Analysis of Data

I'm now at a stage where I am beginning to look for themes in my data. Some are really obvious and have kept appearing but others are more subtle and harder to find but I feel they are still relevant to my project.
I have a couple of worries about my analysis of my data -
1. I have SO MUCH data! I have pages upon pages of transcriptions, and pages and pages of quotes from literature, not to mention my own experiences and my own journal entries to look at! A way I think I can tackle this is to be disciplined and make choices about what is most useful and relevant to my inquiry. In my last Skype discussion session, Helen compares this idea to when we create a piece of choreography. We create lots of material then have to make choices on what material we will use to fit into the piece. I feel this is what I need to do with my data.
2. All my data seems to be negative towards auditions! I haven't found many themes that revolve around any positive thoughts to do with auditions. This worries me because I feel when presenting all this negative data, it may come across like I'm trying to prove a point rather than add to a discussion. I still need to find a way to tackle this. If anyone has any thoughts surrounding this I would love people to share!

Thanks for reading,
Laura

MY BRAIN IS BUZZING!!

Wow- I am in the thick of searching through tonnes upon tonnes of literature at the moment. I feel like I've been buried in books, papers, text, quotation marks etc etc!

One thing I wanted to share on my blog from my learning experience is how much my searching tools have developed. I recently shared a Skype with just Maria as I was the only one and we decided to share screens and start my searching process for literature which was really useful. Previous to this I hadn't been searching very 'smartly' when it came to key words. In Google books it is so easy to search the key words you are looking for from inside the book and then read around the area. Maria also advised me to think of different words that meant the same thing as what I was searching - for example - I had been searching words like mental health and dance and all it seemed to be coming up with was initiatives where people are using dance as a form of exercise to help them with their mental health, or other illnesses including Parkinson's and Dementia. Maria suggested searching the word stress - which has lead me to so many pieces of relevant literature!! The problem is I feel there is now SO much to read and explore my mind keeps going wild and running away with what I'm reading. A key thing to remind myself is what is the question? I keep coming back to this when I feel I'm wandering off my path to remind myself of what I want to find out. I have been interested in the theory of clew by Robin Nelson, as this thread I'm weaving seems to be very useful for learning, however I feel with my topic being as broad as it is, I cannot stray too far away from my path.

As far as progression from module two goes, I have also found myself seeing the same things, and the same names coming up regularly, which suggests to me these may be key players in my field of inquiry. I have done some research into these key scholars, including their background which I have found very interesting. Some people write about dance as it is a hobby for them, but others write about it as they have had a career in it. These two opposing stances to the Performing Arts world seems to be creating different opinions. When I research stressors I seem to find the same other contributing factors come up like performance anxiety, lack of self worth, and also things like financial strain, body image and the influence of social media. Every time I see something new my brain seems to send off a firework that sparks me into a new direction, and opens another door for me to look at.

Basically, although this seems to be my brain thoughts splashed across my screen, what this very 'higgledepiggly' blog is about is that I need to remind myself constantly of the question, this whole process is a learning curve that I am thoroughly enjoying and will continue to do so. I'm off to go on a run now, to manage my own 'stressors' regarding my buzzing brain!!

What do I really want to know?

I have started Module Three by reminding myself of what I really want to know from the inquiry. I've made a pretty long list, so need to be aware of time restraints, but having this to refer back to will hopefully keep me on track.
My inquiry title is "Does constant rejection from auditions affect our mental health and how can we cope with that?" This is directly linked to my practice as I continue to audition and teach simultaneously. Therefore I am hoping it will help me with the audition process, but also others who I present my project to and finally all my current and future students that I can share my deepened understanding and knowledge of the subject with.

Here is my list I made...

Module 3... Can you believe it?!

Module Three started this past Monday and I've been starting to work on getting the ball rolling with my inquiry. However, I firstly feel I have a lot of background work to do before I dive straight in to set the foundations. Before anything else I need to get my head back in the game - especially after a lovely long Christmas break!!
I decided to do this by reading all my notes, essays and feedback from Module One and Two and created a map of my learning journey over the past year. My findings were interesting as not only has my BAPP journey crystallised but so has my Professional Practice.
One thing I noted was that in Module One I was auditioning with little luck and doing 'emergency work' alongside so almost felt a little lost within my practice. However moving through Module Two and into Module Three, I am currently teaching full time and have a clear path of where my Practice is moving to as I have been accepted on a PGCE course. This clarity and reflection of my journey felt like a real lightbulb moment for me as it allowed me to realise how much I have learnt about my Practice from this course.
Secondly I discovered that all the theories I learnt in Module One which felt slightly irrelevant to my shop assistant job at the time are now things I use everyday in my practice. Web 2.0 is something I have improved my skills with dramatically and will continue to use through the rest of my career. Even in my interview day for my PGCE I had to demonstrate my competency with technology. Reflection is also now a huge part of not only my learning process but also my well being in life. I find it extremely therapeutic at the end of the day to note down what I've achieved, what I've learned from the day and how I feel about it all. Looking back on my reflective journal, it is a useful tool for my Module Three inquiry process. Finally the networks I discussed in Module One has become a huge part of my life as I am now using the networks I nurtured to carry out my inquiry!
Module Two was a learning curve for me in terms of my learning style. This style of learning is seeming to suit me more and more, as I feel I've grown as a student and learnt to merge my 'university work' with my 'teaching work' to see them as a whole professional practice rather than two separate entities.
In Module Three my path is clearer. It is still long, and I'm sure I will stray off it numerous times to discover new things, however, it feels good to know where I'm aiming to be and how I'm going to get there. I feel curious and ready to research and deepen my knowledge of my inquiry topic - lets go!

Module 2 Skype Session 17/11/18

Yesterday I joined a Skype session with Adesola and a couple of others from Module Two. It was really useful and opened my eyes to things I hadn’t previously thought about. The focus was based on ‘What if you can’t interview anyone’ and the ‘importance of analysis’.

One of the key things I learnt was to think about what you would do if you couldn’t interview anyone. What I thought this meant was using other forms of data collection techniques for example surveys etc but what it actually meant was what happens if you can’t speak to anyone to gather anymore information. This was when the penny dropped, and I realised this session was more about finding the background to your topic. Adesola described it as layers – finding out the background and culture of the topic is the first layer and then finding out other’s opinions is the second. Finding out the opinions of others would be useless without the first layer anyway! For example, you could be looking to do your inquiry based around disabilities in dance and wanting to push for initiatives to allow more people with disabilities to be able to dance. However, if you do the background investigation you would find this has already been implemented in a lot of places. That is just an example but clearly shows why finding out the culture of the topic is so important.

In order to do this, we can look at articles or blogs posted around the subject. Forums are cheating slightly as that is still finding out people’s opinions but have a look for movements or things that have been done or acted upon within your topic. Uncover the history of the topic. This will give us a better understanding of what more we want to find out from others.

Once we have done this and gathered our data we must remember that data is no use without analysis. For our analysis we are looking for themes that emerge within our data. For example, Adesola used my inquiry topic as an example and it really helped me understand. Whilst finding out about how auditions and constant rejection can affect mental health, for example, I could see a common thought from my participants that living outside of London puts a mental stress on them when it comes to an audition. They may be worried about taking the day off work, the trains may be delayed, or it may be a struggle to pay for the expensive travel. If this was something that kept reoccurring within my data I would say that there was a theme emerging about travel influencing mental health when it comes to auditions. Don’t forget, don’t take what we find in interviews as truth, we are not looking for an answer.

I hope this has helped anyone that reads this blog, it has also really helped me to crystallise it in my head. 

MORE Form Skype Session 05/11/18

Yesterday I joined in with the Skype session hosted by Adesola and Helen focusing on the MORE form. It was so useful for me as I found the form quite overwhelming and confusing at first, however now I seem to understand it a lot more. I hope this blog will help others that couldn't attend the session as much as the session helped me.

A few tips -

• Put (BAPP) in brackets at the end of the name of the project 
• Add your supervisors name so it can be sent to them for a signature
• If nothing else, read sections 1, 4 and 6 of the MORE form page on Unihub
• When you get sent back your form from your supervisor, if it says rejected it doesn't mean you've failed, it just means that you have notes to look over

I personally asked about how appropriate it was to reveal peoples ages an gender in my final inquiry project and Adesola raised a few points that got me thinking...

1. Why is it necessary to reveal this? Will it really add weight to my project at the end of the inquiry?
2. If you have to do more forms for the release of personal information you need to think about the impact of the participant having signed lots of forms before the research has even started. How may they feel about all the forms? Will this affect them and their answers?
3. Gender is a large topic to unpick as I would need to think about how they identify themselves as this may be different to how I perceive their gender. Am I allowing for people that don't class themselves as male or female. Adesola suggested she knows of lots of people that cannot be a part of research because they can't fit into a tick box. This was something I hadn't even thought about so made me really consider whether it was worth revealing the gender, and whether it has relevance to my inquiry topic in general. 
4. Age and gender if spoken about in the inquiry would first need to be explained and this is a big topic to unpick especially considering we only have 12 weeks to do it. You could not include the gender of someone without giving it some background and context firstly, and this may be too much to do within the time frame we have

All these points have made me consider whether I do want to reveal the age and gender, and how much this information will really add weight to my final project, or whether it will open up too many doors and create a project that is too large for me to deal with within the time scale.

I hope this helps some people and please feel free to comment your thoughts! 

Some thoughts on Ethics...

I have been doing a lot of work on researching Ethics but have written everything down in my notebook so thought I would post a quick blog of my summary of thoughts, guided by some of the questions from one of the tasks in the handbook.

Codes of Practice within my work place without referring to documents...
My workplace at the moment is doing freelance teaching in various different locations, however my topic of inquiry is based around auditions and mental health, which is another side to my Professional Practice. So although I did look into my assumptions about my code of practice within teaching, I thought it would be better to share my thoughts on Codes of Practice for auditions. I could also look into Codes of Practice for dealing with mental health within a work place - whether that be a theatre or a company, and also what Codes of Practice support networks like the ArtsMinds Charity have in place. Here is a picture of my initial thoughts about auditions...

I was surprised to see how many thoughts I had about Auditioners in comparison to Auditionees. Being and Auditionee myself I would have thought I would have known more about what is expected of myself, however, I had more thoughts about what I expected from others as that is what has an effect on me.

What are the Codes of Practice which steer the ethical framework?
I can compare my own thoughts with the codes of Practice that Equity have laid out about the Professional Audition Experience. Some of what Equity require seemed to me like it was obvious however there are lots of rules and regulations a Manager must follow when conducting a Professional audition so it doesn't have any negative effects on others. What I didn't see within the document was any legislation about how Auditioners and Auditionees conduct themselves Professionally, e.g. being respectful to one another, and not discriminating etc.

How does what I've learnt fit into the theoretical framework?
I have learnt that ethics are sometimes things we take for granted in everyday life, as I would say most people always think about whether their action will have an effect on another, however sometimes this can be overlooked. I am coming at this inquiry topic from my perspective, and my point of view, and I am doing this topic to find out what others think and how other people with different perspectives feel. I would like to find out how different people are affected mentally by the audition process and whether this has had a negative impact on their mental health. I would also like to find out how the people conducting the audition may be feeling and how the experience may have affected their mental health and what emotions were involved for them.

How does what you've learnt fit in with the ethics procedures for your inquiry?
Having said in the last paragraph that I would like to find out peoples emotions and feelings, I need to be very careful with this as this may lead to negative effects for people who are reliving maybe a difficult time in their lives. People in general find Mental Health a topic that is difficult to open up about so I don't want anyone to feel upset of affected by any research I am conducting. Therefore in my interviews and other data collection tools I will use, I want to steer the questions away from talking about anything Personal related to Mental Health, and keep the key topics mainly focused on auditions and the positive steps people take to recover from a bad audition experience, for example, the coping mechanisms they use to learn from their audition experience. As my interview will be semi-structured, if people feel they want to open up about mental health issues they have suffered due to auditions this method will allow them but I don't want to pressure anyone to feel that way. I also need to be aware of self-care. If someone offloads their negative feelings onto me in an interview, how will I take these away and deal with them myself? I am not a counsellor so I definitely don't want to end up with my interviews turning into counselling sessions!!

How does planning my inquiry relate to my professional practice right now?
As I said earlier, my Professional Practice right now is a mixture between freelance teaching and still auditioning. This industry and life as a Performer are very temperamental however one thing that is constant in most peoples lives is auditioning - even if it is auditioning for something you don't necessarily want to do. Planning my inquiry directly links to planning my lessons now for my classes, meticulously going over every detail to make sure I am fully prepared and know what I am doing. The same for when you are planning your audition - you go through every step of the day and make sure you have everything prepared so you can be the best you can possibly be. Which is how I feel the inquiry process is going - not leaving any stone unturned, and covering every aspect of my professional inquiry.

This blog feels slightly like waffle reading it back retrospectively, however I am going to keep it posted as it is all part of my learning process and getting my thoughts down on paper. Having said this - I have not included many of my thoughts on ethics here so will need to cross reference this blog and my notes when it comes to writing up my professional plan.