Module 2 Skype, Thursday 12th April - "Imagine you can't do an Interview..."

So yesterday we had Skype Session and it was extremely beneficial! It cleared up a lot of things for me and helped to put me back on the right track so I thought I would share some of the things that we discussed...

- What do you want to learn from your inquiry? -
We need to know what it is that we are hoping to achieve from doing this inquiry. What is it that we want to find out more about and importantly how can this help us in developing within our own practice. Keep thinking this through so that you have a good understanding of what you want to learn. 

- Analysing the data that you acquire - 
You need to know what it is that you will do with the results of your inquiry when you have them. Understanding how they can help you in your own profession is key in this as it helps you to make sure you are learning about something beneficial. If your data is relevant, analysing and using the data should seem natural as it is very clear to you how the information will help you. You need to gather the right information to allow you to get out of the inquiry what you want!

- Methodology - 
Knowing what you want to learn and understanding how you will analyse this data is essential when considering what methodology you will use. You need to make sure you are asking the right questions to get the answers that will be most useful.
When asked about methodology, most of us in the Skype session went straight for interviews. Interviews can be useful but Adesola explained that they are usually the 'go-to' choice. We like them because they are fun to do and we think that asking someone and being told the answer directly is the best way to learn something new. But they aren't always that helpful. If we ask our colleagues and people that we work with it is likely that they will know similar information to us. Interviewing them and learning that they know as little or as much as we do about a certain subject is not helpful. There are many more ways that you can gain more information....going much deeper into a literature review, carrying out desk based research, utilising resources available etc.
Interviews can be beneficial too, but you need to really make sure you are asking the right questions to the right people to get information that will help you in learning something new, not confirming something that you already know.

** - Work in reverse -  **
We have the 6 steps in our handbook to help us in planning our inquiry. Something interesting that we discussed was working in reverse. Obviously you will need to have a set question or area of interest for this to work out. But when you know why you are developing this knowledge and understand what you will do with it...then you can really start to plan the how. The how will be easier to plan effectively when the what and why are strongly confirmed in your mind.

Thinking about planning my inquiry in this way has really helped things to make more sense to me. I now have a very strong basis of what I am trying to learn, why I am doing my chosen inquiry and how I can carry it out to learn as much as possible.

One final thing that we discussed were our blogs. We are all often unsure and would like reassurance from others that we are headed in the right direction. We should all really try to make more of an effort to utilise these blogs...reading what each other have to say, commenting back, sharing opinions and experiences to help each other along. 
Getting into the habit of checking blogs often enough can be tough...however you can subscribe via email. If you don't have this gadget on your blog I do recommend that you add it in. That way people can add there email and 'subscribe' to you so that every time you post something they get an email notification. Hopefully this will encourage people to read it and comment back. If we all did this I think our blogging network would grow and we would all gain a lot more from it!

P.S When you subscribe to someone you should get a confirmation email sent to you. You have to follow this link and make sure to confirm your email address before you have successfully subscribed!

I hope this was helpful! 
:)

What support systems are available to performers?

I am spending time looking into support systems available to dancers.

Is there a place we can go to talk about our emotions and experiences after being rejected at a really tough audition? Are there specific forums, discussion groups, helplines aimed for performers? 

I know that I mostly use my own support system made up of my close friends and family...that is who I would call to vent about an audition or open up to about my disappointment in not getting cast. But do I rely so much on my own support system because there aren't enough advice professionals available to us? Or are they there and I just haven't heard about them yet?

I would love to know what you all think! 

Who do you turn to when our rewarding but demanding career leaves you feeling rejected and not good enough? And do you feel that there is enough support available?

Thank you in advice for your opinions...