6c. Proposed Award Title

I looked at the list of Award Titles from the form given to us and found it hard to pin point one.  As a performer in the industry, I find it is hard to categorise myself into one specific category as I have worked in both Dance and Musical Theatre roles, as well as teaching Dance and Musical Theatre workshops.  

I don't want to be limited to one discipline so I have chosen my own proposed Award Title and merged a couple together, which I feel is more suited to me as a performer:

BA (Hons) Professional Practice (Professional Dance and Musical Theatre)

I have written a draft for my Award Title form and this can be seen below.

I would love to know your thoughts :) x

I have chosen the proposed title above because for the last four years, since I graduated from Performers College, Essex, I have been employed predominately as a professional dancer.  Therefore, I feel I have considerable experience and knowledge in this field.

However, I don’t want to limit myself to work just relating to Dance in the industry as my Trinity National Diploma was in Professional Musical Theatre.  Although I studied on the Musical Theatre course, a large part of the course was covering many different Dance disciplines, as well as singing and acting.  I still attend both Dance and Musical Theatre auditions, as my dream job is to be part of a West End or touring Musical Theatre show.

Alongside performing and auditioning I also teach Dance and Musical Theatre workshops and hope to focus more on this aspect of the industry when performing is no longer a suitable option for me.  My ambition for the distant future is to own and teach in my own Dance school, where I wish to teach all Dance disciplines alongside Musical Theatre and acting.  I have found many employers look for “triple threats” in the industry today and this will prepare the students in the best way possible if they want to continue performing and later attend auditions.

I am focusing my Inquiry topic on Dance because I am currently working for dance companies, however I feel a lot of the findings will still apply to Musical Theatre performers, as there is always a Dance round within Musical Theatre auditions.

Therefore, I will carry out my Inquiry to give me the best opportunity possible of being successful in both of these fields, hopefully securing me more work in the future and I feel my Award title will compliment this.

6b. Tools for the Inquiry

Reader 6 has given me an insight into what tools/methods would be the most beneficial for my inquiry.  It has been interesting to recognise the merits and downfalls of each tool/method and enabled me to recognise the ethical considerations I must follow in order to use real-life experiences as evidence in the correct ethical manner.

For the majority of my practitioner research, my participants will be employers or dance colleagues, therefore I will be acting as an insider-researcher whilst using some of the tools/methods.  I have read sections of "Costley, Carol, Williot, Geoffrey, Gibbs, Paul (2010) Doing work based research : approaches to enquiry for insider-researchers, London : Sage Publications Ltd" and this has been extremely informative about what I must consider when being an insider-researcher, especially Chapter 3 "Research ethics and insider- researchers".  


Insider-Researcher

Merits:

• I know the context.
• I know the participants.
• I have knowledge about the particular workplace.
• I will have greater access to people in the workplace.
• I have knowledge on "who" is best to approach for the participation of my inquiry and "how" is best to approach them.

Downfalls:

• I may already have preconceptions which could lead to being bias.
• It could affect my professional relationship.
• Colleagues/Employers might feel obliged to participate as they know me.

Requirements/Ethical considerations:

• I need to know how to handle the situation in the best possible way, if a participant uses one of the research methods as a form of "therapy" and discusses issues about their work to air them, as they will be familiar with me.

• The participants might feel obliged to participate as they know me, so I must make them aware they don't have to take part if they don't feel comfortable doing so.

• I must make sure by carrying out the practitioner research with work colleagues, it won't affect and professional relationships or cause any tension.

Conclusion:  

I will be interviewing my employer during my practitioner research and also using dance colleagues to participate in a focus group.  Therefore, I will need to make sure I go into these interviews/focus groups with an open mind and no preconceptions I may already have.  I also need to make sure I don't judge any of the participants based on their answers and make them realise this is the case, so it doesn't affect our professional relationship/atmosphere.  I will make sure they all know they are not obliged in any way to participate and inform them all the data received is strictly going to be used just for my degree purposes.  However, in my case, I feel knowing the participants will be beneficial as we all feel at ease with one another and therefore this should create a relaxed atmosphere for everyone. 


Observations

Merits:

• Provides a rich source of information of a behavioural nature.
• The events can be recorded at the time.
• The observations can be structured in terms of predetermined framework.
• You can act as a participant in the event being studied or act solely as a "disinterested" observer.

Downfalls:

• Time consuming.
• Many ethical issues to consider.

Requirements/Ethical Considerations:

• Usually requires the agreement of a Gatekeeper within an organisation.

• Need to be able to respond sensitively and appropriately to issues of ethics, permission and confidentiality. 

• Pre-planning the approach to the observation is essential.

Conclusion:

I feel this method wouldn't help me to develop my inquiry, as I can't think of a scenario where I could observe anyone in order to help further my ideas and contribute to the inquiry in any way.  I feel the other three tools will be more beneficial.   



Interviews

Merits:

• Qualitative method where you can collect what people say and use it as evidence.
• "Can follow up on ideas, probe responses and investigate motives and feelings" (Bell, 2005, p.157).
• Can ask the "Why" questions, directly to people who have knowledge, experience and perceptions about my topic.
• It can be conducted in a variety of different ways e.g. face to face, over the telephone, with an individual or group, using a structured list of questions or a more informal method or interaction.
• There are a number of different types of interview method (indebted to Bell, 2005) e.g semi-structured, non directive or open interviews, narrative inquiry, informal interviews, informal/guided.
• Can allow the collection of valuable data about motives, expectations and attitudes that are very difficult to collect by any other means.

Downfalls:

• Time consuming.
• Interviewer may affect the participant. 
• Participants might be lead to respond in a certain way.

Requirements/Ethical Considerations:

• I must consider what data I need to collect in order to make sure I am asking relevant questions to the participants.
• I need to consider who I want to interview and why.
• I need to consider where I will hold the interview.
• I need to consider the degree of structure.
• How is the interview going to be recorded?
• Make sure the data gathered is store securely.
• Make sure the participants feel at ease.
• I need to make sure I don't make the participants answer anything they feel uncomfortable answering.
• Need to make sure I get the necessary forms signed in order to carry out any interviews with my employers.
• I need to make sure I stay neutral and don't affect any of the answers given.
• I must not judge any of the participants on any of their views and opinions.

Conclusion:  

After conducting my pilot Interview, this is a tool I will use when carrying out my Inquiry.  I will use a semi-structured approach as I can balance structured questions with a more natural conversation, which will hopefully create the atmosphere of a relaxed/informal interview, allowing the participants to open up and speak freely about their knowledge and experiences.  I also feel the method of collecting qualitative data will be key for me, as I can use what people say and use it as evidence.  It is also beneficial that I can always conduct the interview over the phone or by Skype if the participant is unable to meet face to face.    

Focus Groups:

Merits:

• Participants might open up issues that they might not have thought about on their own.
• Participants might feel more relaxed as there is more of them than an individual interview.
• Can gather data from a group of people at the same time.

Downfalls:

• Can be hard to manage
• Strong personalities can "influence, and in some cases actually take over a group and make it difficult for the less assertive members to speak" (Bell, 2005, p.163) others
• Prepared topic questions might be expanded and changed
• Transcription is more difficult due to multiple voices

Requirements/Ethical Considerations:

• Participants need to have similar characteristics or interests.
• I need to make sure my role as moderator provides the "trigger" topic to keep the discussion on track.
• Transcription needs to be used for accuracy.
• If recording, I must get participants to identify themselves when they speak.
• Need good time keeping skills.
• "Quotes should be made in context and as in the interview tool, the discretion of the researcher is needed to ensure that the identity of the participant is not given away by their use of language (Denscombe, 2007).

Conclusion:

I feel a focus group would be beneficial to conduct for my inquiry, as I am wanting to get the opinions of other professional dancers and compare them to those of the employers and casting directors.  Originally, I was just going to conduct a survey to gather this data, however I feel even though a survey would still be beneficial in gathering quantitative data for my inquiry, I think a conversational approach will gather data in more detail and also the conversation could trigger new ideas between the participants that I hadn't thought of and this will help to develop my previous questions and thoughts.  I am extremely lucky to have a close group of friends and dance colleagues in the industry who all know each other and I would love to conduct the focus group with them if they will allow me.  I feel this will eliminate the risk of any of the participants feeling over shadowed and not able to contribute to the discussion as the atmosphere will be very relaxed and feel like an informal conversation between us all.  Similar to the interview tool, I would want to use to a dictaphone to record the interview, as it could get very confusing making notes on what every one is saying and it would definitely interrupt the flow of the conversation.  However, I would need to ask permission from everyone in order to do this and each participant would need to differentiate themselves before speaking. I think I would do this with numbers e.g. Participant 1 etc. in order for the interview to remain anonymous.  



Surveys and Questionnaires

Merits:

• I can gather data from a large group/range of people.
• Quick way of gathering data.
• Easy for participants to access.
• Can leave spaces for more detailed explanations/views, if needed. "Blank spaces are inserted in the survey for worded qualitative responses..." (Middlesex University -Reader 6). 

Downfalls:

• I need to ask a wide range of people to ensure a fair representation. 
• Lacking in qualitative data.
• Doesn't answer the "why" questions, unless extra space is put into the survey.
• Not as personal, as it is being sent to a large amount of people.

Requirements/Ethical Considerations:

• I must make sure the questionnaires/surveys are anonymous when being presented in my Inquiry.

• I will need to send out a covering letter accompanying the survey or questionnaire, explaining the research and what their data will be used for.  It should also thank the participants for taking part in the research.

• I shall also make sure the questionnaire/survey states that the participants don't have to answer any questions they feel uncomfortable answering.

Conclusion:

After conducting the pilot survey, I think this tool/method would be useful when collecting statistics for my inquiry as it allows me to collect data from a large amount of people quickly and conveniently.  It is also a contrasting method from the interview method as it is collects more quantitative data with the option of opening it up to a more qualitative approach.  Therefore, I will be able to collect a variety of data to help develop my Inquiry. However, I will be relying on the participants to send the surveys back to me and therefore, I feel a focus group would also be useful to carry out so I know I will have enough data to develop my inquiry.


Conclusion

Therefore, the tools/methods I feel will be most beneficial to me are 

• INTERVIEW
• A FOCUS GROUP
• SURVEY

I am looking forward to preparing my questions and carrying out these tools in order to inform me and help develop my inquiry.



WBS 3630 - Middlesex University, Reader 6 "Principles of Professional Inquiry" 

Costley, Carol, Williot, Geoffrey, Gibbs, Paul (2010) Doing work based research : approaches to enquiry for insider-researchers, London : Sage Publications Ltd

6a. Informal trial - Pilot Interview

Yesterday, I conducted a pilot interview with a friend, who is also a professional dancer, to see which interview structure I feel will work best and to inform me of what I need to improve on in order for the interview tool/method to be used to its fully potential and gather the data I need in the most successful way possible.

My findings:

• The interview followed a semi-structure approach as I had set questions I wanted to ask, however one answer led on to another question I hadn't prepared.  This worked well as I managed to gather the data I needed and more I hadn't thought of.  This also makes the interview more conversational and therefore more relaxed.

• I had prepared ten questions to ask my friend, however ended up asking fifteen in total after the conversation leading to more questions. I expected the interview to last somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes in duration and in the end it lasted 20 minutes.  I will allow 30 minutes for each participant, so I know I have allowed myself enough time for the interviews when planning them into my schedule and also so I can inform the participants approximately how long the interview will take. 

• In the interview I made notes on what my friend was saying, however it did interrupt  the flow of the conversation, as sometimes my friend would have to wait for me to finish making notes.  In order to improve this, I will use a dictaphone when recording the interview and transcribe the conversation afterwards.  This will enable me to not have to worry about writing notes and I will be able to concentrate more on the conversation and it won't interrupt the flow.  However, I will need to make sure I get the participants consent for this and if they do not give me permission to use the recorded interview further, then I will have to delete the file after transcribing the data.

• Overall, I feel this tool/method will be very beneficial as I feel my inquiry will benefit greatly from qualitative data and collecting informed peoples views and opinions.  The interview tool/method will allow me to go into depth with each participant and hopefully I will make them feel at ease, so they don't feel pressured to answer anything they may feel uncomfortable with and this will create a relaxed atmosphere for both myself and the participant, therefore getting the best results out of the interview.

6a. Informal trial - Pilot Survey

After reading Reader 6, I feel two tools/methods I definitely want to use are an Interview and a Survey with a possibility of also conducting a focus group.  I feel these three tools/methods will all be very beneficial as they will all allow me to gather a variety of data in order to help with my Inquiry.  

I have never set up a survey online, so I wanted to get used to the programmes used in order to set up and conduct a survey.  I have used "Survey Monkey" for this task and after getting used to where all the options were, I found it really easy to use. 

I have posted the link to this survey below in the hope my fellow B.A.P.P students will complete the survey and give me some feedback.  I have also posted it in my S.I.G. 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DZD7FPX

I feel a survey will be beneficial, as it will allow me to gather data from a large number of participants to gain a wide range of opinions.  It will allow me to collect statistics, which I feel my Inquiry will need.  I also feel answers may be more truthful as it is an anonymous way of gathering data, therefore participants might feel like they can answer something they may not be able to answer face to face.  

However, even though I have left comment boxes within the survey to get some qualitative data as well as quantitative data, it will be interesting to see if I get enough information to help develop my inquiry solely on a survey and interviews.  In this case, I will look at using a focus group with my dance colleagues and professional community in order to make the information more in depth and personal.  

I am also going to conduct a pilot interview tomorrow with a friend, who is also a professional dancer in order to see what structure and techniques will work best and what I need to change in order to get the most out of this tool/method.

I will post my findings from the pilot interview on my blog tomorrow after it has been conducted.