Reviewing module 2- changes/ changes from last year!

This blog post is from last year before I interrupted the course. Luckily due to the nature of my inquiry I feel I don't have to make too many changes. However, because my situation has changed from this time last year, I now find myself constantly surrounded by my research candidates. Some areas are now more accessible which is great because if anything I can acquire more information using different tools and methods. I also hope that because it is a year on and our world and technologies are forever developing and changing there is even more for me to get my teeth in to!

See the bold italic areas to see the changes from this post last year

Reviewing module 2 and feedback given has really helped me get started and discover changes I may want to make to my original plan. 

- I have decided to get rid of 'focus group' as an inquiry tool. As Paula said in the session less is more and if I'm honest with myself, I find it virtually impossible to get a group of my professional friends together. As these where the people I was going to being focusing on (employed and unemployed performers) I realise that a one to one interview is more applicable and less time consuming (we don't have long and trying to find a time when everyone is free together could prove quite challenging!). 

This is the first big change being made. I said last year that I found it virtually impossible to get together a group of my professional friends. This is because at that time I was at home in Liverpool with family and so not surrounded by my professional friends who are more or less based in London. However this year I am lucky enough to be in a professional job. I am currently performing in Starlight Express in Bochum, Germany. This means that I work, live, eat and breathe with my fellow cast mates which makes them very accessible! We have all been in this together since February and so I have created some amazing friends which I will have forever. It is such a big company with some cast members having worked here for over 10 years! This is amazing for me as it allows me to research a whole spectrum of people e.g different ages, experience, nationality, roles and status within the building (ensemble, principals, dance captain, choreographer, skate coach etc).

I feel a focus group would sit well with my close friends within the company as I know I would find it easy to get us all together in one space.

- I did originally plan to research professional performers within the industry but I now feel it wiser to expand further by also interviewing agents, directors and also other industry professionals in other professions. Getting more opinions and thoughts from different types of people status's and industries will allow me to discover themes (or not) and relate and contrast to my own experiences and literature. 

- An overall aim for this process is to self reflect on my own history and experiences more. Acknowledging my own unconscious actions in the past (attending Laines taster course. Why? to get seen before my audition? to catch someones eye and be a face rather than just a name? Was i aware of this at the time? Moving to London to attend Laine Theatre Arts. Did I realise then the importance of having Laines as a credit? Did I know the effect it would have when going out in to the real world? Also being accessible by being in London.

Reviewing Module 2

"Aim is to develop beyond the module itself as I feel this is something I have learnt from my previous assignments"

Adesola agrees that this is a good observation and how important the actual process is itself. When asked what and inquiry was in the campus session, are explanation focused more upon the journey and learning through the process itself, rather than the objective being about finding a right or a wrong answer. We are all different and may find so many different opinions and questions surrounding our topic. However, I believe we should take the parts we feel will work for us and that are relevant to are own practice and compare with the theories we don't fully relate to in order to develop understanding and greater knowledge. This we can then use to our advantage during our professional practice. 

Reviewing module 2 I have realised how important it is to be aware that you have strong opinions about your topic and to carry this thought with you from the beginning to the end. Keep questioning the ideas and the way you are reading things. This point that Adesola mentioned to me has really stuck out. I have my own opinion already in mind but I shouldn't let this hinder how I read or interpret any of the information. Make yourself ask questions that you wouldn't necessarily ask to try and get a different point of view . This then relates back to what I said earlier about using all of what you accumulate, even if you don't necessarily believe or understand it. The more we can put ourselves out there in other people's shoes and question it even more so, the more we can absorb an therefore develop our learning and knowledge.

Action Research? Yes sounds good to me!

My plan originally was all about me doing the inquiry and asking the questions, observing the situations and then somehow making conclusions about what I feel I have learnt and changes I might make to how I network. However, after the help of Adesola, I have realised how I can experiment myself with different approaches of networking as part of the research project and see how I feel. It would work well experimenting with close peers of mine and getting their feedback of how I came across. This is a perfect example of me putting myself in other people's shoes and being open to change. During the campus session Mimi Whitney explained how she experimented with all the journal writing methods in order to find which one worked best for her. This is exactly how I now want to work with the networking methods I come across. This new action research incorporated with the ideas I gather from my own research on others I hope will give me a significant amount of knowledge surrounding this subject. I also love the fact that I can explain first hand what the experience is like and as I keep saying, getting it from different points of view! 

Developments-

I conducted several interviews, observations and surveys last year which I felt at the time had given me enough information to get started. However, a year has gone by and I am interested to see if there are any changes in peoples responses and actions. I am lucky enough to have the past information as a base for me but I am building on top of that by asking more questions to different people and seeing if much has changed In a year!