Celebrating Submission!

Wow, what a module! Congratulations to everyone who has submitted their work already!

I have just submitted my portfolio and am feeling amazing! When I look back to the beginning of this module, I couldn't see this day coming. I was so apprehensive about doing my inquiry, having to recruit participants, conduct interviews, and write a 5,500 word essay - but I did it! 

Funnily enough, the word count was my biggest challenge towards the end of this journey. Two days ago, my word count was 8,270, with my analysis being over 5000 words. I got upset about this, as I had put a lot of hard work into exploring my themes, triangulating them with my own perceptions, and finding literature that correlated. Sam gave me some tips on how to conquer this:

1. Delete unnecessary adjectives
2. Check for repetition
3. Look for long sentences that could be made shorter
4. If you have to take a section out, choose to keep the ones with the most relevance to your professional practice.

I managed this in the end, but if I was to offer a tip to future module three students, it would be to ensure your chosen themes are really relevant to your practice and that you condense them as much as possible before you begin writing.

My personal work schedule got very busy this past month. COVID-19 rates in my area have been the highest in the country for a few weeks now, meaning lots of sickness within all schools in the area. With the added pressure of this, I considered whether to ask for an extension, but decided to stick it out. 

As a little reflection, the BAPP programme has opened my eyes to so many different aspects of my professional practice. In module one, I developed a belief that 'I don't learn by writing', however, I don't think this anymore. My academic confidence has improved massively and as a result, I have recently applied for and been accepted to study for a PGCE next year. This is something I never thought I could do before.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, and I look forward to seeing the presentations in 2022. 

x

Triangulation

As I work towards the draft of my research report, I keep trying to remind myself of my place within this research. I have drawn this diagram to help me remember...

 

Triangulation for me has been about looking at the data I collected from interviews and questionnaires, correlating it with appropriate literature, and reflecting it all on my practice.

How is everyone else finding this?

The qualities of a successful dance teacher

Last module I wrote a blog called 'Educating the creative heart', where I asked everyone what they thought made a good dance teacher. I was so interested in everyone's opinions and decided to incorporate this within my questionnaires as a 'wrap it up' question. 

This has left me with so many describing words. When I spoke to Sam about this in my tutorial, he advised me to create a word cloud, which I thought might be nice to share...

To create this, I used an online programme that changes the size of words depending on the emphasis. Every time a description was repeated in my data, I enhanced the size by one. This has helped me visually see what qualities were mentioned more frequently.

I have learnt that everyone has their own opinion of the ideal dance teacher based on their own experiences. There are so many different words because no two experiences are the same. There is no textbook definition of the ideal dance teacher, however, a successful teacher could have any of the qualities listed above. I am now looking for a way of turning this data into something meaningful. 

The qualities that were repeated more frequently (as you can see) were encouraging, positive, caring, kind, and fun. I am wondering why more participants have described the ideal teacher to have such qualities of emotional intelligence over technical teaching qualities such as being knowledgeable, adaptable, and firm. Is there an external factor that has hindered people's opinions of teachers in dance education? This has really interested me and I will be looking for literature to explore this more. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. 

Where am I?

A few weeks ago, I watched the zoom session where everyone shared their research journeys, their aims, and their reflections on this whole process so far. It was great to hear how everyone was getting on. Regrettably, I haven't blogged in a while, so I thought I would share where I am in relation to my inquiry and Module 3...

Within my inquiry, I am exploring the relationship between the teacher and the student in dance education. I proposed to interview 3 dance teachers, as well as receive questionnaires from 4 dance teachers, and 4 dancers that trained professionally. I struggled to recruit participants at first. I had luckily conducted 2 interviews early in September, but couldn't quite secure a 3rd interviewee. This also happened with my questionnaires. So I cast the net wider (maybe a bit too wide in the end) and managed to receive 13 questionnaires back, which was amazing, but this large amount of data may prove challenging during the next stages.

In the end, I managed to conduct 3 interviews with dance teachers who all had very different backgrounds. My first was particularly challenging, possibly because I lacked experience as an interviewer. When I read the transcripts back, I am frustrated that I didn't ask them to expand on certain topics. However, this reflection helped with my 2nd interview, and even more so with my 3rd.

The thought of having to collect data was hanging over me since Module 1, but it has actually been rather enjoyable. I have loved hearing people's stories and opinions on my research topic. My thoughts have been challenged, and I have learned a lot about assumptions. Rule No.1 of interviewing was not to communicate my thoughts, opinions, and assumptions to the participants. This can be done verbally, through the use of questions, and even physically (facial expressions, nodding of head, etc). This was tricky but so effective, and I believe it has made me a more active listener.

I have also found it has made me ask more questions in my workplace. From experience (and a theme that has appeared from my research), children want to be heard. They appreciate the friendly encounter but don't always know how to express themselves. When I am on the playground and a student comes to me to tell another student has been mean to them, before I speak to the other student, I ask what happened, and how it made them feel. I think it's important for them to fully express this, and I hope this little reflection can help them move on and not make the same mistakes as their peers. 

The data from my questionnaires is really helping me sculpt my themes, and I am fortunate that most participants expanded on their thoughts, however, I am sometimes left wishing I could speak to my participants in person and ask further questions on certain things. But I suppose this is where the data from my interviews, literature, and myself come into this.

So where am I now? Currently staring at this...

This is my bedroom wall (I have recently moved and have put the decorating on hold just for this haha). I am trying to define my final themes, make sense of everything, and figure out where I fit into all this. Triangulation is constantly on the front of my mind. Sometimes I feel lost in all this data. I can spend a couple of hours at a time looking at it, taking notes, reading literature, but feel like I've got nowhere. Does anyone else feel the same? 

I am looking forward to catching up on everyone's blogs and finding out about how you're all getting on. x

Small reflection as a distance learner

This week has challenged me as a distance learner. I feel like I have been juggling work, study, and personal life for the past few weeks, but this week I dropped the study ball... oops! 

Although I am very near to collecting all the data I need for my research project, I am feeling on edge that I have lost motivation. I am not sure whether training as a dancer has made me a perfectionist, or whether it is just me, but it can be frustrating sometimes. 

It's now Saturday evening, and any normal person in their mid-twenties may be out having some fun, but I have begun reading a new piece of literature called 'Traning Tomorrow's Professional Dancers', has anyone read this before? 

I have also been looking at all the data I have collected so far. It has revealed so many different opinions and stories, which all vary from each other. I think it's fascinating, and I will hopefully share some of these through a blog soon. 

Finally, I just wanted to share something my friend sent to me the other day...

As I see people starting dance jobs again after Covid, there is a part of me that wishes I was returning to the stage too. To be able to dance in a full theatre is the best feeling in the world, but those memories will never fade and they will forever be a part of me. 

I'll stop being cheesy now.

I hope you're all having a great weekend x

What is writing?

It was nice to join Peter Thomas' lecture about writing this afternoon. Writing was something that I was so nervous about before I started this course. I began full-time dance training at 16 years old, so I felt rather out of practice this time last year. I remember writing my first blog in Module 1 and feeling so worried that my writing wouldn't be interesting enough, or wouldn't be grammatically correct. But funnily enough, when I was reviewing my inquiry plan from Module 2, I reread my essay and was pleasantly surprised. I never thought that I would be able to use the type of language I was using. I am so grateful to have developed my confidence in writing during this course. 

I attended Peter Thomas' writing lecture last year, and although todays was similar, it was great to be reminded of some simple writing tips which will hopefully help me when I get round to writing my inquiry report. We did a freewriting task where we had to write about writing for 5 minutes. We were a very small group, so it was great to discuss people’s ideas. We spoke about 'creativity' and how writing can be used as a way to communicate without speaking. This made me think about how dance can be a form of communication too. I suppose writing shares many characteristics with dance that I had never thought about before.

Peter shared a quote which I remember seeing last year…

'Writing is rewriting' - Paul Abbott

I remember not understanding this when I saw it last year, but it really resonated with me tonight. This whole inquiry project is rewriting. Rewriting other people’s stories, my own stories, literature. Rewriting all these pieces to create a bigger picture, to develop myself as a practitioner, and as a regular person. There is a lot of pressure when you are holding other people’s stories in your hands, and I don't want to change these stories. People's stories belong to them. I feel privileged that my research participants have shared some incredible stories with me so far, but these are not mine. So when I begin analysing and reporting my findings, I will be keeping this in mind. 

What are your thoughts on this?

All things... questions!

Wow... Week 1 has gone so fast. I have spent my time refamiliarising myself with literature that I found particularly helpful in module 2, recruiting participants, exploring interview questions, and studying interview techniques. 

I will be using a combination of interviews and questionnaires to collect data for my inquiry. I am really excited to see how data differs depending on the way questions are asked (verbally or digitally).

As interviews are so foreign to me, I thought it would be good to do some research about how to interview. I began thinking about this in module 2 and came across a TedX by Dan Moulthrop entitled 'The Art Of Asking Questions' (I shared it in a blog, which you can see here). Moulthrop shares some great tips about choosing questions and different interview approaches. These are his 8 key points:

1. Be unafraid
2. Be curious
3. Try the obvious questions
4. The words you use matter
5. Strive for empathy 
6. Be informed
7. Be simple 
8. Be gracious

He made it seem so simple. I was still unsure so read/listened to some published interviews. Sam recommended 'The Ethnographic Interview', which reminds readers that interviews are very similar to the friendly conversation, and funnily enough, if you Youtube interviews, many are entitled 'A conversation with...'. I then listened to an interview of Billy Joel (which took place in 1963). He was being interviewed by Studs Terkel, a very famous author/broadcaster. He interviewed with such ease. Although he already had knowledge of Joel's background, he asked simple questions, showed a lot of interest, and responded effectively and graciously. I thought it particularly impressive when Terkel would pick up on small fragments of Joel's answers and ask him to expand on this. I thought it was quite beautiful actually.

I had a super helpful tutorial with Sam yesterday. We discussed my interview questions and my approach to interviews. He reinforced the idea of simple interview questions and reminded me that I must be prepared in case participants ask for questions reworded.

For now, I have stopped worrying about interviews, and have composed some interview questions that I have put a lot of thought into. I will also be modifying these questions to suit my questionnaires better. I am excited to see where this leads me and will hoping be documenting my progress/findings soon.

References

Spradley, J., n.d. The ethnographic interview.

TEDx Talks, 2021. The Art Of Asking Questions | Dan Moulthrop | TEDxSHHS. [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZSY0PssqH0&t=421s> [Accessed 28 April 2021].

2021. Bob Dylan interviewed by Studs Terkel (1963). [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYdvOPRE3EQ&t=172s> [Accessed 18 September 2021].