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