This blog is created to support conversation generated from and about the learning process for MA Professional Practice (MAPP) in the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries (ACI) at Middlesex University.

Wednesday 27 February 2013

Positivism


We have had some great conversations going on in Link-in. One strand explored positivism and non-positivism. But I found myself in an odd position. The idea of the conversations is that we are exchanging ideas with no value placed on who says it, just what is said. The whole point of the course is that we are all experts at least in our own lives. So when we talked about positivism and I felt we were limiting ourselves by the understanding of how large the idea is; I did not feel I could say any more in the conversation because I did not want to devalue what was being discussed or ‘pull rank’. But I also feel a responsibility to you as someone who advises on the course that you do not leave with ideas that I do not think are grounded in how most people understand a theory. So I decided my blog was the best place to talk about it.

Positivism is more than just a method, it is a methodology for understanding the world. It is understanding the world as pre-existing. That there is a truth that we are able to find regardless of what we do: it is there to be found. It is seeing objects are existing in their own right and that your see or note seeing of them, your experiences have no impact on what they are. They are fundamentally real. It sees us as having one reality of which we can be aware of or not but that does not change its existence. This is about the fundamental substance of the world, what it is made of and how it is in relation to us.

Non-positivism is also more than a method, it is a methodology for understanding the world. Here interaction has an impact on the substance of ‘things’. There can be more than one ‘truth’. In fact ‘truth’ does not represent the same thing, have the same meaning as it does in the above. Reality is not fixed. So theses two are about an ontological understanding of what reality is. They are more than about which research method to use. They are important in research not just to indicate appropriate tools but because as researchers we need to have a framework to describe the world we think we are in.

I often use dance metaphors or analogies because I think dance needs to have a voice beyond the studio mirrors but these things are not so often discussed in the context of dance. So the metaphors we use must be seen as that, window on to large ideas that are not limited by a particular subject. Also the dance examples are not comments on dance methodology – what dance is or should be etc… they are using the situation of dance to look at ideas. There are so many beautiful texts, and other work about this I really encourage you to take the ideas and explore rather than decide yet exactly what they mean in the detail of your own day-to-day teaching activity. I really hope my ambition to move away from the usual language to discuss these, into a language that references dance does not confuse or over simplify the beauty of these ideas.

I wonder if I come across ??
Adesola

Thursday 21 February 2013

Linked-in

Hi, a quick post to say the Linked-in discussions are going well. Do join in with them by joining our Linked-in group. These discussions are more focused on a topic than the blogs, which are more reflective across the whole course. Linked-in is particularly useful for the work in Module two.

I know people on Module One are getting their heads around the technology and setting up blogs etc... We are drawing to a close on week two and everyone seems be to working away. More soon
Adesola

Saturday 16 February 2013

Friday 15 February 2013

Interesting things: blog site

Here is an interesting blog. It seems to have developed into quite a big place for discussion:
http://balletshoesandbobbypins.com

Adesola


Wednesday 6 February 2013

New term

Hi
Just a quick post because I didn't write during the assessment / hand-in period. I sometimes feel a bit weird writing during that time because I don't want something I say to mean you feel you have to second guess yourself in the mist of the stress of finishing to the deadline. Anyway well done everyone we are starting the new term and I am really looking forward to it. Here we are going through to May and don't forget June 7th as a Hendon Campus date if you can make it. That day  at the end of this term we can meet up and hear Emma's research project and celebrate our hard work.

Well here we go....
More soon
Adesola