Campus session, Module Three

I team taught this session with Paula. Paula did a great power point which she as posted on her blog http://paulanottingham.blogspot.com . I talked mostly about the Professional Artefact. This was about how you can start to envision what it will be. However you can not really start to work too much on the artefact until you have done some analysis. There were two really important points that came out of the session for me.

Firstly, analysis is not just summing up your data. Analysis is a critical look at the whole experience comparing three things – the literature (the ideas other people have said), your own experience including your experience of collecting the data, your reflective diary, and the experiences before the inquiry that led you to be interested in doing it in the first place, and lastly the data you collect. Looking at themes and resonance and contradictions across all three of these is called triangulation. Doing this is how you can critically look at the questions you posed at the beginning of the inquiry. Doing this unpicks everything and is always (whatever level of work you are doing), always disorientating, some what frightening and confusing because it is the point where you are opening yourself up to look for something new, to stretch yourself beyond what you know you know. But that is the heart of the inquiry; be brave. Because it is after data collection you might feel you need to tidying everything up not make a mess in your head but the data collection is not the climax of the inquiry it is just getting something to do the inquiry with. After collecting data it is not time to tidy up, its time to get cooking all the ingredence. See some of my past blogs.

Secondly, the artefact is NOT the result of the inquiry, like the answer to the whole thing. The artefact is as much about the process as the critical review paper you are writing.

So please think as if you are in fact handing in TWO artefacts. Two things that explain the inquiry.  The first is in the form of a formalise academic artefact – a critical review. The second is in the form of something that is found in your professional practice (culture) it is a professional artefact. We can not say what this will be because it is different for each person according to their work / profession. We can help in telling you what the first artefact (the critical review looks like – in fact we give you guide-lines on what it looks like how many words etc… and we also give you guide-lines on how to start making it – when the start drafting etc…). But just because we help out with what the academic artefact (the critical review) looks like doesn’t mean the critical review IS the inquiry. It is a result of the inquiry just as the professional artefact is too. The Inquiry – what you are documenting with the two artefacts is the activity and reflective thought you do. Many people think by writing (I don’t) so maybe making the critical review will be how you analyse the inquiry, but the professional artefact could just as well be how you work out what it’s all about. So think of the Professional artefact as another way of explaining your inquiry. So you can see you need to do the whole inquiry before you can be really clear about the content of the critical review or the professional artefact. But now is the time to start to open a space for what the professional artefact will be even if all you do is plan out time in your diary in early December when you will start working on it.

So in fact you will explain your inquiry in three ways through writing (critical review), through talking (oral presentation) and through x? (professional artefact. Each of these ways of sharing offer unique advantages for communication and have things that can not be communicated very well through them. Think about how you will use the three forms.

One more thought about analysis: I suggested it is like your inquiry was  a mountain. You don’t want to stand in one spot and describe the mountain. You need to describe it from all sides; give us a 3D view, with 3D (not one dimensional) people and ideas. Of course in the short time of 12 weeks you can only do so much. If people want an aerial view you don’t have to give it to them but you should know the direction to point them to get one. In other words you can say:

“XXX could be looked at from the perspective of YYY but it was beyond the scope of this inquiry for me to do YYY, however Robert Goodwill goes into this in his book XYXYY. “

Or

“If I were to look more deeply ino XXX I would have gone to get data from BBBB but I did not have time to do this and felt it distracted from my main interest in GGGGG.”

Here are some points people in the session said they thought were useful check their blogs for further discussion of the point.

1)   the idea that we have three ways to explain the inquiry – Alice Chambers http://alice-chambers.blogspot.com

2)   The artefact communicates to your industry. Its something that is seen in your profession that people can relate – Sarah Pearson  http://leyasgreenball.blogspot.com

3)   Try not to be consumed with one theme, analysis is about finding different perspectives and different angles – Victoria Ellingham http://www.victoriabapp.blogspot.com

4)   The inquiry is about different opinions rather than one solution – keep an open mind – Tiffany Newson   http://tiffanynewson.blogspot.com

5)   Try not to find your answer before the inquiry – find things as you go along – Rozane Ghaffor   http://www.rozana-g.blogspot.com

6)   The literture is your having a group of friend, it represent different point of view, some you agree with and some you don’t. But it is who you turn to explain your ideas. It is a group of friends who all say exactly the same thing – what you want to hear!!! – Rhoda Parker http://rakparker.blogspot.com

7)   The power point that discusses exactly what should be in each part of the critical review particularly the Introduction – Hannah Kenneally-Muir http://hannahkm.blogspot.com

8)   Talking your ideas through with some. Explaining what you did to someone who doesn’t know in order to organise your thoughts – Charlotte Ballot  http://clmbentertainment.blogspot.com

9)   The idea of triangulation the data, liteature and your experience – Corrinda Hall http://corindahall.blogspot.com

How’s it going for you? What do you think?

Adesola

Campus session, Module Two

I sat in on the campus session for Module Two run by Rosemary. I am really interested in Ethical perspectives and I always enjoy this session. We talked about where people where in terms of their inquiry. Generally people talked about how hard it is to define a question and we discussed how the ‘question’ is more of an indication of an area you will be looking into NOT a definitive question with a clear indication of the sort of answer it requires. As always do not think of questions as inevitably locked into answers, rather these are questions that will lead to you better understanding the question itself. At the end of your inquiry (in Module Three) you will be able to ask a more informed, deeper question not have an ‘answer’. Thinking about how the question was not so closed, opened the idea up for some people who realised that they actually had enough of an idea of the area they wanted to inquire into to move forward into looking at ethical issues within that area.  

TIP (1): do not use this inquiry to prove something you already feel you know, like something you passionately believe and want to convince others of. Use it to be better informed about your field; find out something new. If you can’t get away from the passion you feel about something then think in terms of better understanding the ideas that contradict what you think. It’s not a Miss Marple case to prove you are right.  You’ve got all the support of the university to do this work don’t spend the time and support on just proving you are ‘right’!!!

TIP (2):Try to let go of feeling you want to finish one ‘task’ and move on to the next, this work is multi-layered as you learn more and have more experiences you will be thinking back and forth across the whole module. The question can’t be ‘perfect’ to move on to ethics because we are anticipating that thinking about the ethical implications in the area of your question will refine the question more. Instead think of the process through the whole course as a layering of ideas, or a stew which you add more and more to and each time you add a new thing you improve the quality of the stew and (but) also change all the elements in the stew which respond to the new ingredient.

So we moved on to thinking about ethics. I think ethics is about thinking about how you are experienced by others. It is about attempting to imagine what impact you could be having both your planned impact and any additional impacts that you would not have thought of unless you took the time to consider other ways of interpreting what you are doing. Because of this you can look at ethical considerations from a range of mechanisms.  There are guide-lines and professional expectations, health and safety outlines etc… all of which are formalised instructions that address common experiences of people doing what you are doing. But there is also your own personal ethical outlook. We talked about how culture, social groups and close family can all shape how a person conducts themselves and there for that engage with ethical issues. In some ways everything is about ethics (how you are experienced) just as everything is about you (how you experience) they are two sides of the coin (they make you a three dimensional person).  But what is really fun about considering ethical issues is that the actual nature or structure for how you carry out research is actually a response to the ethical framework from which you are working. For instance questions about how people experience being part of the data collection process impact on how you collect data. There is no right or wrong but there are societal expectations and government laws. As we talked we recognised that the idea of what is ‘right’ changes according to where you are and what time period you are in. Something’s that were considered OK to do are no longer and something’s that were considered ‘wrong’ are now perfectly normal.

We talked about the film the “Black Swan” which always brings up lots of interesting issues. In this session we talked about how a teacher should address the feeling that their student is not aesthetically appropriate for the style of dance they are studying (such as body size, colour of skin, use of wheel chairs.). We questioned where the teachers’ responsibilities lay. If they had the authority to decide what the industry would need when the student graduated. We also talked about how one addresses students – shouting or no shouting in the classroom??

Have a look at Rosemary’s blog for an overview of the whole session.

Adesola

Campus Session, Module One

Tuesday morning we had a campus session for Module One  looking particularly at the Reflection part of Module One (Reader1). We see the people who come to the campus sessions as representatives of the student body, or a think-tank of people who will talk about and develop ideas from the module and then shared this with the learning community  through blog posting.  So here is what we talked / thought about.

We began by introducing ourselves and we had a guest Advisor from the MAPP (Dance Technique Pedagogy) course –Helen  http://www.helenkindred.blogspot.co.uk

It was nice to link-up with the MA people.

We then did an exercise where you describe what you think other people do, from hearing how they identify themselves. This is work in pairs, so for instance your partner might identify themselves as ‘a Choreographer’. Then you write a list of all the things you think ‘a choreographer’ does. Likewise they write a list of things they think you do according to the title you have given yourself. Then you give each other your lists. It is quite nice to see someone else’s vision of your profession and often reminds you of the things you take for granted. Importantly it can help you start look at what things about your activity you forget to remember because you are so used to what you do. This is about seeing reflection as SEEING THE FAMILUAR AS UNFAMILUAR, AND THE UNFAMILUAR AS FAMILUAR. This helps with this section of module one, where we are wanting to start to look at the essence of you where You are in the mists of what you Do.  See http://seraclops.blogspot.co.uk

Next we did an exercise that involved learning a new skill (balancing sticks). We noticed how we addressed learning the new skill and used that experience to look at the three theories in the handbook on learning. We looked at Kolb in terms of what we did to begin the skill confidently, some people needed to watch how others tackled it and felt this was an example of Abstract Conceptualisation, some needed to talk to their partner to plan as they were beginning the balancing task and felt this was Active Experimentation, some just started the balancing and dropped the sticks a couple of times and felt this was an example of Concrete Experience, nobody felt they had begun with Reflective Observation. You may or may not agree but what is most useful is the idea of considering how you have attempted to engage with something new as a way to notice yourself.  We also talked about the sticks exercise in terms of the theory of Gardner. For example some people tried the balancing then noticed they were responding to how they had experienced their partner was using the sticks and adapted their balancing to respond to their partner they felt this was Interpersonal. Lastly we talked about the stick experience in terms of the Honey and Mumford theory discussed in the Reader.

Past groups have done something called a silent tour at this point in the campus session but that was when we were are Cat Hill and Trent park there was more place to wonder. The new Hendon campus is very exciting with lots of people all studying different things. It is not conducive to a silent tour though. So we used post cards. We split in to small groups. Each person chose three post cards and found a place to display them in the room then toured their group. The rest of the group wrote a response to the tour and gave it to the person whose tour it was. This exercise was used to discuss a number of things that we related to the task of journal writing or keeping a reflective journal (because you don’t have to write to do this). We talked about the idea of capturing a moment – both how the pictures together as well as where they were placed created information (an experience) that seems only to able to captured in images and also how the tour giver could have an idea and it was communicated to the people who tour more deeply than the tour giver had thought it would be. I feel this is because You are much more vivid than you realise and it is being more aware of this that this reflection section is hoping to encourage you to do. This is so you start to question yourself, your assumptions and your influences. We talked more widely about journals / reflective diaries.  You do not have to use them to record  your daily activities, you can capture anything. Doing everyday is a good discipline but this could take the form of writing yourself texts throughout the day about things you think and then just collecting them at the end of the day. Or taking a few moments to take a picture each day, or writing a poem (which some people at the campus session found really hard / funny – the poem does not have to rhyme or be forced it can just be a task that allows you to play with words).

Some people talked about old diaries they had found from when they were much younger and how they had brought back memories. One person said they had found an entry where they had put it was too secret to even write in the diary and now they had no idea what it was about. It is for these reasons we are asking to keep a reflective journal because your learning process is very alive as you live it day to day but as you go through the course (and the rest of what you do!) you will be a different by the end. You are likely to forget moment or remember then differently. But at the end of the module we are asking you to recall the journey. The reflective journal is like keeping snap-shots of the journey you can use to recapture the moments and you can use to illustrate. Later when you are in module two and three you will need the reflective journal for the same reasons as well as to help you capture first impressions of research activities.  As artist you might find it useful within your professional practice to develop methods to have an on-going ‘conversation’ with yourself.

At the end of the session each member of the group agreed to write a blog post on at least one thing they found useful from the session – Go visit their blogs, listed below.

We also captured six things we felt were interesting ideas that had been raised. These were;

1)    We can hear what other people say, not so you can decide whether they are right or wrong answers but so you can see how they connect to your ideas.

2)    Experiences help you understand something.

3)    You do not have to be too serious; fun can be just as useful. It can be fun to find ways to reflect and capture moments.

4)    We had talked about different ways to be present; I had asked people to make comments at points in the session by writing about either what they see, notice or think. Each of these is a different way to engage with a situation and reflect on it. (see list just below)

5)    Theories are like tools to help you understand something

6)    Being interested in other people; they don’t have to have the same perspective as you.

7)    Kolb’s learning cycle can be envisioned as happening at different speeds and layered. So you could be in a month long learning process but also be in a minute long cycle at the same time.  The minute long cycle might be something you quickly learning like how to respond to a puddle as you are walking the month long cycle might be learning the journey to a new place.

Things people wrote for what they saw: ‘See’

Long Green sticks

Team work

People messing about with sticks

Trust

Circular

Things people wrote for what they noticed: ‘Notice’

People concentrating and having fun

Concentration

Use of different dynamics while using the sticks

Observe, connect, trust, have fun

People smiling

Different peoples reactions: shy, confident, embarrassed

People bonding and forming relationships

In the bigger groups whenever a stick fell we all, without realising, waited for the circle to be complete again.

Energy

Different levels of concentration to number of participants.

Fluid

Things people wrote for what they thought: ‘Think’

Less though the better

Patience, concentration, work as a team, cooperation

Cooperation? Involved?

See how people think in different ways; some think in colour coordination, some in meanings, some random

Some people take it on as a challenge to make it as complicated as possible without dropping it. Some people are more careful

Each person in tune with left and right partner physical negotiation

Here are the blog links to people who were there.

http://georgiebird123.blogspot.co.uk

 http://melaniebrown10.blogspot.co.uk  http://chelsiejohnson1990.blogspot.co.uk  http://todikomoubloge.blogspot.co.uk

http://hannahmairistewart.blogspot.co.uk

http://katythorpe2012.blogspot.co.uk

http://seraclops.blogspot.co.uk

And Russ who has just got his blog going so visit as soon as we post the address and say hello!!!

What do you think?

Adesola

Why blog when I’m busy? And it doesn’t get marked! multiple agents construct meaning through interaction

Not to be even heavier than usual!!! This blog is about community: I do not believe we exist alone. I think we are connected to, influenced by, shaped, and fed – exist really in our interactions.  It is what I write about:

“A ‘thing’ is what one knows it to be, and when ones knowledge of it changes it changes also therefore epistemologically and ontologically things are the same. A person could not exist unaffected by what is around them as if person and environment existed independently of each other. Instead the reality of both is found in how they are perceived by each other through their interactions and responses.

‘Our position is simply that since man as an organism has evolved among other organisms in an evolution called “natural”, we are will under hypothesis to treat all of his behaving, including his most advanced knowing, as activities not of himself alone, nor even as primarily his, but as processes of the full situation of organism-environment;’ (Dewey and Boydston 2008, p. 97)

Placing the perceiving body as central, the experiential nature of this complements dance. Dance clearly also finds meaning through the body interacting with its environment for instance a dance step, such as a grand bat-mon, is not just a technical description but is also created by the body of the specific dancer executing it, the environment it is executed in (the floor surface, the size of space), the rhythm of music and so on. The Grand-bat-mon is an example of the object becoming how it is interacted with. The dance step cannot be extracted from our interactions with it. This is a good example of how something is interacted with shapes what it is.

This dissolving of the subject / object divide is experienced in dance. Dance is a thinking process, not through the subjects static mental theorising but is the sensory interaction of the dancer through movement. The mind-ful body of the dancer is a mechanism of many parts responding to the environment of the dance studio including responses to other dancers, physical environment, sound and intention of action. Dance activity highlights the possibility of a kind of metaphysic in which multiple agents construct meaning through interaction. Sheets-Johnstone exemplifies this relationship of perception, interaction and movement as she describes the interactive process of dance contact improvisation.

‘The world that I and other dancers are together exploring is inseparable from the world we are together creating’ (Sheets-Johnstone 2009, p.32)”

So how do we teach like that, taking into account of the fact each of you (the students) are connected to your life; each of you are a part of your own parade? (doing Work Based Learning). How would you do it? We thought of blogs as a way to make those connections – this is away to talk to the community of people on BAPP (and MAPP) and still respect your busy lives. So you can say what you think – connect at 2am because that’s when the idea comes to you and still be able to be heard by those people who are not on that kind of schedule, who will read the post at 9am because that’s their thing. And then they might notice something in what you say because they have different connections, they are a part of a different parade. As you do the same for them. The blogs are also public and have the possibility to reach out to people all over the world. When I look at the stats. of who looks at my blog they include, Russia, India, Europe, USA, … Someone out there might have something to say that you would not other wise ever get to meet. We have a lot to do to make a better world, the collaboration of communication and listening is part of it I believe so that is why I teach on this course this way. But if you don’t write posts or comment or engage in the community then it defeats the philosophy of the idea. The blogs are about what Sheets-Johnsone: describes together we are explore and creating the educational experience – the learning journey. You are not dancing alone in a black hole!! That’s my answer to why blog?

What do you think?

Adesola

Dewey, J. and Boydston, J. A. (2008) The later works of John Dewey, 1925-1953, The collected works of John Dewey, 1882-1953, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

Sheets-Johnstone, M. (2009) The corporeal turn : an interdisciplinary reader, Exeter, UK ; Charlottesville, VA: Imprint Academic.

Writing Session

Writing Session on 23rd of October '12 - scheduled for 10am - 2pm (but you could always end a bit early if needed). Attendance is open for people from all three modules. This workshop has been developed specifically for BAPP (Arts) to help in 'thinking' and communicating.

Please come to the Central Reception at 10am in College Building (the atrium or quadrangle area) at the Hendon Campus. Directions to Hendon are on the Libguide Noticeboard. If you do arrive after the start we will be in the College House building.

Peter has pencilled in an agenda below – but  he will prepare extended exercises for this who have attended before.

Conceptions of writing:
the students’ own
other writers’
their lecturers’ (as evidenced in criteria, etc.)
A process-approach to writing-thinking through drafting (moving from private to public):
This will emphasise the use of writing as a means of coming to a conclusion.

PLEASE look out for materials from the workshop on the Libguide after the event.

Reflection, ethics, identity and a well cooked cake

Please read the whole post not just the parts that start with your module at the a start of the paragraph; it is useful to see things from different perspectives. See if what I write about another module resonates with the one you are on. For instance, if you are in Module Two, thoughts on Module One might add meaning to the experience of doing the module now you can reflect back on the module, and thoughts on Module Three might help you see where you want to go with what you are doing now.  Remember things always have new elements to them because you are changing and having more experiences so your interactions with things change.

This week Module One’s might be starting to move on to the reflection tasks. Here are some reflective thoughts following on from my last blog. Some people have written little biogs. instead of CV’s on their blogs. The idea of looking at your CV is to review what you have done!!! in terms of trying to see  patterns and themes to what your experience has been. I think writing a biog. is a good way to do this as well because it means you have to put a kind of narrative to the lists of your CV. As I said last week once you have done this it is interesting to think about what you valued and shouted about from your experience and what you take for granted and what you don’t mention. The way you construct these introductions to yourself also tell you about your own ethical values and principles. It is important to think about this from the beginning of the course although you will be talking about ethics specifically in module two, it is more than just administrative guidelines. You have presented some rule for conduct, what you think is appropriate already just by making your blogs.  Thinking about this leads us into the reflective section of Module One.  This is about finding ways to engage in reflective thought in terms of experiences. Dewey saw the action of the body as reflective thought – the mind full body. The actions you take like making a blog are the results of your reflective thoughts, but how can you be more conscious of these reflective thoughts? The habits you have are not just physical habits they are habits of thought also. (for instance if you have an injury and can’t walk the way you usually do, your habit of walking is interrupted but the issue of getting about becomes more than just finding a way to walk it changes your feelings and thoughts about things too.) As you are introduced to reflection in module one think about how it ties into what you have done so far in the course. We are hoping you will keep the tools and use of Reflection throughout the course and beyond. 

Module Two’s are looking at questions, ethics, themes and interests. This module is an introduction to research methods and that means it is about questioning your assumptions. So first question your assumption about what a question is, what is it for (to get to an answer, to get clarification, to know more about something?). I have been saying it is not useful to think of a question as something used to get to an answer. The very idea of questions should start you questioning your assumptions. Then as you realise you have made assumptions about thinks it is useful to know why you were drawn to that assumption this is where your personal principles (rules for how you understand life, community, society) have kicked in and they are fed by a sense that you are a good person and useful part of things right? So you are acting along a set of ethical principles but where did they come from? You weren’t born thinking questions led to answers or people should do surveys so other people can know more about them!!! As I wrote above your actions the way you understand things is not right or wrong but it is the result of some habits of body and thought where have they come from and what makes them right or wrong for you – this is ethics… and reflection… and inquiry… and sometimes quite disorientating which is why I am always saying have courage. Have courage to question yourself first.

Module Three’s I want to talk about analysis. You have gone out and collected data (or you are about to). Think of data like ingredients. Analysis of the data is doing something with it. You are a cook expert because of your life experiences and you have to make something with the ingredients. Do not just display the ingredients for us (in a pie chart!!!!). Anyone can go out and get some flour, sugar and eggs. You have to MAKE THE CAKE not give us the data (ingredients albeit in a beautiful display) and tell us to make it ourselves. Its like giving a birthday party and bring out Tesco’s bags of shopping with a candle on top!!! You are reading literature, reflecting on your life experience and remembering the situation of gathering the data in order to do something informed and interesting with it for us to try.  Then because really you are making a critical review and artefact not a cake you also have room to explain why you cooked it that way, what you thought you were doing by cooking it and what came out of the oven in the end. A lot of mixed metaphors. Do you get what I am saying???

And now for a new section of my post called – what is Adesola doing!!!! Well, I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about where some of my questions have taken me this week and see if they resonate with ideas you are having. I have been writing a paper with a friend  to present at Re:Generations in a couple of weeks. We are looking at the interconnectedness of dancer, environment and cultural discourse. Part of this looks at how cultural and personal identity (which manifests physically through belief systems see what I wrote about  Dewey) is affected by the aesthetic of particular dance techniques. How do we as choreographers encourage the dancer to move within the personal nuances of them Selves and also draw of established techniques that do not originate from the cultural indicators the dancer identifies with? This is particularly interesting to me in terms of Contemporary Dance which despite all the world influences at it’s inception (Ruth St. Denis and Martha Graham, and Katherine Dunham drawing on North African - Egyptian, Asian - Indian, African, Native American) seems to be Europeanised in terms of ownership. This is a question about ownership of modernity when one is of the western world but from non-european heritage. Contemporary work that comes from Non-European artists working in Europe seems to be distinct in that it is seen as work that is contemporary with a XXX influence as if XXX (Nigerian, Indian whatever) was fixed in the past and did not have a contemporary manifestation. This second point is the topic for another paper I am presenting in New Mexico at a Dance Conference (CORD) in November. I will be talking about the Jingle Dress, a piece I made and toured UK in 2010 which draws on Native American discourses particularly the Jingle Dress dance.  Here is the New Mexico blurb:

“The paper explores how Contemporary dance’s physicalised inquiry into meaning and principles of being impacts on embodied and cultural identity when it draws on traditional dances as a source. The research takes an ethnographic / case study approach drawing on the experience of creating the performance piece ‘The Jingle Dress’ a 45 minute work for 3-5 year old audiences. Ethnographic data is drawn from having been a part of traditional dances and ceremonies on Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota for over 20 years, as well as the creative process of making the work- the Jingle Dress- and responses to the work. For the purposes of this presentation there will be a discussion of how dance shapes cultural identities and personal philosophy. As well as exploration as to whether within a contemporary context shared philosophical principles (such as Pragmatism) and shared embodied approaches (such as dance) can create communities of understanding across cultures or strips cultural identities.”

I will talk more about these two papers (questions) over the next few weeks. I have cited a number of books in the New Mexico paper, here are three of interest:

Johnson, E. P. (2003) Appropriating blackness : performance and the politics of authenticity, Durham, N.C. ; London: Duke University Press.

Pratt, S. L. (2002) Native pragmatism : rethinking the roots of American philosophy, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Nikolais, A. and Louis, M. (2005) The Nikolais/Louis dance technique : a philosophy and method of modern dance, New York ; London: Routledge.

Please comment on any of the above – what do you think?

 Adesola

Week Two: noticing

HI

Week two and hopefully you are getting into the flow of things. Finding your ‘student world’. The best place for work: home or a coffee shop? Do you work best in long chunks or short regular bursts? How do you schedule your BAPP working times?  Do you work best after a yoga class, a strong coffee (de-café of course!!), in the morning or afternoon? Its fun to workout what or how you are as a student. Somehow my student self in my head is always heading for Paris!!

Please read ALL the below whatever Module you are on: the course is all connected

Module One’s: by now you have your blog going, you have played with Flickr and maybe some other web tools. But this is not a tick box type course. You need to notice how you did things, what you did. Already you have made choices (ethical choices) about how you have presented yourself, what you value as important and what you haven’t said. Although all you did was start a blog you took action according to your own value system, your principles your priorities your ethics. Think about what this says about you and what is meaningful to you? Who helped you or influenced you to have this values and principles? This module is about seeing how you fit in to a wider world – contextualising yourself in order to better understand your professional practices. The reflection section of the module will help you with this and it is next…

Module Two’s: You will have been thinking about questions. These are not questions you will be finding answers to!!!!!!! They are questions about something you want to find out more about. Think of your research question as something you want to ask BETTER questions about when you have finished the research NOT something you will have found an answer to when you have finished the research. So maybe look back at the reflective work you have been doing see what keeps interesting you, what keep making you excited to work, what you are curious about. This is probably the area you could work in. Then think about HOW you are asking the question. How does the way you ask a question affect the kind of answer you will get. This is important because the rest of the module is looking at how you ask which is the research methods you will use. This module is more full on than the first module, so get stuck in.

Module Three’s: One word: Literature

You are not alone!!! Find out what other people have said about your subject through being published or performance etc… Not the firs random article you find when you use Google ... If you had a conversation with someone else who studied what you are looking into who would they know you need to know them too. This module is not about gathering data! It is about what you do with it. And what you do with it involves thinking about what other people have theorized too. You are not alone. The wheel has been invented. Now – also – where do you stand in all is going on. What is your philosophical framework? What assumptions have you made – that people will talk honestly to you in interviews? Did /will that happen? That we are all equal and nobody will be intimidated by you asking them questions? That everyone has an opinion about your project area? Did / will they? The truth is out there? Or there are many truths?

Things that have “gone wrong’ so far are also a part of your data the best part probably. For instance I keep asking teachers if they will talk to me about dance & and Maths, most of the Maths teachers have not replied for interview dates and one did but only had ten minutes in a busy staffroom where I couldn’t properly record the interview and I am worried about running out of time, all of the dance teachers have been very excited about the idea and I have interviewed one already.  My question is ‘How do we integrate dance into core curriculum subjects?’ I feel need Maths teachers data. But I have some already – they are not interested, that has resonance with my question. When I come to analyse all the data the fact I couldn’t even have a conversation with a Maths teachers is part of the data and comments on the question. Once you begin the research EVERYTHING that happens is part of the process. Be brave and let it happen.

What do you’s lot think?

Adesola

Think about this!

This blog is one I am hoping you will return to across the term to remind you of basics. As I have said in the past I am dyslexic. For me English (and any languages apart from sign-languages) feel foreign.  I feel most able expressing myself in the wordless mode of movement. So it is with the mind-set of someone who has learnt (and is learning) the rules of a foreign language that I write this about the academic presentation of your work. These are constant problems that there is no need to make.

1.    Your work should have page numbers, with your name and student id number in the footer.

2.     Keep spacing (lines double-spaced) consistent throughout the paper. Check the font is consistent throughout the paper. Problems occur if you copy sections of text from other places and just put them into your paper. There are problems here with plagiarism if it is from others, and context if it is from something else you have written.

3.     Check the tense of the words you are using, check that the ‘s’ ‘ed’ ‘ly’ type endings of words are correct in terms of the sentences you are using them in.

4.     Check you understand and explain the words you use. Don’t rely on the word itself to explain your meaning. Explain the ideas rather than prove you have read something by just coping the same words you read.

The literature – is what other people who are established in the area have said about the area you are looking at. It is not a few random articles that come up on Google when you first look. The literature carries the trends for what people think on the topic. It is a source from which you can compare your experiences and the opinions of the people you know. THE PEOPLE YOU KNOW ARE NOT THE SOLE SOURCE. Do not use the people you know as if they were the literature. This is not because their opinions are not valid, it is because the literature is a part of a wider discussion.  (Like it or not published works are made credible across the world. Because they are published)

If you don’t like reading this just means you need to do careful research on which books would be best to read, so you only read what you really need to read. It does NOT mean you just don’t read.

Learn how to cite, quote from books, journals, and articles in the press. (See earlier blogs guide-line for citing or look at lib-guides.) If you write a paper and you haven’t cited a few things think of this as a problem and ask yourself why not.

Send your Advisor your best work for feedback. Do not send work in the hope that the feedback will help you finish it. If you send your best effort then the feedback will help push you further. If you send anything else then all the feedback does at best is get you to where you might have got to on your own anyway.

Work out your ideas and the ‘story’ of what you are writing anyhow you need to. Then write it. The act of writing a paper is an act of communication (NOT THINKING), You have to know what you want to communicate before you start to communicate it. When I write a paper I find my first version is very emotional, it seems to include everything I’ve ever thought, I end up crying and by the end the whole thing is so confusing. Then I take a breath (do a dance class or some other kind of movement – this helps me think). Then I start all over again. This is because I need to get all the chips off my shoulder before I can write something that is not just about me justifying what I think. It is also because I am dyslexic and so I don’t think in the linear unemotional form needed for a paper. I understand I have a process that takes at least four drafts for me to get to what would be the first draft for some people – 1) the emotional draft, 2) the first one when I re-order everything, 3) the draft where I realise what I am really trying to say, 4) the draft where I triple check for spelling and left out words. And I need to move between each step in order to think. This (fourth) draft is my official first draft. The one I would send someone for feedback. What process do you use now? How can you develop this process? Use your time on this BA course to work out your process and tinkering with it so it is workable for you. This means you leave the course with a new skill and a new understanding of yourself.

Understand that just because one does academic type work does not mean one will suddenly become comfortable in a dream academic type approach to creating (where you sit down once with your computer and produce a master piece). Just like a dance class you have to fight for the techniques and practice by pushing yourself beyond what you think you can do.  Part of this is about finding a new way to express yourself – a new range to your voice.

As we start the new term please have a think about these points.

The blog below is information about the Re:generation conference in November. It is always interesting to go to conferences and hear the papers people present you get ideas about presenting work and styles of writing.

Adesola

Re:Generations Conference

November 1st – 3rd, 2012

Re:Generations is the UK’s largest gathering of dance artists, researchers, choreographers, teachers and students intending to shape future practice in dance from Africa and its Diaspora. After an exceptional inaugural event in 2010, this year’s conference, The Next Generation – Mapping New Futures, will explore how young people and emerging artists engage with African-influenced dance. The conference includes talks, film screenings, workshops and performances by contributors from the Caribbean, the UK and the U.S.A.

This year’s featured international guests are Germaine Acogny, ‘the mother of contemporary African dance’ and founder of L’école des Sables, Senegal; Kariamu Welsh-Asante, Professor of Dance at Temple University, Philadelphia, USA; and Chris Walker, dancer and choreographer with the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica, Assistant Professor of Dance/ Artistic Director of the First Wave Hip Hop Theater Ensemble at University of Wisconin-Madison, USA.

There will be evening performances in the Robin Howard Theatre on November 1st and 2nd featuring Chris Walker’s Urban Fissure, specially remounted for the conference and performed by UK-based young emerging artists. Walker’s work has been presented in the Caribbean, North and South America, South East Asia and Europe.

Runs 9am – 6pm daily.

Full Conference £100

Concessions £70

Hi welcome back

Here are some starting back thoughts.

First, if I am your advisor and haven’t already emailed you by Monday contact me (there may be a glitch in the matrix!!!). There are a number of advisors on the course we all have blogs and they are all useful because different people have different ways to explain and share the same ideas. I am going to be writing blogs that are across all three modules. So sometimes my posts might be more useful to someone on Module (3) than Module (1) but it is useful to think of the WHOLE course as one thing. Do not to think of each module as a closed set of activities we are making you do!! By thinking about what people are doing at other points in the course you might find something really useful for your current study. If you have finished a module there is nothing more to get out of it. Keep looking backward and forward (its how you locate yourself).

For people beginning the last module (3760) (that is Module (3), the research project) a couple of things:

1   The last module you did was to plan what you are doing now – but its not written in stone, look at the feedback you had on your grading form, think about it now you have had the summer to let the idea settle.

2      Adapting your method, addressing questions your advisor highlighted is all part of the process. DO NOT think the whole thing is just about gathering data. You can get all the data in the world but it is only as useful as the questions you ask of it.

3   The module is about the process (as is pretty much everything we are doing) NOT ABOUT you finding an answer to some problem. Focus on your process, your artistic development, what you can LEARN. We are looking for you to show us what you learn from the experience that is all (and that is a lot).

So get chatting talk to people about what you think blog, email, don’t hide away trying to get a perfect answer for your project.

For people beginning Module (2) (3630). Have a look at what happen last year. Look at the blogs see what you can learn from observing what other people thought about. This module is quite extensive. Start to get on with things get the reading done its more intense than the first module because we are asking you to apply some of the principles you are learning about.

For people beginning the first Module (1) (3730) and everyone else remember this is not a set of hoops we want you to jump through. We have planned something that we hope will be useful and meaningful to you in YOUR situation. Try not to see the module as something to critique, or on the other hand something ordained from on high. Try and apply the ideas to your life. See if they are useful and in doing that see what you learn from them. Do not be put off by starting to blog just get on with doing it.

If you are re-doing a module have a look at what you did last time but also let go of some of the things that seemed like obstacles. Move forward, work out what helped you last time and what hindered you.

Get advice from your advisor if you got an unexpected mark. It was higher than you expected work out what you did to get that response, if it was lower work out what you did to get that response.

For everyone MAKE a timeline for yourself, work backwards from the hand-in date Jan 7^th 2013. Work out what you need to hand in to be marked. This is different from what you will be doing as tasks. Work out when you need to have a final draft by in order to get feedback from your advisor if you want it. Work out all the things you want to do right up to today. Make a plan and be kind enough to yourself to stick to it.

Lastly, my office hours on SKYPE  for this term (October 1^st to January 7^th )  will be:

Monday 11am to noon (GMT)

Tuesday 7pm to 8pm (GMT)

Thursday 7pm to 8pm (GMT)

Friday 11am to noon (GMT)

I have tried to make them when people have breaks at lunchtime at work or after work. However if you can not make these times email me for an appointment either on SKYPE or phone or over a coffee. Also if you see I am on SKYPE feel free to just call me I will let you know if I can chat or I will call you back when I can.

Have fun

Adesola

September 1st, shaking off the summer and beginning to prepare for the start of the new term. It's a great time to start getting a routine together for documenting reflections and ideas. Having a journal you carry around or texting your ideas to yourself on your phone, writing a 5 minute poem before you go to sleep, having a note book for lists that acts as an overview of your ideas and activity each week. I hope everyone had a good summer. Mohamed Ali said something along the lines of ' if you are exactly the same as you were 20 years ago, you have just waisted 20 years'. So let yourself be different from the Self that had ideas last term. The idea to enrol for module ones, the way you describe yourself to yourself for module twos, the plan you had for your research module threes. Thats the learning process slippery and ever changing!!!!