one grade level, Grade 8, but they select 3000-4000 subjects. NAEP has vast resources for constructing in-depth tests and surveys, as well as bringing together highly representative samples of test subjects. Its selection protocols are impeccable and exhaustive, which makes the sample population highly representative of 8th graders in the United States. The NAEP survey asks dozens of questions about the students' personal backgrounds, their art education instruction, and their attitudes about art education. In addition, NAEP gives the students tests about art knowledge and aesthetic preferences, as well as artistic tasks. The academic tests are scored quantitatively; the students' artworks are evaluated by a panel of judges. The data NAEP produces are both wide and deep and give a vivid profile of the visual arts interests and abilities of U.S. 8th-grade students.</p> <p>Using NAEP datasets from 1997 and 2008, I did two secondary (quartile) analyses. I rank ordered tests and task scores and divided them into quartiles. I then compared the high quartile analysis (the top 25%) with the low quartile (the lowest 25%) across dozens of variables. In this way, the difference for each variable was dramatically contrasted, and I was able to identify those variables that were associated with each quartile.</p> <hd id="AN0133530440-5">Demographic Research Reveals Research Problems</hd> <p>Demographic research is fundamental to all other research. One of the advantages of demographic research is that it challenges assumptions. What we believe to be obvious and true from our own limited perspective can easily disappear in a large population scattered over a wide area.</p> <p>Art education researchers frequently seek out interesting but unique phenomena to cobble into research problems. These research problems often arise from chance encounters or anecdotal observations. The question arises, Is this interesting observation a real and widespread phenomenon that occurs throughout art education (even if in only small percentages), or is it simply anecdotal idiosyncrasy? Demographic research allows these small anomalies to "step forward" from within the large pools of data collected from wide and diverse populations.</p> <p>In 2001, I conducted a national survey, "How Do We Teach? Results of a National Survey of Instruction in Secondary School Art" (Burton, 2001a), which looked across the spectrum of art education teaching practice at the secondary level. One survey item indicated that most art teachers (88%) exhibit their students' artworks. I was very familiar with exhibition from my own teaching practice, but I regarded it as an afterschool chore, not really part of my regular pedagogical duties. So, this large percentage jumped out at me. (The only other item that exceeded exhibition was "teachers teach drawing and painting" at 90% [Burton, 2001a].) Exhibition was apparently a pervasive but largely overlooked and underrated practice. In itself, this item was only an interesting, trivial fact, but it encouraged me to do a second national survey, "Exhibiting Student Art: Results of a National Survey" (Burton, 2004), specifically focusing on exhibition practices. The second survey revealed many other aspects of how art teachers exhibit their students' works, including a startling fact that 83% do all the work themselves; their students were usually not involved in the exhibition process (Burton, 2004). Conversely, I did find a few art teachers who included their students in the exhibition process. Through networking, I was able to contact dozens of art teachers across the nation who teach their students to exhibit their own work, and I learned what these teachers had discovered on their own by trial and error. Eventually my inquiry resulted in a book, <emph>Exhibiting Student Art: The Essential Guide for Teachers</emph> (Burton, 2006). The book emphasizes how exhibition should be an integral part of the art education curriculum. It shows teachers how they can teach their students to exhibit their own art. What I had taken for granted in my own teaching practice stood out in high relief when framed within a national survey.</p> <hd id="AN0133530440-6">Advocacy and Policy</hd> <p>Demographic research is invaluable for advocacy and policy making. Advocates need persuasive arguments supported by credible facts to make their case to decision makers, policy makers, and the public at large. Incidental anecdotes will not do. By its very nature, demographic research provides the inclusive data (and the reasonable conclusions that can be drawn from them) that advocates need and want.</p> <p>Policy makers are even more desirous of hard data upon which to base their policies. Without a clear picture of the overall field, making coherent and credible policy is difficult. Policies are about infrastructure. As indicated previously, demographic research projects an implicit, if not explicit, infrastructure for art education. The straightforward nature of demographic research based on direct, clear data gathered from inclusive target populations inspires confidence in the data and interpretation of the data. Moreover, policy makers who are not art educators can still interpret demographic research's simple, quantitative reporting. Policy decisions usually involve financial decisions as well. The big picture interpreted through clear percentages makes demographic research both credible and convincing.</p> <hd id="AN0133530440-7">Conclusions</hd> <p>Demographic research is inclusive. It seeks data about the widest possible swath of the art education population.</p> <p>Demographic research provides straightforward, convincing, quantitative data that can be easily and credibly interpreted. It is accessible to all. It is simple, easy, and inexpensive to do. Demographic research is basic to other types of research. It paints "the big picture" of art education that we need in order to understand the context of other research problems. It can be a rich source of research questions in itself. Wise researchers seeking a research topic can start with a demographic survey to find out their current state and condition around the area of interest.</p> <p>At the present time, demographic research faces a few problems. First, we need a research agenda that will identify and plan a battery of demographic surveys that can be periodically repeated. What do we need to know about our field now and on an ongoing basis? If we could generate cycles of national demographic surveys for each level of education (elementary, middle school, high school, postsecondary) and other areas of art education (supervision, museum education, etc.) every 5 years, we would produce an ongoing and credible profile of our profession.</p> <p>The value of demographic research lies in its being current. The long turnaround times associated with scholarly journals defeats the purpose of timely dissemination. A blog from which demographic research could be reported immediately, discussed, and critiqued would be most helpful and expeditious.</p> <p>It is difficult to know where we want to go if we don't know where we are. Demographic research tells us where we are. It is basic to any research agenda. Without this foundation, other research can be piecemeal and diffuse. Demographic research paints "the big picture."</p> <ref id="AN0133530440-8"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Burton, D. ( 1998 ). <emph>A survey of assessment and evaluation among U.S. k-12 teachers of art.</emph> Paper presented at the 1998 NAEA National Convention, Chicago, IL.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Burton, D. ( 2001a ). How do we teach? Results of a national survey of instruction in secondary art education. <emph>Studies in Art Education</emph>, 42 ( 2 ), 131 - 145.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> Burton, D. ( 2001b ). A quartile analysis of the 1997 NAEP Visual Arts Report Card. <emph>Studies in Art Education</emph>, 43 ( 1 ), 35 - 44.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> Burton, D. ( 2004 ). <emph>Exhibiting student art: Results of a national survey.</emph> Paper presented at the 2004 NAEA National Convention, Denver, CO.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> Burton, D. ( 2006 ). <emph>Exhibiting student art: The essential guide for teachers.</emph> New York, NY : Teachers College Press.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib6" type="bt">6</bibl> <bibtext> Burton, D. ( 2016 ). A quartile analysis of selected variables from the 2008 NAEP Visual Arts Report Card. <emph>Studies in Art Education</emph>, 57 ( 2 ), 165 - 177.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib7" type="bt">7</bibl> <bibtext> Chapman, L. H. ( 1982 ). <emph>Instant art, instant culture: The unspoken policy for American schools.</emph> New York, NY : Teachers College Press</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib8" type="bt">8</bibl> <bibtext> Chapman, L. H. ( 2005 ). Status of elementary art education: 1997-2004. <emph>Studies in Art Education</emph>, 46 ( 2 ), 118 - 137.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib9" type="bt">9</bibl> <bibtext> Diket, R., Sabol, R., Burton, D., Thorpe, P. K., &amp; Siegesmund, R. ( 2002 ). <emph>Learning from the NAEA assessment.</emph> Reston, VA : NAEA.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Fink, A. ( 1995 ). <emph>How to sample in surveys.</emph> Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Leshnoff, S. K. ( 1997 ). <emph>What children's art exhibits can reveal about teaching practices: Results of a national survey of teaching in art k-6.</emph> Paper presented at the 1997 NAEA National Convention, New Orleans, LA.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Tollefson-Hall, K., &amp; Bobick, B. ( 2013 ). Results of a survey of elementary art instruction in the United States. <emph>Trends: The Journal of the Texas Art Education Association</emph>, 31 - 36. Retrieved from <ulink href="http://www.taea.org/TAEA/docs/2013/Trends-2013.pdf">www.taea.org/TAEA/docs/2013/Trends-2013.pdf</ulink></bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By David Burton</p> <p></p> <p>David Burton is a professor recently retired from Virginia Commonwealth University after 40 years. He is an NAEA and VAEA Distinguished Fellow and author of Exhibiting Student Art: The Essential Guide for Teachers. Email:</p> </aug> |
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