Am Skype conversation - dance as an approach to the lived experience

This morning’s skype session was great. We have 7 people in the conversation. We talked about a number of things, which included:

• Research project ideas in general
• At what point a research project emerges (It is better not to have an idea from the beginning and stick to it regardless of the course!! Rather the course is designed for ideas to emerge and maybe re-shaped by the activity of each module)
• We heard about Cathie’s research project ideas and this led us to conversation about what it means to be professional in the dance field (is everyone in dance trying to be a paid performer? Could we see dance as a field of practice with many roles, or even could we see dance as an approach to the lived experience).
• Where do we trace our learning from and what impact does that have on how we try to ignite learning in our students. Is learning about dance primarily in the practical professional experiences we have rather than in our training (which could be seen as something where we were taught by rote, or taught to copy / reproduce our teachers)

People who were a part of the conversation are posting on different aspects of the conversation:

Rose will be posting about observation http://rosepaye3012.blogspot.co.uk

Zsuzanne will be posting on reflections on research project ideas www.zsurcy.wordpress.com

Cathy will be posting on her approach to finding a research idea and a little about what she has been thinking about thus far. http://cathieingram.wordpress.com

Michael will be posting on historical reflection on ones own learning mcmastan.blogspot.co.uk

Amanda will be posting on the journal writing experience. (Amanda can you put your blog address in the comments below)

What do you all think?

People in conversation have I captured it!! People not in conversation what do you think of these topics?

Adesola

Group SKYPE chat (March)

This months group SKYPE chat was useful and interesting. We had eight people chatting. Some people wanted to listen more and others had come with questions or ideas. I felt that we had a good flow of conversation across us all.

To start with the end! We agreed to chat again on Sunday April 6^th at 11am (in London time). I write ‘in London’ because by then British Summer time would have started  (in clocks maybe not the weather itself!!). So chat are not GMT per say but by what time it is in London on that day.

We also agreed to start two threads for discussion on Linked-in.

Firstly about Men/boys engagement with dance. Mary G. brought this up and I think has agreed to start the thread going.

Secondly about Child and Adult teaching: the differences (pedagogy & andragogy). Gillian P. brought this up but is not on linked-in yet so we needed someone else to start the thread and I think Rose said she would.

Once a question has been posed for discussion on our Linked-in group anyone can join in. If you are not a part of the group yet send a request and we can get you in/on.

We agreed that the chats are very vibrant and helpful and make people feel connected and we need to inject the same sense of community and comradeship into the others pillars of communication in the course. So some interesting blog post are in the pipeline too.

Overall during the chat we talked about:

Your MA award title – Your award title can be’…technique pedagogy’  or ‘…pedagogy’. We talked about how the omission or inclusion of the word ‘technique’ in the award title reflects where your research takes you. It also reflects the methodology you are using: for instance in a research project there are you and participants and the ‘question’. Where technique (in your title) is indicated might be where you have focused on developing theory you will use (focus on you) or on theory about the technique in terms of the question. Were it may not be needed to add the word ‘technique’ to the title you might have focused on the phenomena of something with in teaching (focus on the participants) like the phenomena of girls dropping out of ballet at about 16 years old and why.

Any research inquiry can have any focus but some inquiries will lend themselves more clearly toward one or the other title option. If you are module two it is something to think about but not to worry about until your inquiry is much more worked out: something to consider towards the end of the term. And it is not the end of the day one way or the other. The important thing is much more your understanding of what you are doing. I think if you are asked about your MA title it will be what you say about your work that carries weight not the exact wording of your certificate.

Pedagogy ‘v’ Andragogy – is there a distinct difference in the way we teach children and the way we teach adults. Gillian shared some of her research and suggested she finds that at about 30 years old there needs to be a change in how one should approach teaching students. We questioned if these were two alternatives or if they represent different approaches to teaching (in general) – not different approaches to students.

The handbooks – although people are reading and developing literature reviews on all the modules keep returning to the Handbooks. They are designed to lead you through this particular course. Some people said that they read the Handbook, read some other literature and then come back to the handbook and find new meaning or understand something further. And that this is a cycle that continues across the term. We also talked about building a foundation for yourself. Don’t be afraid to start a glossary for your self, and/or create an overview of a historical events (such as when different theorists and philosophers lived and who influenced or taught who.).

Start to notice whose voice is missing from your literature (you don’t have to go and find them) Feminist, Africanist, Queer, somatic/practice based theory but notice the gaps and be aware that other people have noticed them too. So it is not about “there is not much literature on X” it is about knowing your field and finding the places and people that have thought along the same lines or noticed the same things missing you are noticing. All of this is your foundation. So while you are addressing the module you are on you are also building a bank of information. This is not a deficit model (things you ‘should’ know) this is about finding ‘your’ place of passion in the field and meeting the language, people and ideas that are there.

I am trying not to make this post too long (which can be intimidating for busy people) so please add your comments on what you got out of the chat and direct us to where you have posted about it too.

Adesola

Emergence and the learning self

This week I have been thinking a lot about transitional spaces. Reading Ellsworth (Ellsworth 2005) she talks about the space we need to leave to ‘becoming…’ for the change from what was known to what is becoming known in the learning process.

She talks about the learning self, exploring,

‘…the concept of the learning self as the sensation of coming into relation with the outside world and to the other selves who inhabit and create that world with us.’ P.117

In module one we are asked to start to locate what the learning self of you is. When it happens (what are the circumstances under which you have noticed your learning self.) In the second module you engage with the learning self opening yourself to new ideas in terms of research methods and terms of inquiry in the particular context of this MA. In the third module you start to look at the learning selves of others your students usually) seeing if you understand them differently through the lens of the learning self in you that you have been working with in the previous modules. 

Interesting. My question to myself is whether I work under the assumption that the learning self is really just the witnessing of self-emergence. Ellsworth distinguishes the learning self in part by looking at the learning environments that create a response of emergence; the pedagogy of places – transitional spaces.

Adesola

Ellsworth, Elizabeth Ann. 2005. Places of learning : media, architecture, pedagogy. New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

Keep Calm and embrace the Possibility!

It has been a SKYPE whirl-wind recently and I have not got into regularly blogging. But I am back!

Everyone seems to be moving forward well. Module ones are on their lists of areas of learning.  It is good to get an outline of each area of the learning then choose one to work on with your advisor. Then you can use the experience of writing that one to inform how you approach the rest. 

Some Module ones are on Google+ which is different from BlogSpot. It is interesting you get used to what you know about. Now, for me, going to a different blog hosts is like going to a different country - different language and different ways to move around! 

Module Two is a bit of a different pace that module one in that it is more a focus on looking outside of what you know where module one is about looking 'inside' to articulate what you know. It is best to decide on a general area of inquiry and then start to look at the general research methods that the handbook introduces you too. You might feel you are moving away from your question at times. But part of the point of this module is to learn a bit about research methods in order to shape how you will approach you inquiry. The methods themselves affect how you ask your questions; affect what the questions become. 

Module Three: well its matter of hopping around and hoping too and getting on with collecting the data you planned to gather. Remember data gathering is not research it is just getting your ingredients the research is in the analysis you do - what you do with the literature, data and reflections. Not very comforting words. But once you are stuck into things you find a flow.

Well, my words of the week is transformation and transaction (maybe my words of the everything).
The transformation of learning is about allowing yourself to be permeable both as the teacher and as the student (and as the Place in which it is designated to happen):
Here is a lovely quote on that:
"If teaching is about thinking and not about complying with the one who holds the superordinate knowledge, if thinking is an encounter with the unthought, then for pedagogy to put us in relation with each other in ways we have never been before, for pedagogy to be a democratic civic pedagogy, it must create places in which to think about "we" without knowing already who "we" are. It must keep the future of what our engagements with those places make of us open and undecided" Ellsworth, E (2005) Places of Learning: Media, Architecture, Pedagogy. Routledge:Great Britian (p 94-95)

Adesola