Tools of Professional Inquiry

Having scrutinized and finally outlined a question that still needs refining I am going to pilot my tools of inquiry. I need to test these tools so that when I conduct my inquiry I not only can gather the most beneficial results but also document and reflect upon them. All with be prepared and completed ethically subject to the place and people taking part.

Pilot Questionnaire

Even though this is a less personal way to research I can collect a larger amount of data with in a shorter time. Surveys can take 2 minutes to fill in and the data can easily be put into graphs and percentages. I have to risk that questions maybe left incomplete and people may misinterpret the question but I feel that statistics are a good piece of evidence.

I have chosen to use Survey Monkey and have posted it to everyone with in my SIG and all affiliations.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YMPSM9C

                   

Pilot Interview

Being a qualitative method it enables flexibility in the questions that I ask and I am able to explain if the interviewee does not understand. The questions need to be structured fittingly to gather honest and non-bias answers. Even though the interviews will be time consuming and more complicated recording and using the results I feel they will contribute to my inquiry.

I have made a content form that the interviewee must complete before the interview commencing. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eNDcobg4-YMt-uDCVDV2-8EFL25x2REowBw2YKXJfjM/edit

Below are a few questions that I would like to ask, it will be semi-structured which allows for discussion. Depending on the answers alters the following question.

Has your performance face always been natural to you or something that you have had to concentrate on?

Do you have a technique behind your performance?

What do you think makes a good performance?

Was acting classes integrated into you professional training?

Have you ever used your life experiences to create a character on stage?

Would you consider acting classes to enhance your performance as a dancer?

Focus Group

Being on a ship and having limited internet I do face the problem of creating a focus group. However I do life on a ship with 15 other dancers, from all over the world, with different training backgrounds, different experiences and all of different ages. It would be a waste not to get all these people in one room to share ideas. It allows me to explore everyone’s opinions on a subject everyone is currently practicing.

I will use the same questions that I use for the interview and again put forward the questions that fit in with the answers I receive.

Observation

I am struggling to complete or trial an observation while on the ship. I am going to think further into this. I would ideally watch a specific acting class for dancers and look into the effects. Even participate in the class myself. However I do not have access to such a class. Any ideas would be welcome baring in mind my current situation.

Once I have gathered the results I need to analyse and preserve the data, honestly and in the most beneficial way.

                                                            

I have all the tools but I need the question!

 I am now coming to the end of my second contract on a ship. I will finish this module on the ship but will be completing the last module on land. For me I need to create an inquiry that is versatile, that will accommodate both situations.

As Paula knows I have been back and fourth with my inquiry question. I decided to ask myself two questions;

What do I do well? And, What do I want to do on my return to the UK?

Appendix A

For myself and along with all professional dancers I want to get a job on land with in my profession and not have to work a “normal” job. This is up to me no one can help. I will be teaching at a local dance school but I would rather be on stage and leave that for later in my career.

I then asked a group of 14 people three questions.

What do you do to prepare for an audition?

I will need to audition. I have been to a fair few but if I knew how to do a perfect audition, if there was such a thing I need to be close to it.

What makes a good performer?

I want to stand out. In my opinion and experience performance makes you. It shows somebodies passion and can potentially get them the job.

If you could have been given one bit of advise before you started your full time training, what would it have been?

I will be teaching young adults that are training to go to a professional dance college. I want them to have more knowledge than I did. I want to inspire and give them advise.

Appendix B – The group of 14 people started writing their ideas on the paper I left, shortly after it turned into a full on discussion, which I was not prepared for. I noted down as much as I could.

PICTURES OF SPIDER DIAGRAMS

I noticed a link in a lot of the answers I received.

“Life experience”      “Game Face”  Making hard steps look easy and easy steps look good”  Face! Face! Face! Even if you mess up, do NOT show it on your face” “Ability to recover effortlessly”       “Character”    “Be versatile”             No matter what have fun, and sell the performance with your face”                  “Dance should be fun, if it isn’t you will see it on your face”       “Always remember where you are from”             “Act on what you feel”                       “Dance should be an extension of what you are and how you feel”      “originality stands alone” – all of the previous are quoted from the informal discussion, Appendix B.

Ethics is all about acting appropriately in different places. From the answers I received I feel like having a successful career is about acting correctly at the right time and place. Does acting contribute to a dancers performance? Could this contribute to me gaining a job?

I am going to pilot this question while trialing my inquiry methods.

 Appendix A

Delicious.......

http://delicious.com/kimberlyjane89/

Calling ALL DANCERS!!

Please would you complete my survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YMPSM9C

Thank you

5B&C Ethics continued………….

Your ethics have to change with every circumstance you are in. It is made up of Values and Belief of an individual, yourself. Once you then work within a company you have the obligation to follow the rules they have set in place. One has to be open-minded and respect that something may be highly ethical to you however disregarded by another individual, “agree to disagree”. This document explores the ethics a “dancer” should have;
http://www.ethicsdance.co.uk/resources/downloads/ethics-in-dance---a-debate-yet-to-be-held.pdf 

The more willing you are to do this will affect the society you live in. Everyone is entitled to there own opinion, yet when and how they discuss it is imperative.

Within my inquiry it is vital that it is ethically correct. To continue with this I need to present all findings as accurately as possible. The information needs to be stored correctly and should be honest and not manipulated in any way. I also want all evidence to my findings available, I will store everything whether I think it’s necessary or not. The people I interview should not be influenced by my thoughts; the questions should not be phrased to gain the answers I think I want. By doing all of the previous means to can collect all the information I need in an ethically correct manor.

I feel in my current situation on a cruise ship ethics are very exaggerated, especially at the moment due to the incident on the Concordia. Health and safety is at its height, with drills every cruise and more and more training sessions with information that we now have to know. Due to this in my previous blog I felt like there was so much information I could include, could it all possibly be ethics?

I have read Ahmets blog; http://mrahmet.blogspot.com/2012/10/2nd-campus-session.htmlwhere he refers to Adesola point, “ethics are a sensation, as appose to a thing”. In an audition for example would you really abide by the dance ethics and codes of conduct by Michele M Rasmussen; http://ezinearticles.com/?Dance-Ethics-and-Codes-of-Conduct&id=4623455

In an audition would you “share the floor?” By getting the job I have at the moment I had to share one studio with over 400 girls, I wanted that job and was not willing to share. I order to get this job I had to become someone I wasn’t, I had to put on an act and push myself to the front to be seen.

First thoughts on Ethics!

First thoughts on Ethics!

Taking my professional community on the Fascination I considered the ethics, which apply to me. I wrote down the first things that came to my head and did not refer to any documents.

Appendix A   

The thoughts I wrote down covered so many areas. Things that I personally like to abide by, things that I have learnt with experience of working not just as a performer but also in a call center, waitressing etc, and then also ethics set down by the company I work for. My ideas and thoughts on ethics were a continuous flow.

I think the fact that I work and live in a small environment means ethics becomes very intense and also even more important. I am continuously representing the company, even when I leave the ship for the day I am surrounded by guests and have to constantly be aware or my actions. I also live, eat and sleep with the people I work with, it’s important that we have certain ways of dealing with situations and people, if not things could get intense very quickly.

While I was writing down my thoughts I wondered how I’m aware of “how we do things around here”. Where have they come from?

I have attached documents and proof of where many of these come from but these are pacific to the company I work for but not necessarily the job I do .

Appendix B

In every cabin there is a folder, which is called Team Carnival Shipboard Handbook. It has six sections with the guidelines we are expected to follow;

Vessel Familiarization, Personal Safety and Accident Prevention, Environmental Compliance, Rules and Regulations, Carnival Look and Code of business Conduct and Ethics. In Appendix B it shows examples of common sense and also ethics I had to learn and put into practice. Unfortunately there wasn’t an appropriate section I could photograph under the last section, Code of Business and Ethics however I thought the titles within that section would give you a good idea of the contents.

General, Integrity, Environmental Protection, Antitrust Policy and Guidelines, Improper Payments and Bribes, Transactions in Securities, Use and Disclosure of confidential, Proprietary or Injurious Information, Conflicts of Interest And Corporate Opportunities, Outside Employment, Prohibited Receipts And Payment Policy, Gifts To A Third Party, Campaign Contributions, Public Company Reporting, Dealing With Auditors/Recordkeeping, Document Retention, Reporting Improprieties, Compliance.

I plan to read the handbook thoroughly and blog my rethink on ethics as I think one of my examples in Appendix B may be along the wrong lines!!

Hurricane Sandy, Sea Sick and Family Cruising!

The sights I have seen in the last few days have been quite incredible. Unfortunately it has effected my progress with the module but I will catch up as soon as I get a good internet connection and blog the work I have been doing while rocking about at sea for many days.

The tropical storm Sandy turned out to be a lot more damaging than first predicted. It effected the route of my ship and we were left at sea for over four days. We were able to dock at Freeport in the Bahamas and only receive the tail ends of the winds. My family are cruising so we thought we would make the most of it. The island had been flooded the previous day, roads were destroyed, trees ripped out, it was quite a sight. The lady that drove us around the island no longer had a house, it had been totally destroyed in the winds! What surprised me the most was her attitude, she laughed, chatted away and couldn't do more for us. Her attitude towards life was so positive. There was me worrying that I couldn't get online and her with no house. It put a lot of things into prospective!

Not only did I experience the effects of the hurricane on land but I also felt the effects on stage. Engaging your core muscles while on stage is extremely important however when you don't have control on gravity it's pretty much impossible. It got to the point where we were shortening the shows and taking out the risky numbers with lifts etc. We had to lower our kicks to 90 degrees and pirouettes were taken down to singles. Eventually the shows were cut!

I thought I would just update you on my whereabouts and why the lack of blogging. To top off my couple of weeks my family were also cruising, it consisted of a lot of sea sick tablets!
Thanks to everyone who commented on my blog, I word documented a lot of comments I have on other peoples blogs and will update with in the next week.