Inquiry Update

It is a rather daunting feeling knowing that after months of work, tasks and self exploration that I am very quickly approaching the end of my BAPP course. Module 1 and 2 have enabled me to explore certain realms of my profession, aside from just the physical act of dancing, that although I have had a small amount of interest I have never really researched. And for this reason I am rather excited (although desperately nervous...eek!) about what I am going to find out about my profession, myself and fellow dancers in the hopes of benefiting my own career as well as the future of others.

"The Role of Nutrition for Dancers and its Physical Impact"

My inquiry topic has gone through a lot of alterations and development since the end of Module 2. I have since established a better focus within my original inquiry topic of  "Nutrition". I have decided to remove my undivided attention on the food aspect of nutrition, but instead explore what defines nutrition and what this then means to a dancer. This change has enabled me to broaden the themes within my topic:

Preparation
Time Restraint
Location
Availability
Attitudes
Emotion
Health
...(to name a few) 

I am going to be researching into how all of the above factors may effect a dancers dietary choices, professional behavior or ability and emotional and physical well being. As well as hoping to discover any more I may not yet know about. My main inquiry question therefore is "What does nutrition mean to a dancer?" as I believe a greater understanding of this would be very beneficial for dancers such as myself. 

In order to gain further insight into the mindset of others I intend to conduct a series of one-to-one, informal interviews with the following people:

Female Professional Dancer
Male Professional Dancer
Vocational Teacher
Mother/Parent
Chef

I do not want to merely interview those within the "dancing world" as I am of the impression from my own experience in training and performing career, that many dancers do not have enough knowledge about their own nourishment. My aim is to learn more about these peoples understanding and opinion of what nutrition is/ what nutrition means to them/ where this has originated/ how certain aspects of their career or life has affected their opinion/ how their life, health, well being may have improved or suffered during their career and why/What steps they take or need to take in order to improve their personal or professional health. Keeping an open mind about what I may discover in the process.

All of my interviewee's will remain anonymous as their identity is not of importance to my inquiry and the freedom to be able to speak without concern of repercussion from identification will hopefully result in honest, open and personal responses to my questions.

I will also be researching my topic through the use of literature. As I have changed my line of inquiry considerably I will almost be starting from scratch in terms of appropriate literature for what I wish to find out. After speaking with my tutor about research possibilities i tend to look further than books and broaden my search to all audio, visual and written works.

Finally using my own thoughts and opinions of the inquiry topic, and almost interviewing myself at the beginning and throughout my research process in order to reveal how much I have learnt during and conclusions I can take from it.

Joining all three of these form of research will enable me to identify any themes, similarities or differences their are between the opinions. From that I hope to create an artifact (of which I have not yet decided) that will present my findings in a form that will educate, advise and help other dancers like myself. As I do not yet know what I will discover I have also not decided upon my audience, other than them being dancers, as I do not yet know at which point of a dancers training or career this knowledge is lacking most and there would be most beneficial.

It is undoubtedly going to be an emotional 12 weeks (in every sense of the word)!

Good Luck Fellow Module 3'ers!

:-)

Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Research

I approached the start of this module with an overwhelming amount of ideas for my professional inquiry. I decided at the end of the first module that I wished to base my inquiry on nutrition as it is a subject I have always been interested in. I confirmed that my career would benefit from researching this subject by identifying my professional competences and capabilities (Appendix 1). This highlighted what I feel the weaknesses are in my profession. However it was in finding an article that referred to my nutritional weakness as a common problem for dancers that I realised the importance of my inquiry subject (Appendix 2).

With the support of my tutor enabling me to feel confident in my pursuit of nutrition, I began the development of my inquiry questions. By creating a list of potential survey questions (Appendix 3),  I was able to condense the interview style into five specific questions upon which to base my research (Appendix 4). Producing these questions helped me focus on my goals for the inquiry.

I had never considered the ethics of my profession thoroughly until this module brought its importance to my attention. Through discussion with my colleagues and special interest group (SIG) I was able to clarify the ethical standards of my profession. It was, however, in speaking with my ballet mistress that an ethos was created and therefore a solid ethical foundation for my professional practice was created (Appendix 5).

Reader 5 provided a range of case studies for me to reflect on the ethics. I had particular interest in the first case where due to a hospital's negligence, many patients unnecessarily died and I decided to refer to the official reports for more information (Appendix 6). From further research into this case I came to the conclusion that there can be no complete separation between personal, professional, organisational and societal ethics, displayed in simple diagram within Reader 5 (Appendix 7). As a result of my exploration of professional morals, I created an ethical checklist that I will be able to use when approaching my inquiry (Appendix 8).

I feel that my new and more detailed understanding of ethical standards has helped me establish a solid foundation upon which my professional inquiry will develop.

The construction of my inquiry depends greatly on resources and methods I use for collecting information on my inquiry subject. Reader 6 suggested the possible tools and through research and a pilot survey I was able to identify which would be best for my inquiry (Appendix 9). On reflection I believe that the survey questions would be better suited for an interview as there is better opportunity to go into more detail.

I joined this course in the hopes of broadening my knowledge of my professional practice. I have since then struggled with my ability to reflect on my own professional and personal experiences. The freedom to explore my inquiry subject has created a feeling of purpose of my work and therefore my reflections.



Appendix 1:
http://berniebellp.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/competences-and-capabilities.html
Appendix 2:
http://berniebellp.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/4dcontinued-finding-literature.html
Appendix 3:
 http://berniebellp.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/task-4a-nutritional-health-for-dancers.html
Appendix 4:
 http://berniebellp.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/4a-continued-inquiry-questions.html
Appendix 5:
"To give every member of (company name) a secure and complete understanding of their professional roles. Thus allowing all performances to be the highest standard possible."
http://berniebellp.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/5b-ethics-of-professional-practice.html
Appendix 6:
http://berniebellp.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/5c-case-study-1-mid-staffordshire-nhs.html
Appendix 7:
WBS 3630 Module Reader 5, BAPP Arts
Institute For Work Based Learning
2014-2015
Page 5, Fig 1: Contexts in which ethics operates

Appendix 8:
"Upon thinking about how I am going to approach my Inquiry research I designed the checklist using my own ideas as well those provided in the reader:

• The research proposal must comply with ethical standards and be approved by the Research Ethics Committee.
• To conduct research to the agreed protocol and codes of practice.
• The research data collected must be true to results.
• Those involved in the study must be fully aware of their input and be respected throughout.
• Attention to the confidentially of the results and those involved must be paid.
• The integrity and professional security of those I will be working with must be considered throughout.
• To remain in contact with those that have been involved so as to have clear communication about my intentions with the results for their consent.
• The information given by my the nutritional experts in various interviews must be used to their consent.
• All personal findings from the dancers must be used to their consent.
• During my nutritional experiments, the health of those partaking is of the highest importance.
• To keep my mentor up to date with my findings and research ideas so as to remain compliant with the ethical protocol.
• To be ethically critical about what information is used in terms of their reliability and accuracy.
• To reference the research of others appropriately to avoid plagiarism."

Appendix 9:

http://berniebellp.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/6b-inquiry-tools.html