Final Presentations

 

Having come to the end of this BA course, I found preparing for the presentation was a great way to consolidate my findings and draw together a picture of the progression I've made throughout the course and the impact it's had upon my daily practise. 

Putting my journey of the inquiry process together, explaining how I collected the data and my analysis, summarised my findings nicely. I also showed my maze (the artefact) I created and explained about the process of ideas behind creating it. To finish, I reflected back upon how my BA journey as a whole and how it has developed me as a professional concluded my twenty minute presentation. 

I feel despite having come to an end of this course, there are still many more ideas and questions that have arisen not only from my proposal but also now that I have a more analytical way of processing my daily practise My findings have opened up more pathways that have the potential to be explored, so although this is the end for now, it is the beginning of other directions and possibilities for exploration. 

Well done to everyone who has completed their presentations today and good luck to the rest of the module three students in tomorrow's slots. 

I would advise those students who aren't in module three to also watch the presentations. I felt that without having watched the module three presentations in module two, I would have been a bit lost on what to talk about and where your inquiry has the potential to take you. 

Bye for now.

Supervision Skype with Helen

Today I had a Skype call with Helen to talk through my essay draft so far. 

I am feeling confident with the way my essay is shaping and finding that as I write my review I am learning more and more about my inquiry topic and how it relates to my own personal practise so closely. I am able to explore and consolidate my learning through writing this essay and I feel this is helping me to develop as a professional. 

In terms of having my review down on paper, I am at the point where I need to consolidate my essay to make it clear what each part is talking about. I find that sometimes when I write it can be waffly so I need to ensure my points and clear and precise. 

Helen was very helpful in ensuring my that I am on the right track and just need to keep working on it to refine the details. This has given me confidence to keep improving, not only on my work but also by looking at how this process has changed my perception. I feel that for me, my inquiry has altered the way I perceive inequality within the performance industry and will make me reflect on experiences in a different light. 

Now I am also focusing on making my artefact for module three. I am creating a maze to represent how the pathway to a successful career isn't a straight line. I have learnt that there are many obstacles in order to reach your goals wether that's gender or other factors such as age, height, body type etc. I am enjoying this process as it is a creative way to show my findings. 

It will be interesting to hear how everyone else feels they are developing from reviewing their process. Please comment below. 

Module three Skype call - 17th November

 

In this evenings Skype call we looked at the notion of analysis in relation to our inquiries. This includes looking at reflection in relation to our information that we have gathered through our data collection and through literature. 

We discussed our struggles with grouping the data and finding key themes. It was evident that we all had managed to find lots of themes relating to our topic and collected data but selecting the few to talk about in our essay was the challenge. I personally have found that choosing themes that I have personal experiences of have been easier to explore. This way, it has also been more beneficial for me to analyse as I can relate my findings to my own personal daily practise. It was interesting that some of my peers found that they had 3 or 4 clear themes whereas others (myself included) have found lots of emerging themes. This suggests that everyone has different findings and sees data in an individual way. 

We then discussed relationships in terms of our findings. Helen suggested that instead of comparing things, sometimes it is better to look at the way things link and how they are similar. It is key to also link both literature and ethical considerations to our analysis of data to see how they connect. We agreed that relating to our own experiences is the most important even when discussing the relationships between two other aspects. 

Themes that have been found are often very large for many of us and finding the key points within a theme can be difficult to pull out and include only the most relevant information. A lot of us are passionate about our topics and want to include everything so cutting it down can be challenging. Personally, I have also found that it is better to just focus on a few topics and go in-depth into those rather than looking at lots of little themes and trying to talk about them all. 

Helen answered a question regarding the format of writing - she stated that the essay should be written in 1st person. The essay is about our personal practise so should be written from our point of view. We must just be aware that not every sentence beings with 'I'. 

It was also stated that we must ensure that the analysis looks at the data and then is reflected upon within the analysis section as opposed to just relaying the gathered data. 

Questions that are taken from our reflection as we carry out our inquiry are a starting point. This BAPP can lead us to explore further wether that is through further study or just development within our own personal practise. 

If anyone has any questions regarding this Skype call or anything I have written, please comment below.

Researching further literature

 

Hello all,

I am currently in the process of completing my write up regarding my inquiry research. The research report requires an element of further study into literature. I have found it helpful to expand my knowledge by reading books and looking into other studies carried out in the same subject area. 

On top of this I enjoy watching TED talks, I have found they are a great source of gaining interesting perspectives and learning new things. My topic is based around inequality and I am going to share two that I have found helpful lately. 

Please take and watch and comment your thoughts...

https://www.ted.com/talks/trevor_copp_and_jeff_fox_ballroom_dance_that_breaks_gender_roles?language=en

https://www.ted.com/talks/london_school_of_bollywood_being_non_binary_in_bollywood

Would be great to hear how everyone is getting on.

I hope everyone is staying safe in these difficult times, we must keep strong.

Interviews and Focus Groups complete

 

Hello all,

Today I have completed my last interview. In the end I decided to do two interviews and one small focus group. I found alongside collecting information from artefacts this has given me more than enough information to analyse. 

The issue I am struggling with now is collating my information that I have gathered. I am trying to find common topics and themes to put information together. I feel the main reason I am finding this hard is the fact that everyone has their own personal experiences and it has been great to hear such a variety of points of view and opinions but it is making it more difficult now as I am looking for similarities to create subheadings within the broadness of my question. If anyone who is completing module three now has any suggestions on how they grouped/ looked at their data, this would be very helpful. 

Having looked at literature that refers to collecting and grouping data, I have discovered that creating an abridged transcript has been easiest for gathering the spoken information which has make it quicker to pint point key ideas given. 

I am thinking of putting my key ideas that have been presented in the interviews and within literature into a form of mind map as a clear way of presenting my data before analyzing it. I am unsure if this is the best approach to take but it will allow me to find connections, similarities and differences and to present my data all in one place. 

Any help here would be greatly appreciated. If you are a fellow module three student it would be great to hear your way or ideas of grouping data. 

Module Three Skype - 29th Sept 6pm

In this evenings Skype discussion we talked about where we all are in terms of carrying out our inquiry. 

We agreed that COVID-19 has altered the way we collect data in terms of not being able to carry out interviews in person. Additionally, many of us stated how we are working full time now whereas before lockdown we had more time to focus on the degree work. 

I asked how everyone found writing the questions for the focus groups/ interviews. It was stated that the broader the question the more of a response was given by participants. Adesola suggested that a great way of asking a question was to state "I experienced this..., what's your experience been...". This makes the participants feel comfortable in sharing their experiences after hearing yours, also this makes it more personal. 

Again we spoke about the importance of keeping a reflective journal. Not only for our personal development but also for information from interviews and notes that have been made throughout the data collection. This makes it easier to collate information and link it to themes, literature and own experiences. Many people have focused on themes and collecting data in categories.

Ethically, we looked at how things have changed. COVID again has caused issues in terms of recognising and appreciating where participants are working within their practise and their own privileges. Everyone has had a different impact due to this pandemic and questions that were at first going to be asked may now be more sensitive than before. This may lead to creating a different procedure towards asking certain questions. Additionally, a negative cloud may overhang certain responses because of the arts being so effected. There must be a consideration of participants emotions and distress in this time. 

This call was great to see how everyone is getting along with their inquiry. I found it useful in terms of finding out how everyone is collecting and storing their data. Thank you to all who attended. 

Questioning and reflection - Skype Call 23rd Sept 9pm

To begin we all introduced ourselves - stated what module we are on, what we are currently doing and what we would like to discuss in the call. 

I suggested looking at how COVID-19 is affecting daily practise and if this is having an impact on planning or carrying out the inquiry. Helen offered to start a blog post regarding this topic as it could create a large conversation and will give the opportunity to give people a space to offer their experiences.

We then discussed the idea of questioning, looking at what questions are good for, how we structure them and what are their intentions? A few tips were given from module three students about interview questions. These included starting with broader questions to warm up a focus group or ease into an interview and then semi-structuring the questions more to create a deeper understanding around more specific topics. Overall the notion of questioning others is to gain information and gather different views and experiences. 

We then looked at what is it to question without the purpose of getting a direct answer. By asking ourselves questions we challenge our assumptions. This can help us to analyse our own practise and its relevance and then further open up to different views and ideas. Avoiding assumptions also allows us to avoid bias. We are all learning by questioning so avoiding a narrow pathway is crucial in order to open up space for more knowledge. 

In relation to my inquiry, I have found it crucial to look beyond my immediate subject area and find out more by asking questions on the broader topic of my inquiry. Although I am studying inequality in relation to dance, I am finding it important to increase my knowledge on inequality in general. I'm currently seeking answers through feminist literature from authors from various backgrounds-  not specifically dance as such. This knowledge this will allow myself to have more background information on the inquiry topic which can help shape my understanding. 

The idea of reflection was then discussed. Reflection can be done by questioning actions or can create personal questions. I mentioned how useful keeping a reflective journal can be and that I have found it significant in monitoring progress in terms of knowledge and thoughts. It is essential to constantly question yourself even if, like myself, you are in the process of questioning others. This can allow time to look at and analyse our personal processes and focus on developmental aspects as well as manageability. 

From this discussion it has highlighted to me how important it is to focus on the journey of learning throughout this course. I can get hung up on meeting deadlines and focusing on the work at hand instead of taking a step back to see progress and reflect on how I have developed from what I have learnt.

Please comment below if you missed this Skype and have any further questions regarding the discussion. It would be great to hear if anyone has specific questions they ask themselves which they use to reflect on often. I find it useful to ask myself 'how has this impacted my learning?' after reading literature or watching a video as it focuses my thoughts and guides my future research.

Module Three Begins...

 

Hello everyone. 

New term, new ideas! 

I have had a one-to-one tutorial with Helen this week and it has focused my mind before starting with module three. After discussing my intentions and visions I can already see new paths and different ideas forming regarding my inquiry proposal. I am excited to start researching and exploring further into the topic of inequality in dance. 

I have noticed immediately that I am focusing too much on specific genders within my proposal. Looking at feminism, I have previously felt that it is essential to look at genders in terms of their different responses. After reflection, gender is not key in my inquiry and I believe I am conforming too much to the cut-dry definitions of gender- male and female. Inequality can happen to anyone and I want to examine how diverse it can be. This means my research will be more all-inclusive and encompass a wider range of perspectives. 

One thing myself and Helen did discuss were ideal terms to use when addressing participants in relation to keeping my research neutral. When I carry out my focus groups I will create an open forum in which I will address all participants as 'performing artists' as opposed to 'female performers' or 'male performers'. This allows all participants to openly express their views without having a gender label. I am unsure how this will effect my analysis but I believe it's essential to hear every response in a neural manor and without any preconceived presumptions. I plan to keep my research ethical throughout. It will be interesting to hear how others in module three are ensuring ethical considerations are applied within their proposal. Please comment below. 

Within these first few weeks of the module, I will focus on reading more into feminism, not just in a performance based setting, but at feminism in general. If anyone reading my blog has any recommendations on feminist literature I would appreciate your suggestions. It would be great to hear from others regarding their inquiry and if there are any connections that we can discuss or share knowledge on. 

Good luck to all starting module three as well as those who are new or returning to the course. 

Module Two Reflection

Module two completed. Being in lockdown has meant that this has been my main focus for the past few weeks. Although I am glad I have submitted my work, it was giving me focus and distraction from the current reality. I hope everyone is staying strong and positive. I have attached a thought that I had when reflecting on my module two topic of feminism...


As my topic bases on the ideas of feminism, I have actually just began questioning whether or not I can class myself as a feminist? The gender roles in dance are so cut-dry, you either perform as the male or the female in many cases (obviously there are exceptions where the gender of the dancer does not matter). Throughout my training and in my daily practise, I have upheld training as a female dancer, doing pointe, and dancing as the female role. I have always applied for jobs as a 'female dancer' with there only being the two options. So this has made me question why have I conformed to such non-inclusive roles throughout my career. The fact that I class myself as a female is irrelevant to the fact that in general dance does not give individuals the option to decide how they want to identify. Dance is based on your physicality therefore if a male wanted to identify as a female or somewhere in-between, it would not be accepted purely for the aesthetics of traditional dance.


It would be interesting to hear anyone's opinions to this reflection I had.

Skype Call 3rd April- Module Two

Hello all,

We initially started the conversation by all sharing where we were on our individual inquiries. This gave me reassurance as everyone else is still working on their inquiry plan and literature reviews, tweaking and altering them. We all agreed we were unsure on what to put in our critical reflection but because we all had little to say on this Adesola suggested we discuss topics we had more opinions and experience on.

Firstly Alison explained about her mock interview that she had done with her friend. Her conclusion was that no matter whether the interview goes well or not, the information that is given is useful no matter how much was given. Try and find the positives and reflect on the responses. It was interesting to hear Alison's experience with her mock interview, it has inspired me to also carry one out because I could tell that she had learnt so much from doing so.

We discussed the use of video verses audio recording interviews. Recording the conversations can allow us as interviewers to study the body language but also can effect the responses from the participants. Notes could be written down about the body language however, but couldn't be looked back on. A reflective journal was mentioned to help when interviewing as it allows us to note down how we feel throughout the conversations. This can be used in conjunction when analysing the interviews, giving our own personal thoughts on how the responses effect our views in relation to our chosen topics.

The discussion of how we will display and analyse our data was mentioned. It was interesting to hear how people are planning on making it visual, for example using charts and graphs, but for others it being qualitative makes it hard. We also discussed what the data we collect will show. Serina mentioned that the absence of data can be powerful because it can highlight what people aren't too sure on that initially we may have thought would be very topical. Additionally, the idea of collecting our data is to enhance ourselves as professionals in our own personal practise and reflect on where we stand on this topic.

Finally, we discussed how and if we had mentioned the current situation of COVID-19 in our inquiry proposal in terms of how this effects how we carry out data. For some individuals, they have planned on carrying out observations which is probably the most effected form of data collections as interviews can be held via Web 2.0. YouTube is an option, but this is a harder way of looking at the class, not physically being there. For myself personally, it doesn't effect my dad collection method as I am using focus groups and interviews, they will just need to be carried out through the internet.

Overall, it was interesting to hear how everyone is getting on with their data collection and ideas for analysis. We went round and all mentioned why we found the discussion important. For me, the key part of the conversation and that what related to my current position in the module, was the discussion on how everyone is collecting and reflecting on data. I need to decide how I am going to reflect on my own data. The idea of the reflective journal was a highlight for me. This idea would allow myself to make notes and note down our own feelings that I can look back on. I will look into this...

An important point that was mentioned also was how important it is to notice the absence of data, this highlights what our participants know and don't know and what opinions they have on what topics. Adesola stated a key idea, 'absences as data not absence of data'.

Thank you for reading my blog post, I hope it is useful for those who did not attend the session.

Progress Report

I have found that making myself lists of jobs to do each day has given me a focus, no matter how small they may seem. Today I was able to tick off 'Approved MORE form' as my ethics application was accepted. For the last few weeks, I have been focusing on writing my inquiry proposal alongside filling this form out so I feel that this is an achievement as it has now been submitted.

I have found it helpful to fill out my MORE forms alongside writing my proposal as it has given me guidance as to what is important to mention when writing out the study. Additionally, when changes have been made in the MORE forms, it makes it easier to alter the proposal to match up as it is important to follow the forms when carrying out the study in module three to avoid creating ethical errors.

When looking into the ethical procedures for data collection, I have noticed that the Equality Act in particular plays an important role in my research. Obviously for my study, I will be ensuring that I do not breech any rights or protection laws to enforce equality between all my participants. However, my topic of study questions the enforcement of this law within the performance industry. Although I will be obliging by this law, I want to discover if this is the case for working professionals and if they feel to what extent the law has been broken by. In particular, I am looking at how the roles that females have within performance, being quite traditional, lead to unwanted behaviours from co-workers, directors and teachers.

I have attached a link to a video that explains clearly the definition of discrimination within the Equality Act... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZOf92bIGM4&feature=emb_rel_end.
I think this creates a clear understanding of where the lines are to be drawn in terms of what is and isn't appropriate in the workplace.

Today has been successful in completing the MORE forms, onwards and upwards for the proposal submission. I can now put more focus on the literature review and on improving areas of the study plan.

I would appreciate any comments from those of you who have submitted their MORE forms and how they feel towards respecting the Equality Act.

Thank you for reading, stay safe and happy!