Module 2 - Critical Reflection

Module 2 ‘Professional Practitioner Inquiry’ was something that I got quite excited about when I read through the Handbook, but it wasn’t until the first campus session that I really got involved in the work.

I very much wanted to improve on Module 1 as I was disappointed in myself and the work I had put in, so I tried to remedy this, only to realise, halfway through the second module, through one of the members in my SIG that my blog had been hacked and was not visible to the public. At this time I got a little despondent, but soon pulled my socks up and got back on track.

 

The difficulty I had at the start of this module was simply the topic of my inquiry. I first veered towards the generic psychological aspects of the dance world, but decided very early on that this was very generic, and decided instead to section every aspect that I could have looked at as I was still so undecided in which topic to choose (see Appendix 4.1)

This is when I had to look at myself. At this time I was, and still am in a state of transition: I had been injured for a long period of time, however, at this stage, my injury has healed to the point where I can now properly dance on it. It still causes problems at times, but I am usually able to get through the whole of a class. With this in mind, I did not know whether I would be going out and auditioning for performance work and therefore did not know which question route to follow. Thankfully, this is where I embarked on the wonder that be the SIG. I told them my situation, and they help me to get my questions down to only 2, (see Appendix 4.2) They advised that I could use everything I knew from my past in a vocational school, or that I could branch out into what I currently do now, and reminded me that I am likely to one day come back to what I am currently doing and that I am in the right position and know the right people to do enough research for the inquiry. They also pointed out how much I seem to enjoy what I am currently doing: managing a large part of a dance organisation, and that I am likely to enjoy the inquiry more if I am more passionate about it. This was the deciding factor for me. My inquiry then became “Health and Safety in Dance Training: Help or Hindrance?” (see Appendix 4.3)

My starting in the research to this may not actually have seemed related to my inquiry, but I felt that I had to check whether I may assume that all dance teachers can be treated as equals, even though they are individually assessing a situation, guided by their own opinions and morals (see Appendix 4.4)

 

Ethics was something that I enjoyed, but the results shocked me! Being honest, I did this alongside my researching in Section 4, so was not completely aware of all of the ethical issues that should be involved in the workplace: I had morals, and knew loosely about the legal side of things, so the generic thing of policies came to mind, but I don’t think I could have named (under a legitimate heading) anything else that was supposed to be in place. Therefore, in my head, I had to go through the introduction I had when I first started my term of employment, or at least what I thought had happened! (see Appendix 5.1) Task B was the thing that really did shock me. I expected to have missed out many policies that my place of work had, and when I found out that there was only one in place I went into a state of panic! I wholly believed that this would be unlawful, and spent a long time doing research, scared of asking my SIG whether they had any better insight than I about this. I found on Dance UK (2011) that organisations are to have the following policies in place, as appropriate to their practice.

·         Child protection.

·         Disability including reference to disabled dancers in a company.

·         Equal opportunities.

·         Health and Safety – general.

·         Injury prevention and management.

·         Eating disorders

This, definitely showing more than one policy, still scared me. So I decided to do some more digging, and spoke directly to the NSPCC and to the department of Sport Education, on the premise that I was to start a dance organisation, with exactly the same credentials as the one I currently work, and yes, as long as everything is covered in the policy, the single policy was fine. (see Appendix 5.2)

Having been so surprised about the little I knew about the ethical issues in one task; when my topic of inquiry is so heavily based on such, I needed to make sure that everything was in order for my inquiry. And got to working on my ethics form with the help of the reader. I was very happy with such until I came across a comment on a blog, regarding the anonymity of children in the inquiry, and very much agreed with this. Even though the quote was with regard to very young children, I thought that it was a very good idea to keep the identity of any minor hidden, and have chosen to follow this in my own inquiry.

“For my inquiry I hope to give interviews, observations, basic surveys and internet research for biographies, but when it comes to the face to face stuff, I've decided to ask permission for the teachers I would interview whether or not they want to be made anonymous or not, but to put a strict rule to keeping the mentioned children anonymous full stop.”

GALLACHER. K. (2014) Task 5d Ethics [Online] 16^th April 2014. Available from: http://natalieamartin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/task-5d-ethics.html . [Accessed: 10^th May 2014]

 

As I felt that I needed to further integrate ethics into my work, I decided to carry out informal trials before presenting the support form to my employer. This was something I greatly enjoyed, and was excited to see how passionate people were about my choice of topic: When I first sent out my survey, I didn’t expect anyone to reply! I found it more difficult when leading a focus group to not taint people’s answers as a small difference in tone of voice can hold completely different connotations! I realised at this point, that there must be a lot of hypothetical research in my chosen topic, as I will be working with uncomfortable issues for some, but I quickly realised that this will not impact too heavily on my inquiry. For example, I can simply point to a place on a child’s body, rather than actually touch it, and all will know where I am talking about. In this case, the physical contact is not necessary. This is when I decided to approach my employer with my form, and I am glad for waiting, as she did ask many questions and how it may impact.

I wanted to keep my collation of information open, as I see a need for 3 of the tools to address my questions. For children and parents I feel that a focus group is best: to be able to get the opinions of many together and to enhance confidence. For teachers that I am not in close contact with, or those who may be less experienced: a survey sits best. And for those who I believe to have the best knowledge of the subject from all 3 perspectives, and also now including dance training boards: a separate interview provides the most in depth and interpersonal response.

My award title, I feel, reflects my endeavours for the betterment of my workplace for all. I organise all student data and timetables for both students and teachers, and the curriculum they are to cover in lessons. I also take part in the choreographic elements that they are to be involved in, and help to decide who may be in a performance if there is on to be staged. I always want to find better ways to do all of this, whilst looking out for the dancers’ well-being and trying to dramatically improve their dance ability as I feel that some people have just got into a habit of going to a syllabus class, repeating the same thing each week and becoming complacent. I want to be able to push people and to see quicker improvements in people. I also believe that this is something that builds the confidence in the dancer, and I feel that the entire workplace could benefit from my inquiry, therefore I feel it plays a hand under the banner of Arts Management (see Appendix 6).

 

Overall, I can say that Module 2 has expanded my ability in how to research a topic, through different leads and different devices and that I must be aware of the ethical issues before I do anything in my line of work (not just for this inquiry). I am much more aware of the effect that something I do or say may have on others and now know what to consider, and how to control these situations, thus I now feel prepared for my inquiry.

 

 

Appendices:

4.1: MARSHALL. J. J. (2014) Starting Module 2. [Online] 15^th April 2014. Available from: http://jjmarshall.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/starting-module-2.html [Accessed: 13^th May 2014]

4.2: MARSHALL. J. J. (2014) Lines of Inquiry – Part 2. [Online] 17^th April 2014. Available from: http://jjmarshall.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/having-got-small-amount-of-feedback.html [Accessed: 13^th May 2014]

4.3: MARSHALL. J. J. (2014) Lines of Inquiry – Part 3. [Online] 19^th April 2014. Available from: http://jjmarshall.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/lines-of-inquiry-part-3.html 19th April 2014 [Accessed: 13^th May 2014]

4.4: MARSHALL. J. J. (2014) Task 4D – Literature Review – Book 1. [Online] 7^th May 2014. Available from: http://jjmarshall.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/looking-within-classes-of-which-dance.html [Accessed: 13^th May 2014]

5.1: MARSHALL. J. J. (2014) Professional Ethics – Task 5a [Online] 17^th April2014. Available from: http://jjmarshall.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/professional-ethics-task-5a.html [Accessed: 13^th May 2014]

5.2: MARSHALL. J. J. (2014) Professional Ethics – Task 5B. [Online] 5^th May 2014. Available from: http://jjmarshall.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/professional-ethics-task-5b.html [Accessed: 13^th May 2014]

6: MARSHALL. J. J. (2014) Task 6C – Award Title. [Online] 6^th May 2014. Available from: http://jjmarshall.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/task-6c-award-title.html [Accessed: 13^th May 2014]