On Wednesday 30th October I joined Laura Ferrin from Module 1 for a campus session with Adesola. This is my second campus session in the process. On my first session I had hoped it would be a chance to get 'Help' and direction and basically be told how to write my essay, but it is an opportunity to take away so much more.
At first Adesola asked me to talk about what the process had changed in my thinking. I really struggle with 'getting my words out' especially when I am so deep into my inquiry that I have 100 thoughts swimming around at once.
However I managed to string together that...
Previously I would have sort an 'answer, into what I was researching, hoping it would give me knowledge. Now I understand it's about finding information to change my thinking and opening new pathways for learning.
Adesola asked us to think about the 3 words
Knowledge Information Learning
And what the differences are between them. I used to think that information was knowledge if it was on the TV or in the newspaper it was worth remembering to give you knowledge. Through this process, I have discovered that information is there to INFORM your thinking and has to be looked at from different perspectives. What you then take away from that thought process is Knowledge. And in that process, you are learning.
Adesola than asked me to apply this idea to my Inquiry Topic. Throughout my literature review, I have found many articles were the Theory of Multiple Intelligences has been misinterpreted. The theory (Information) has been implemented without a full range of ethical and practical considerations, leaving the method questionable.
This lead us to talk about where the information is coming from, usually, we look to the centre ( an established organization, notable scholars) and take their word for it, but what would happen if we flipped it and looked at the discourses on the edge. The people asking the questions?
Are we questioning if the Right & Wrong applies to all cultures, societies and within a relevant timeline?
From this conversation, the same themes were emerging for me, and I found significance in the term Information.
We have to find a range of information on our topic and not take the first answer. Just because a theory has been well published it is not always true and right. We have to look at things from a number of perspectives. The right and wrong only applies in certain situations.
My inquiry is an overview of what I found significant. Someone else may find or take away something different from the same information. Mine is applied to my experiences and where I am in the world culturally, socially and at this time.
Adesola then asked what themes I had found in my research, saying it out loud really helped me confirm my thoughts.
Educational Perspective - Many of my sources discussed a need for change in education, I am going to apply this educational perspective to my practice alongside its relationship to Multiple Intelligences.
Interpretation of Theory - Not one size fits all is the basis of the Multiple Intelligence Theory, but it's not only Howard Gardner that is saying this. How is this interpreted in my practice?
Application of Theoretical Framework in Dance Practice - The headings above have motivated dance practitioners and scholars to create frameworks using a number of different theories. How are these similar or how do they differ? What are the ethical and practical considerations?
Adesola then tasked us with looking through our learning communities blogs with the idea of themes. Are people saying the same thing? Are they talking about the same topic but from a different perspective?
And then could we find relevant information in the educational journals in the library through Unihub that linked to our thoughts. I will conclude this task on another blog.
But for now, I would really recommend looking at the blogs to see if someone is thinking the same as you. But did they word it differently or is their practice different from yours? Get involved and start leaving comments, a conversation is sometimes the best way to help unpick what is significant to you.
Showing posts with label ethical considerations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ethical considerations. Show all posts
Thursday, 31 October 2019
Thursday, 3 October 2019
Some light bedtime reading...
I am now officially into the first week of my literature review, and I have found the best way to concentrate is to go to bed at 8pm with my post-it notes and I am currently Frames of Mind - The Theory of Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner.
I familiarised myself with his work in my Module 2 literature review but now I am reading his work with more focus on the Ethical considerations of his theory and applying this to my practice as a dance teacher.
I have enjoyed how reflexive Gardner's writing is, at no point does he portray his theory as 'The be-all and end-all' and for every intelligence, he highlights the cultural perspectives and considerations of disabilities and different cognitive abilities.
His introduction hi-lights that there is no definitive explanation for intelligence and probably will never be one. And in fact, we need to think critically about our attachment to the word 'Intelligence' and also apply this thought to many things that we label.
'There is a universal human temptation to give credence to a word to which we have become attached, perhaps because it has helped us to understand a situation better.... Intelligence is such a word; we use it so often that we have come to believe in its existence, as a genuine tangible, measurable entity, rather than as a convenient way of labelling some phenomena that may (but may well not) exist.' (Gardner, 1993 pg 69)
My reading also reminded me why I found interest in this topic, I hate the idea that we are all measured by the same system when our talents and intelligence are different.
'There must be more to intelligence than short answers to short questions- answers that predict academic success; and yet, in the absence of a better way of thinking about intelligence, and of better ways to assess an individual's capabilities, this scenario is destined to be repeated' (Gardner, 1993 pg 3)
This has made me think about how we measure dance ability. Is it only those with the highest kicks, best technique and performance that are the best dancers?
Gardner places his theory of intelligence across lots of different cultures from the Anang of Nigeria who by the age of five sing hundreds of songs, play several percussion instruments and perform dozens of intricate dance movements (Gardner, 1993) and how skills that to the western world may seem primitive actually require a high level of intelligence. Such as in Kikuyu in Kenya, a young child is taught how to recognize every head of livestock in his family's herd from its colour, markings and size and type of its horns. (Gardner, 1993)
How would these children fair in an audition? They clearly have remarkable talents but these would not necessarily be tested if they were just mirroring a choreographer. Or their talents would not be realised if they were just judged on a dance they had presented by themselves.
Instead of looking at the aesthetic of a performer and that being the marker of their talent, could we look further into their intelligence so that they can develop from a deeper place?
Bibliography
Gardner, H (1993) Frames of Mind The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Fontana Press.
I familiarised myself with his work in my Module 2 literature review but now I am reading his work with more focus on the Ethical considerations of his theory and applying this to my practice as a dance teacher.
His introduction hi-lights that there is no definitive explanation for intelligence and probably will never be one. And in fact, we need to think critically about our attachment to the word 'Intelligence' and also apply this thought to many things that we label.
'There is a universal human temptation to give credence to a word to which we have become attached, perhaps because it has helped us to understand a situation better.... Intelligence is such a word; we use it so often that we have come to believe in its existence, as a genuine tangible, measurable entity, rather than as a convenient way of labelling some phenomena that may (but may well not) exist.' (Gardner, 1993 pg 69)
My reading also reminded me why I found interest in this topic, I hate the idea that we are all measured by the same system when our talents and intelligence are different.
'There must be more to intelligence than short answers to short questions- answers that predict academic success; and yet, in the absence of a better way of thinking about intelligence, and of better ways to assess an individual's capabilities, this scenario is destined to be repeated' (Gardner, 1993 pg 3)
This has made me think about how we measure dance ability. Is it only those with the highest kicks, best technique and performance that are the best dancers?
Gardner places his theory of intelligence across lots of different cultures from the Anang of Nigeria who by the age of five sing hundreds of songs, play several percussion instruments and perform dozens of intricate dance movements (Gardner, 1993) and how skills that to the western world may seem primitive actually require a high level of intelligence. Such as in Kikuyu in Kenya, a young child is taught how to recognize every head of livestock in his family's herd from its colour, markings and size and type of its horns. (Gardner, 1993)
How would these children fair in an audition? They clearly have remarkable talents but these would not necessarily be tested if they were just mirroring a choreographer. Or their talents would not be realised if they were just judged on a dance they had presented by themselves.
Instead of looking at the aesthetic of a performer and that being the marker of their talent, could we look further into their intelligence so that they can develop from a deeper place?
Bibliography
Gardner, H (1993) Frames of Mind The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Fontana Press.
Sunday, 27 January 2019
Is it dancing or just tricks?
One of the subjects that has always piqued my interest is the evolution of dance styles and what people perceive as being a dancer. At dance college, we all came from different dance backgrounds ISTD, IDTA, Disco Freestyle, Street and all had different levels of ability. But who determines who the best dancer is?
But what does a dancer have to do to receive a vote from an audience of mostly non-dancers?
By watching the programme, music choice does play a big part as well as doing something 'mainstream'! A group of dancing dads doing street dance got through instead of an experienced classical ballet dancer who had been performing for 15 years. The routines that are more aesthetically pleasing are considered better. At the point of judging who would come back as the final 9 dancers, one judge Oti Mabuse said " Is it dancing or just tricks?" when discussing a freestyle disco auditionee.
Has dance become more about tricks? Is that now what an audience would expect to see? For many years I have found this quite frustrating, I personally trained in ballet, modern and tap, I could do a cartwheel and went to gymnastics at the age of 19 to master a walkover, but I'll admit I could not perform to the level now seen on TV. I worry that as a dance teacher, my students might get bored of the ISTD syllabus work and may prefer to replicate 'Dance Moms'. Continued Personal Development is integral to being a teacher, but does that now mean I have to learn to teach Acrobatics or Tumbling?
However, if I was to ask a freestyle dance teacher their views, I'm sure they would see this as a positive and likely a boost to their business.
While this isn't necessarily what I will propose as an inquiry topic, I wanted to note my thoughts and display how my thinking has started to change through this process. Having an unbiased view allows you to see things from more angles and to consider that sometimes your own opinions may obscure all the facts.
What are your thoughts? Is it all about Fouette turns and Illusions?
Images Found at -
Image 1 -Shyla - https://tellymix.co.uk/gallery/390586-the-greatest-dancer-spoilers-first-look-at-this-weeks-latest-auditions.html
Image 2 - Yassaui Mergaliyev - (Photo: Tom Dymond/BBC/PA Wire)
Wednesday, 5 December 2018
Ethics - Explicit Vs Implicit
On Monday night I joined a group discussion with a module 1 focus on Consideration of Ethics. I feel that this process so far has broadened my understanding of Ethics, not just the rights and wrongs that make up our own moral compass but also how to think of the ethical impact of what I do and how I present myself.
We first discussed how ethics apply to our day to day practice. As a teacher for the ISTD I have been educated in their code of conduct and have studied different areas of safeguarding and best practice. These are the things that I explicitly do, make sure I am teaching competently, I am professional, I think about the safety of my students be it prevention from injury or ensuring they are released to parents correctly or not left unattended. But there are many things that I do that are implicit. Considerations I make that are not specifically outlined in a code of conduct.
For example, I teach ballet to students aged 15-17, I am aware this can be a very self-conscience period in a young students life, for this reason, I will think twice before publicly ordering a student to remove a big baggy jumper. I will ask them on a 1-2-1 basis if there is a reason they are wearing a jumper and gauge my response by their answer. I understand that uniform is very important especially in ballet, but another consideration is why are my students here? Are they planning to become professional dancers, or are they simply there for fun and recreation, this answer changes my approach as a teacher, level of discipline used and motivational techniques.
There are many examples of how my inner compass guides how I fill in the gaps ethically that are not outlined in a code of conduct but after our group discussion, I am now excited to explore where these morals come from.
I think my personal dance history has guided my ethical considerations. I was a chubby kid and remember being made to wear a neon lycra crop top and cycling shorts for a dance performance. I was only about 8 years old but felt so self-conscience, I couldn't smile or perform and spent the whole dance trying to pull down my crop top. This feeling has always stayed with me so as a dance teacher I always promised myself and my students that I would never insist they wear something that made them feel physically embarrassed. I have many tragic costume memories, guess which one is me in the below picture. Another reason why I feel strongly about making my students feel happy and positive about how they look!!!
Throughout dance college, I witnessed many acts of unfairness, while this was maybe preparing full-time dance students for the realities of the professional performance world, favouritism was prevalent. Students were picked for solos based on personal relationships with teachers, this has made me aware of my own relationships with students and how having ' favourites' can be damaging to a students confidence.
I really am an advocate of treat others how you wish (or wished) to be treated.
I feel our personal ethical standpoint is ever changing with the things we experience. I am now a mum of 2 and this has had a big influence on my ethical considerations. I am more protective over my students as I see them now as someone else's babies no matter how big they are, and I am more aware of how my actions can be perceived by a young mind and what impact my words can have on them.
I have really enjoyed delving into my own experiences to help ascertain where my ethical behaviours root from. I have previously been considering the bigger ethical picture, the things that are a discourse between the professionals in my practice but are not necessarily things I have control over. However I was pleased to discover that there are dance ethicists out there, they recognise that there is not enough unity amongst dance teaching professions and a need for continuous professional development.
Such academics are Julia Buckroyd and Sho Botham, their work has been very inciteful and helped my understanding of ethics in relation to dance teaching. Follow the link below for a selection of articles available to download.
Ethical issues in the Training and Development of Dance Teachers in the Private Sector
We first discussed how ethics apply to our day to day practice. As a teacher for the ISTD I have been educated in their code of conduct and have studied different areas of safeguarding and best practice. These are the things that I explicitly do, make sure I am teaching competently, I am professional, I think about the safety of my students be it prevention from injury or ensuring they are released to parents correctly or not left unattended. But there are many things that I do that are implicit. Considerations I make that are not specifically outlined in a code of conduct.
For example, I teach ballet to students aged 15-17, I am aware this can be a very self-conscience period in a young students life, for this reason, I will think twice before publicly ordering a student to remove a big baggy jumper. I will ask them on a 1-2-1 basis if there is a reason they are wearing a jumper and gauge my response by their answer. I understand that uniform is very important especially in ballet, but another consideration is why are my students here? Are they planning to become professional dancers, or are they simply there for fun and recreation, this answer changes my approach as a teacher, level of discipline used and motivational techniques.
There are many examples of how my inner compass guides how I fill in the gaps ethically that are not outlined in a code of conduct but after our group discussion, I am now excited to explore where these morals come from.
I think my personal dance history has guided my ethical considerations. I was a chubby kid and remember being made to wear a neon lycra crop top and cycling shorts for a dance performance. I was only about 8 years old but felt so self-conscience, I couldn't smile or perform and spent the whole dance trying to pull down my crop top. This feeling has always stayed with me so as a dance teacher I always promised myself and my students that I would never insist they wear something that made them feel physically embarrassed. I have many tragic costume memories, guess which one is me in the below picture. Another reason why I feel strongly about making my students feel happy and positive about how they look!!!
You guessed it the Jester! I think the laugh was on me.
Throughout dance college, I witnessed many acts of unfairness, while this was maybe preparing full-time dance students for the realities of the professional performance world, favouritism was prevalent. Students were picked for solos based on personal relationships with teachers, this has made me aware of my own relationships with students and how having ' favourites' can be damaging to a students confidence.
I really am an advocate of treat others how you wish (or wished) to be treated.
I feel our personal ethical standpoint is ever changing with the things we experience. I am now a mum of 2 and this has had a big influence on my ethical considerations. I am more protective over my students as I see them now as someone else's babies no matter how big they are, and I am more aware of how my actions can be perceived by a young mind and what impact my words can have on them.
I have really enjoyed delving into my own experiences to help ascertain where my ethical behaviours root from. I have previously been considering the bigger ethical picture, the things that are a discourse between the professionals in my practice but are not necessarily things I have control over. However I was pleased to discover that there are dance ethicists out there, they recognise that there is not enough unity amongst dance teaching professions and a need for continuous professional development.
Such academics are Julia Buckroyd and Sho Botham, their work has been very inciteful and helped my understanding of ethics in relation to dance teaching. Follow the link below for a selection of articles available to download.
Ethical issues in the Training and Development of Dance Teachers in the Private Sector
Wednesday, 7 November 2018
Campus Session - 29/10/18
A week has flown by since my first campus session, but I can still remember my feeling of excitement and apprehension trying to find the session room in the maze that is Middlesex University. I had ensured I wrote a few questions that I had been meaning to ask but other than that I had no idea what the session may entail. I was just excited to meet my fellow learners and make the whole experience seem REAL!
It was great to meet Adesola and Maria in person, and I was joined by Liza, Lee and Beverley. We starting by introducing ourselves and our practice. I went first and reeled off my life story, throwing out acronyms of ISTD and DDI assuming that what I was saying made sense. After my 4 minute epilogue Adesola commented "It was a nice story, but was it a description of my practice?" The group took notes on what I had said and fed it back to me. Lee who is a graphic designer ascertained from my speech that I ' taught some street dance and enjoyed turning non dancers into performers' This feedback clicked with me instantly and has given me much more focus for the introduction of my Essay. I need to imagine I'm explaining what I physically do to someone that knows nothing about the arts and performance world. Here are a few notes I made for myself to consider when introducing myself.
Think more
as an artist what you bring to things.
How I use the mind of a dancer to do things.
How I use my approach ; what is my approach?
Tagline vs
the way that we do it.
The way I teach, what ethics I use, what theoretic
paradigms I use.
Teaching approaches ;considerations.
Be
specific, what my practice means to me.
How you see
your self connected to the things around you. Ethical considerations.
What I do - Inspire dancers age 3 - 17, at weekly dance classes in genres of Ballet, Tap, Modern and Street Dance through displaying my passion and love for dance and seeking opportunities to expand knowledge, educate and improve
current dance skills of students through set graded work established by a well recognised Dance Society. Promote enjoyment of
dance. Choreograph for all dance styles ensuring students can relate to the material and can explore their range of techniques used in my teaching. Seek popular music and trends. Work with fellow practitioners to synchronise and enhance teaching methods and skills.
Opposed to - I am a dance teacher with the ISTD, I started dancing at age 5 and danced professionally abroad. On returning to the UK I took my DDI and now teach syllabus work to children age 3-17.
The main thing to consider was not being defined by a label or tagline, explain what goes into that label.
We then transferred these thoughts to the subject of research.
Here are my notes from the discussion -
What is
research?
The thing
it's about and the way that it’s been done.
A way we do something colour’s what
it is. - What angle we begin our Research will have an impact on what we find.
Qualitative –
understanding every level vs Quantity – looking at many items
Research
can be approached from different angles and achieve different results each
time.
You will
always find what you’re looking for. In research and life, find ways to find
what you don’t know what you’re looking for. Don’t stop if you think you’ve found
an answer.
We then wrote a statement on our thoughts -
Personally,
I have subjects in mind when researching, things I want to explore, however I often
go into these topics with an idea of where my views stand. When researching ethics,
I started with a question I already had a view on, but this then lead to
further writings. It lead me to PhD papers I really enjoyed reading or could relate to that I wouldn't have found in my initial google search.
This then lead us to discuss algorithms and while you may think you are finding new unrelated literature you very well may be boxed in by technology.
Below are some ideas on how to look outside the box -
Use bibliographies
to source information - are the same authors reoccurring?
Different search
engines - not just Google
Look into
what people are saying from different fields, outside of your practice.
We also spent time trying to define the meaning of Ethical Considerations, not just seeing them as a subject of Good Vs Bad, but how we need to consider the impact reading someone else's work can have on us or us sharing our work can have on others.
There are certain ALERT WORDS that should be considered.
REAL - what is real to me might not be real for someone else, it;s a case of beliefs and feelings.
MEANINGFUL - We all have a different idea of what is meaningful for us. When writing you had a meaningful experience, can you use a different term or define why it was meaningful to you?
My campus session ended with us making videos in pairs with the information we had collected in discussing research. Mine and Liza's video is on Adesola's blog and I have to give full creative credit to Liza, she is a whizz with a movie maker. The 2 hour trip was definitely worth it and I learnt a lot discussing ideas with Lee, Beverley and Liza. I also feel like I have expanded my professional network and also discovered that there is a Costa Coffee on Campus, but they don't serve Flat Whites???
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