On Friday we had a Module Two session on
SKYPE. We talked about three A’s
Ambiguity
Assumptions
Analysis
Ambiguity
We were talking about the ‘finding a
question’/’area of inquiry’ section of the module. This begins Module Two but
it is not about finding a complete question or defined area. It is about
finding a general direction. During Module two you are carving out an Inquiry Plan. The different tasks help
you refine the general direction into an Inquiry
plan BY THE END of the module. You are not expected to start the module by
finding a completed question /inquiry. What would the rest of the module be
about? You are carving out the plan and the first part is just deciding what it
will be generally about (what it’s made of). Just like: if you were carving a
sculpture you would need to start by deciding what material you will be using
(what it is made of) – ice, wood, marble??? Then once you have the general
shape of it then you carve at it bit by bit to make the final sculpture. At the
beginning of Module Two all you are doing is finding the general material you
will be working with. Through doing the task in Module Two and thinking and
reading about the general direction you are going you will slowly carve away to
make a final Inquiry plan by the end
of the Module in December (January hand-in date).
[Ambiguity = uncertainty, indistinctness.]
It is ok for you to have some ambiguity around what exactly you are doing at
this point. What you need to be able to do is describe in general terms what
area you are looking at. This is quite hard because some people make the
question/field too specific and others make it so general it would be impossible
to research in 12 weeks.
So how do you find the middle ground. Look
at your questions or statements about what you want to explore in your inquiry
and ask yourself what assumptions you
are making.
Assumptions
My question might be “what makes a good
dancer?”
What assumptions are there here when I ask
this question?
1)
That ‘good’ is the same for
everyone. As if there was actually a good you could attain that everyone agreed
is ‘good’.
2)
That we can define ‘dancer’.
When you look at it closely this question
becomes so general it is practically impossible to research. (Especially in
only the 12 weeks of Module Three). Or if you think well I mean good = triple pirouettes,
and dancer means ballet dancer age 20-30 years old working in USA or Europe.
The question becomes “what makes a ballet dancer age 20-30 years old working in
USA or Europe do triple pirouettes?” Now it is so specific it will be hard to
find information just about this and do you really want to spend 12 weeks on
it. Is it likely you’ll actually find out?
The spirit of the question is something
about wanting to know about dancers, you and other people admire. The
assumptions of ‘good’ & ‘dancer’ are part of the spirit of the question.
You might realise you have a particular idea of what ‘good’ is and what a ‘dancer’
is. It is these assumptions that could be what your inquiry is about – you know
what you think ‘good’ is so why not find out what other people think. Hearing
what other people think might inform your ideas or offer you ideas about dance
you had not thought about. Your question could be ‘How would people describe a
good dancer.’ Or ‘what makes a dancer ‘good’ to you?’ Then you are naturally
led to start to think about the inquiry tool you need. How will ask people
question about what they think? You could interview a dancer who is working on
a contract in West End, another dancer who is on a cruise ship, a dancer who is
training, a dance teacher, a dancer who has retired. You are interested in what
all these people say about your question to them. They are not going to answer
your question because they are just giving their opinion but their ideas will
help you better understand and challenge your own. It is better understanding
what a good dancer is in your own terms that was the spirit of the original
question.
Analysis
I am saying you are not trying to find a
question you can ask and then go find out the answer to. Like asking a question
and what people say is the answer. It’s not a treasure hunt or a telemarketing
exercise. You are going out to gather data to add to your own ideas and then
you are going to analyse the data. By analysing it you consider what it is
telling you not just the direct answers but how the answers happened and why.
That is all part of the analysis too. You compare what people said to what
people have written about and what you have experiences and then you discuss how
your own ideas about the topic has changed since doing the Inquiry. So your
question is not to ask and be answered, it is to asked for conversation to
happen: for inquiry to happen.
I feel that if you look at your own
assumptions you find the places you could find out more about because assumptions
manifest when we have one story about something and don’t realise it is one
story. Finding out more is at the heart
of Module Two and Three. Have a look at this video to think more about the
danger of one story:
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