Tuesday chats presentations and plans

More soon...

We talked about Module Three presentations
Read Eleanor post
https://ellebyrne.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/birds-eye-view-rather-than-chronological.html

Ethical considerations: actions and questions

In the campus session we looked at the idea of questions and how they give context to our practises.

In Module Two you are asked to find a ‘question’ (really this is an area you would like to know more about). What happens is that people find ‘big’ questions offer that involve proving something that give further meaning to their own practice. Like showing the dance is important for young children to do (in the question How does dance support children’s development?). These sort of ‘big’ questions are acting as ways to better understand the context of the practice you already have. Really this kind of big question is more appropriate for Module One which is all about positioning yourself and your practice. These big questions are a route to link your practice to further thinking/feeling. As a group we looked at big questions for our practices like:

Community dance how do is it defined? = how am I defining community dance in my practice.

The role of women in acting = As a woman how am I noticing women in practice

Technology and disability = my work involves creating access and experiences.

Identity = how has my identity developed now I have left the environment of training. How have I constructed myself?

These ‘big’ questions are about finding your own position and great to start to develop from Module One onwards. Module One is about this positioning of self (through looking at your practice through the lens of communication., reflection, networks).

In Module Two your question has to be specific to your practice now. Or it will be too big to manage in Module Three. In Module Three keep asking yourself to come back to the smaller inquiry which is part of the bigger questions that the course is raising for you.

We then went on to look at how ethical considerations can help with finding a smaller relevant question.

An ethical consideration – is something you are considering. The word ‘consider’ (to think about).

If you think of ethical considerations as for instance a form to make sure people have consented to have their picture taken, you are looking at the solution someone has put in place after considering something. We are not asking you to make-up the solutions (the forms) we are asking you to do the considering part. The considered part was – ‘people might not like having their picture associated with what I am doing’,’ some people feel an image of them is part of them’, ‘I need to have pictures to capture what I am doing’, ‘people like to see what they did in pictures’… all these are things to consider. They do not all sit well together in considering them you work out how you will acknowledge all these points.

This is what we are doing all the time thinking about all the elements of a situations.

Running for the tube I see someone is in my way – I consider: ‘I cannot be late for this meeting if I miss the train’, ‘this lady looks like she can’t move very fast’, ‘If I run into her might hurt her’, ‘If I run into her  she might punch me’, ‘who is bigger me or her?’ ‘if I head to the next door I might not get there in time before the doors close’… these are all my considerations.

So we are engaging with ethical considerations all the time to better understand/ to take the actions we are taking. As we think about all the possibilities we understand the situation and ourselves better – that is how the ethical considerations help you better understand the inquiry question and what its focused will be – because the considerations help you think/feel through the situation.

Talking to my son about this he said – ethics is like breath: we are breathing all the time: we are making ethical considerations all the time. But when we are doing something special – if we are about the do a grand allegro we have to think about special breath in relation to what we are about to do, just like if we are about to do some research we have to think about special ethicial considerations in relation to what we are about to do.

So ethical considerations are much less complicated than some people seem to think but need much more focus than some people seem to give them – like breath (Breath is simple and yet deeply considered when we are acting or dancing or making music etc…).

Have a look at what other people at the session said. Alysia, Matt, Izzy, Elenor, Jess, Georgie, Amanda can you put the links to your posts on the campus session in the comments below.

What do you think/feel? Please comment.....

Adesola

Witnessing yourself and your assumptions about yourself - a starting point for each Module

Here is a post I have added to a bit but I originally wrote from 2013 that I think is useful as we start the new term now.  Thoughts sparked by Module One, first task. Module Twos and Module Threes please read this because these are not thoughts in terms of tips for passing Module One, they are ideas about the layers you can find in the work. Don’t think of a module ending and that’s it. The ideas introduced in each module have something to offer whatever stage you are at. Ideas are introduced in a modules as tools ways of looking at things. These are tools we are hoping you will use on-goingly; throughout this course and into your work arena and beyond your time at Middlesex!!

So I am looking at some ideas introduced in Module One, but this should be relevant to everyone on the course. 

The CV

We ask you to use your CV as a starting point for posting / thinking about introducing yourself and what your experiences.  Module One handbook suggests.

‘You should take your current professional CV and rewrite as a profile improving on its quality and Upload this as your blog profile.’ 

This is not about selling you!! it is to get you thinking about you. Why are we asking you to do this:? because we want you to start to see your Self in different contexts. To see yourself beyond how you were positioned in your prior learning environment and start to see yourself in terms of the different parts of YOUR life. Part of doing this is to start thinking about what you ‘have done’ which is what a CV narrates. See my previous blog posts on this. 

Positioning of Self

http://www.adesolaa.blogspot.com/2010/10/positioning-of-self.html

(October 10^th 2010)

(Re-thinking this might be really useful for people starting Module Two to give your self a ‘what have I just done moment’ and to contextualise any feedback you have just got from the work you just handed in (your assessed work from last term)). 

So here is what is happening for me. I feel really uncomfortable that you could feel encouraged  to just post your ‘audition’ CV. I don’t like the details such as dress size, you  SHOULD NOT post your street address as most CVs have at the top. I think it is kind-a icky to have some of those details which are about costume fittings or ‘look’ (like brown eyes etc…) on your blog which is open access to anyone who finds it. But then you are not being asked to do this directly because how relevant is that kind of CV to this context. Ask yourself what is relevant for this study. I want to encourage you to think about the message and appropriateness of the CV you post in the context of an open-access, learning blog.

Hopefully you will look at it and develop something new for this context. The ‘about me’ part of the Blog sort of serves as a CV area too. You could post about the process you took and use the actually CV you develop as your ‘About me’ content. The point is to question what it will be like for people coming across your blog. What experience will they have of you, since the blog might be the only experience they have of you. It is not just what you want to say because you know much more of the story behind the intentions you have as you make your blog. It is also about stepping ‘outside’ yourself to imagine how you are experienced. THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF ETHICS. 

A chunk of Ethics is introduced in Module Two so module Twos and Threes what do you think of the above in terms of how you are approaching ethics? this about how you affect the people that come across you or your inquiry.

Although formally introduced in Module Two it is sooooooo important to note that everything we do, every decision we make has something to say within the realm of ethics. Because experience is transactional there is inter-play you are experienced as something… ethics is about looking at how you or what you create or do are experienced. 

In this case you can ask yourself questions about why you chose the photo you chose to represent you on your blog. Does it actually look like you? Is it what you were told was a good headshot? Did you choose it because you like to think of yourself that way? What does it say about what you want to appear as? How you want to be experienced? How is it an ‘ethical’ representation of you??? Should it be? what other things have you considered: are you putting off posting on your blog because of your spelling and you don't want spelling mistakes to represent You? What things do you consider in other contexts (at auditions, at work...). do you think to try of yourself as a 'good' person! What is that?

You can ask similar questions about how you construct a CV for your blog. What pressures do you feel you have to conform to? Where is honesty in the representation of your Self in your practice? Is it possible to represent your Self ever? Is it more about learning to be what people want you to be in different parts of your life?  

Module Twos these questions are important to you because as you plan your inquiry you are starting to take your ideas (questions) out beyond your own Reflective work (journals and blog posts) and looking at literature, peers and other professionals to see what they think – but at the same time you can be thinking about these questions of representation, transaction, how things are experienced through thinking about how much value you put in information from different people because of how they appear to you. How you experience them. How much you and what you put out alters what you receive / perceive. 

Module threes this resonates with you because of course you are starting to be out in the field talking, interviewing reading and you can think about how much of You, you are gathering and how much of the ‘other person’ or ‘other’ idea it is possible for you to gather. How does the way you approach people change what you see or hear in them? I do not think you are looking for a neutral way to do this but instate to note down the impact you think you have on an encounter as being as important as the conversation / information you get from an encounter.

So what do you think? How has this post come across?? What do you think of thinking of ethics as ‘How you are experienced’?

Please comment below

Adesola

Module Three Skype tutorial

On Friday November 25th at 8pm we have a group skype tutorial for Module Three. We will be talking about the Artifact and Oral prez. Let me know if you will join in by writing in the comments below. You could also give a little up-date on where you are with thoughts on Module three so we can all be thinking about ideas to discuss and share when we have the tutorial.

Speak to you Friday

Adesola

On-line sessions Module 2 & 3 April 15th

OMG, time is flying by
Friday 15th April we have on-line sessions
Module 2 at noon (time in London) - we'll talk about the overall plan and ethics form.
Module 3 at 8pm (time in London) - we'll talk about the artifact for sure!!!

Please comment below if you are attending.

Looking forward to hearing how its going.

Adesola

Tuesday PM chat: The shift and the jigsaw

PM Tuesday chat

On Tuesday April 5th  we had our First Tuesday PM chat. We talked about something we called the ‘shift’. This is the movement between what you start something thinking and where it takes you by the end. It is the shift in each Module that we are asking you to identify for yourself and write about to hand-in.

In Module One you started the course and did a number of tasks to get situated and by doing them and thinking about the reader information there should be a shift in your thinking. It is this shift that we then ask you to reflect on and write about as your reflective essay. If you just do all the tasks and can not talk about what changed for you there is no point. We are not training you to follow tasks like a small cuddly animal!! We are suggesting things that might stimulate your thinking and asking you to articulate what your thinking is and how it developed.

In Module Two the shift is more clear you start the module with no plan and end with a plan… but again although the plan its self is important explaining why you made the choices you made – why you are doing it that way and not another way is the important part. The answer to why you are doing it the way you are doing it is all to do with your own understanding of what you want to do. You can inquire any number of ways but the way you come at it affects what what happens and what you find. That is the point…

In Module Three: this is almost exactly the same as Module One but instead of us giving you tasks you have given yourself tasks (i.e. the plan you created in Module Two). You start the module with some ideas (your questions) you do the activity of data collection and reading the literature and reflecting (inquiry tasks) and at the end you think about all this and notice what has shifted for you. What has been the shift in your thinking now when you think about the original question. This is not about some massive world discovery. It is just that now when you think about this topic other things manifest – that is what you write-up / that is your analysis why those new things appear now when you think about the topic. It might be the question it self has changed for you. Maybe the words of the question have changed. Danielle talked about how her original question was about Dancer retirement but now she feels it is not about retirement it is about transition. That’s a big shift in her thinking about what a dancer’s career is…

We talked about how people within an industry have a kind of knowledge that people outside can not have. “nobody outside the industry quite understands how passionate artists are”. Martha Graham said a dancer dies twice (referring to not being able to dance, then not breathing!). But we never think of Martha Graham as ever not a dancer. We talked about what a professional career is. For people in Module One thinking about your Professional career for the first time in this course might make you ask what it is. We said it might not be what you are doing to make money (your not a professional waitress just because you wait tables), it is what you are working towards, training for and thinking about … We talked about how sometimes a doctor in another country has to work as something else but she is still trained as a doctor her profession is still doctor. We thought it was important to respect what people are professionally as well as what they are doing at the time you meet them. So in Module One you are thinking about your own professional direction and ideas and training.

All of this led us to say the answer is in you and your experience – the answer is the shift in your thinking/doing. Lauren is writing about this further http://laurenhoskins92.blogspot.co.uk/

You are not trying to discover a new undiscovered thing you are thinking about how things have shifted for you, and you are unique so your thoughts are interesting and relevant to others. Danielle will post more on this http://danniausten.blogspot.co.uk

Look to yourself and your experience and make it relevant to your practice. Jessica will post on this  http://jessicaplant.blogspot.co.uk

Remember the shift – is a cycle of things making sense – then making no sense – then making sense again, then no-sense, then sense…. There has to be periods of no-sense because if you are truly adding to your understanding before you learn something new you have to become aware you don’t know it. Suddenly being aware of something missing affects everything else you know and changes that too – so things seem confused. But then as you become aware of what you didn’t know as space is made for it – like realising a jigsaw piece is missing and having to rearrange the pieces to make a space for it. But once you have done that the picture is clearer.

Be brave – do not just accept things because they are offered to you, question think critically, find the connections to the bigger picture.

What do you think?

Adesola

Module One and Module Three group discussions

Today we had two campus sessions. Because we realise again and again the course is not about boxes, sections, tasks, modules it is a learning journey I am going to write one post for us all the read. The first group skype was for Module One’s: we asked the question

What is your Professional Practice? No, really what is it? Can you say?

It is fine if you can’t but what ever it is it is a ‘thing’ not just what you are doing at the moment.

Have a look at Victoria’s blog post http://victoriamayvickers.blogspot.com

To ask what is your Professional Practice was important in the Module Three group skype we had later because if you are starting to think about your Artefact (note: it is a bit to early to do at the moment) but when you start to think about your professional artefact you need to have a sense of what your Profession is to pin point and artefact from your profession. Think about it… Have a look at Lara’s blog post http://larafbapp.blogspot.com

In the Module One chat we them thought about who you admire in your Professional Practice – who are the people that lead the way for you in terms of where you see your practice developing? Why do those people inspire you?

Thinking about our Professional Practice, what the field is and where good practice,and inspiration lay in that field for you helps you see your professional Practice as a thing. Something you are working at and developing even when you are not getting paid for it.

The inquiry you do in Module Three is about that development – inquiring into something that you feel extends your knowledge or to bring things together or to back fill as you develop your profession.

Then I asked “if you were trying to get someone else to think about their Professional Practice what would you ask them to do to try to stimulate this?”

• People said ask them to journal and write down ideas about their practice.
• Someone else suggested asking if you got an injury what would you do – how would you cope – what do you need to know.
• Someone else said get someone to do observations and give feedback to them.

Great those are the ways we chose too. We wrote Modules to try to get you to think about your professional practice: In Module One particularly we introduce those same three tools. Tools we hope you will continue to develop and use across the whole course.

1. Journal – we ask you to look into reflection and reflective practice to think about your Practice.
2. Ask some one what would you do – What are your resources – we talk about this as networks. What networks support you. Can you think about your Practice through thinking about the resources you draw on to Practice.
3. Observations – well we can’t come and observe you so we ask you to observe yourself by looking at your on-line profile. How do you come a cross what do you notice about your-self and your values. Can you think about your Practice through looking at and observing yourself and how you present yourself.

So big – point now: the tasks in every module are just there to stimulate your thinking about your Professional Practice (that’s what your BA is in PP = Professional Practice. You need to have thought about Professional Practice! At some point!).

Have a look at Lauren’s blog post http://laurenhoskins92.blogspot.co.uk/

The tasks are there to help you. If one is more helpful than another spend more time on it.

Have a look at Lois-Mays Blog post http://lois-mayhunt.blogspot.co.uk

The tasks are not hoops to jump through – they are not graded. The tasks in all modules should integrate with each other and with your Professional practice.

Have a look at Caoimhe’s blog post http://norakathleenmccabe.blogspot.cpm

People who attended the chats have written blog posts. Please click on them and see what they thought and wanted to share too.

We are not looking for answers – we are looking for a deeper understanding of the questions.

What do you think? What do you feel?

Hope to talk to you during the Coffee-shop group skype chat/ First Tuesday skype chat on April 5^th.

Adesola