Paula Nottingham 22/2/17http://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2016/02/15/cherry-pie/

WBS 3630 (WBA) Module 2: Lines of Inquiry

Thinking of a focus for your inquiry – a piece of the pie.

M1 ideascommunication, reflection, networking

Arts knowledge with new ideas

M2 Planning

Rehearsal

planning for change within and after inquiry

M3 Doing the inquiry

Staging your work

experience knowledgeperformanceapplause (?)

BAPP Arts – planning inquiry

http://twistedsifter.com/2013/11/terrifyingly-beautiful-photos-of-storm-clouds/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2567022/Seeing-rainbows-Its-time-eyes-checked.html

Preparation is key but do not become overwhelmed!

Are there any images that relate to how you feel about where you are now?

http://twistedsifter.com/2013/11/terrifyingly-beautiful-photos-of-storm-clouds/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2567022/Seeing-rainbows-Its-time-eyes-checked.html

Are there any images that relate to how you feel about where you are now in your studies – leading to some inquiry questions?

Try spidergrams or mindmapping to visualise your work

Try mood boards to

understand ideas

Try images from work

I use a picture of seahorses to think bout research - they come – ponder – and move on gracefully.

http://www.lovethesepics.com/2013/04/60-spectacular-seahorses-and-seadragons-pics/

Thanks for the suggestions everyone – great to see people using visual thinking.

http://www.getbucks.co.uk/whats-on/theatre/lesley-joseph-coming-bucks-next-11020401

Think about this inquiry proposal as the staging of a production. This image is related to Megan’s production of Annie. Relate the inquiry to you practice and what you know about your practice…

Annie

How can you position yourself in the inquiry process?Looking at sources will help you ‘place’ yourself…

Talking to other in you special interest groups

Constructivism tells us that we learn by fitting new understanding and knowledge into and with, extending and supplanting, old understanding and knowledge. …

Mezirow (1991) says learning is to bring about change or transformation

Compare your list with others and come up with some common themes about what you know…. these might change and may not be value-free. Try to relate your ‘assumptions’ and the power relationships in your particular context.

What are your assumptions about your practice?

Examples?

I think everyone knows that teenagers are always hungry....

I think people who do not march in protest rallies just don’t care....

Remember you will need to think ‘ethically’ about your area of interest.

Others might also have assumptions about what you do…

What do you want to know?The inquiry process…

Finding K Explaining and reporting

Using K to inform practice

Knowledge and understanding that is informed by your context

What is knowledge?

Knowledge in the arts and humanities – not just skills and competences but a structured series of engagement with a body of knowledge or (in the case of the practical arts) a body of practice… the ideas change with time

“[knowledge in] the arts and humanities change continuously by virtue of their being elements of a culture always in a condition of transformation. Thus they transform through internal dispute, contestation, revision of tastes and methods, discovery of recuperative research, politics and philosophies. These subjects are continuously in debate and discussion….”

Fry et al. A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education ( 2003)

The changing nature of knowledge….

Lyotard(1984) knowledge is narrative and performative – only true of the time being – (value free?)

Foucault (1972) treated knowledge as discourse – ideological – that which is accepted as true usually discourse of the powerful

Jarvis (2001) The Age f Learning education and the Knowledge Society

Research literature for the

practitioner inquiry tools

Arts (performance, dance, acting, visual)Creative industries cultural

Trans-disciplinarityWorkplaceProfessional practicee.g. career transition

What areas of knowledge do we use for BAPP Arts?

Society Gender

Businesscommunication

Nancy Osbaldeston – photo courtesy of Arnaud Stephenson.

A body of knowledge … what do you know?

What do you know and what do you want to know about?

What I know

123

What I want to know

123

Compare your list with others and come up with some common themes about what you know…. these might change and may not be value-free. Try to relate your ‘assumptions’ and the power relationships in your particular context.

Inquiry questions

123

What I want to know

1 23

Put into the form of questions to guide your inquiry

The inquiry questions can sometimes be quite broad at first – then you can fine tune them. Sometimes you can merge 2 different directions – sometimes you will need to make a choice.

An extract from Bell on finding a topic about thinking about a topic

Use the research literature to help you think about your inquiry planning.

Networking Professional Practice/Work based learning

•Acknowledges that learning is political and performative in that learning based in work seeks not only a somewhat of rigid ‘knowledge of’ but also seeks to change, improve or subvert situated practice through reflection and research

•Asserts that learning should be emancipatory, in that it has the potential to empower learners

https://www.uall.ac.uk/work-and-learning-network

Pitching what we do on BAPP Arts

LOOK at Research Literature on Reading List for practitioner research planning – it is on the module site in My Learning or directly from the library links

e.g. BellFox et al.Costley et al.Blaxter Hughes and Tight

Scan these for what you need to know about doing practitioner research

LOOK at Arts-based Literature on directly from the library links like Summon

You can do more than 3 sources – these sources of expertise will help define your planning and start the review of literature you will need for the inquiry

Look at Online Shopping and Laura’s (Library) suggestions

TRY Summon to search – works like google

Reading and looking around your topics/area of interest – identifying literature – expertiseYou can also challenge what you know!

Planning (Module 2)What kind of knowledge and understanding will you be gaining from this inquiry?

Learning objectives – gaining from evaluating experience, gathering data, and planning a ‘capstone project’ or inquiry?

What outcomes are you thinking about (are these something your can put in the planning?

At the beginning – lines of inquiry

You are asked to decide on an area of interest or topic? And develop some inquiry questions – what do you want to find out about?

Part 4 is about to starting to develop your inquiry question – and to find out what others beyond your immediate circle think – it is about exploring the expertise from those who ‘know’ about your area of interest

1. You should have draft inquiry questions that you can later fine-tune for your plan. Discuss these with your adviser and SIGs.

2. You should have some literature that you have read for its meaning and informs your topic – this literature will help you start to plan a literature review for Module 3

1. You need to understand your professional context and get permission from any gatekeepers in your workplace. You need to fill out an Employer/Professional Support form (there are 2 of these forms to choose form up on the MyLearning Module site) choose 1 of these depending on what your inquiry is about (1 works for 1 main organisation 2 works well for Community based freelancers using a mentor)

2. You need to plan how to gain people’s permission to ask them questions, using consent forms and filling out an Ethics Form for the university - the actual activity for the inquiry will be in Module 3.

Part 5 is about your professional ethics and understanding informed consent…Your professional practice is in the arts – here you will be a practitioner-researcher

Part 6 is about understanding the tools/methods to carry out practitioner research – using ethical practice from Part 5…

As a part of your inquiry you will probably do some practitioner research - so you need to plan this for Module 3.

Module 2 is about understanding the tools in order propose how you will use them in Module 3 – you will get ethical permission from the university to carry out your practitioner research.

You are not doing your research in this module – but to plan the research you will want to informally discuss your topic/area of interest and inquiry questions with others on the course and co-workers in your professional field

A special interest group is a peer group – a kind of a study group - you can start on or join one – you talk to anyone on any module

This doe not replace your blogs – in fact comments are a good way of supporting your fellow students – but you might want to talk on FB or Linked In, Skype, or in person – getting together to support and challenge your peer

What you have in common might be the topic or the type of inquiry e.g. interviews. Pilots of the research (Part 6) can be done with the others on the course.

Like the portfolio in Module 1 – you can use extracts of your conversations in your reflection and in the rationale for planning

The role of the special interest group (SIG)

You will be using what you have learned during the Module to draft a plan – send the draft to your adviser for feedback.

Preparing to write the plan/proposal – for the end of the module – send draft to your tutor

Outline of the Inquiry Plan (in your Handbook) Use the following headings in bold for your inquiry plan and discuss:

Title of the Professional Inquiry Context of the Inquiry Rationale and Inquiry Question(s) Aims / Objectives Literature, art work and Ideas Inquiry tools & Ethical consent/permissions Approach to analysis Resources Schedule of activities Conclusion

Full explanations are in your module handbook.

4a Review Reader 4 on Professional Inquiry and develop a set of questions that are relevant to your practice….

4b Develop your own ‘Special Interest Group (s)’ (SIG) on the programme by identifying within the programme other students who have similar interests…

4c Develop your questions with your own professional community beyond the programme, with special reference to your employer(s) or professional associate(s). You should gain the support from your employer or professional associate(s) either with their authority as your employer, or their support as a professional associate (refer to employer support form in Task 5d).

4d Using the section in Reader 4 about literature, search out and identify three important pieces of literature related to your topic/inquiry interests. Conduct a brief review of this literature stating what it says (include theories or practice

Tasks for Lines of Inquiry Module 2

Planning the questionsWhere are you in the process?

•What literature have you looked at so far?•What is your disciplinary knowledge?•What sector will you use for your inquiry?•As an insider-researcher – how will you position yourself within your workplace?•Referring to 2d/3d– what have been your interests – will these relate to your planning?•Have you formed a special interest group with your peers to discuss your questions?

Q&A

What if you have 2 different topics in mind?

As you fine-tune you area of interest – the questions that arise might merge or you might have to make a choice about the area you want to explore.

Your tutor can advise on this.

Q&A

I want to prove that knowledge of the arts is more important that maths education.

BAPP Arts inquiries are more about exploring a topic than trying to prove something - there are different types of research and as we are suing the constructivist positioning - so we don’t do ‘experiments’ and we don’t do a scientific type of research that is trying to prove cause and effect by looking at random variable (using probability) – however – you might want to look at this type of research for your literature

Q&AHow do I ‘pitch’ my inquiry questions? I want to prove that knowledge of the arts is more important to society than gardening?BAPP Arts inquiries are more about exploring a topic than trying to prove something - there are different types of research - we are using a constructivist positioning - so we don’t do ‘experiments’ or ‘scientific’ research that is trying to prove ‘cause; & ‘effect’ by looking at random variables (probability) – however – you might want to look at this type of research for your literature.So focus the question - what kinds of arts and what type of society (a school? dance company?) e.g.How does my performance company provide/educate/influence/ its community of practice? Why is that important to the members of my company?

Q&A

I want to look at mental health?I want to look at practice for Special Needs Children.

The university says that research with or on children and vulnerable adults is at higher risk that research with adults 18+ (note the age change from the Module 2 documents) so it will most likely be the case that you look at this topic by talking with professionals in the field and not do research with these groups – however it depends on your professional role and what it is your are exploring – this is discussed during the ethics section and with your tutor.

Q&A

What is the word count?

In Module 1 you had a 1000 word count that has a 10% above or below as standard academic practice. In Module 2 we have and an ‘indicated’ word count – so you are not confined to this 10% - but this let’s you know the size of work – so 3000 words approximately but we also encourage people to use images, diagrammes etc. where appropriate

Q&A

Am I doing the real research for the inquiry now in Module 2?

No – this is the preparation for the inquiry

the forms…There are 3 main forms and 2 suggested to prepare (the BAPP Arts Informed Consent form + the BAPP Arts Information Sheet

These are telling the university who you plan to talk with and the that you will take care with the process…

Look at example from others of Module 2

e.g. blogs to help with Module 2http://mrahmet.blogspot.co.uk/2012_12_01_archive.html

http://adesolaa.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/module-two-past-and-present.html

http://adesolaa.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/module-three-october-2016-session.html considering assumptions

https://paulanottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/campus-session-1-continued-what-we-did.html - looking for love - search and review of literature