Polyphonic Analysis: obuchenie in qualitative research

The purpose of this paper is to describe an approach to analyzing qualitative data that uses Bakhtin’s concepts of dialogue as a framework.

Polyphonic Analysis (PA) is proposed as a critical approach to qualitative data analysis that emphasizes creating virtual dialogues of participants’ voices, bringing together views that typically do not interplay in order to escalate voices that might otherwise be silenced, reduced, or objectified.

PA, with its emphases on revoicing and dialoguing participants’ words, seeking understanding in the tensions between voices, and striving for hegemony in the development of themes, heightens researchers’ awareness of key principles of qualitative research, suggesting its use as a pedagogical approach for teaching qualitative research as an interpretive paradigm. The authors reference their study on the impact of the No Child Left Behind legislation in the USA to draw examples that illustrate the utility of this research design for pedagogy and practice.

PA creates meaning by recognizing multivocality and dialogism. The authors propose and describe this novel application of a literary analysis tool for use as a tool for pedagogy and research methodology.