Task 3b - Response to Reader 3 - The Networked Professional

After first reading Reader 3 I have decided that I will be approaching my reflection on the Reader in relation to my professional practice as a teacher in a mainstream secondary school.  The reason to this is due to the fact that after undertaking the previous tasks in this module I have found that the different areas of my professional practice have me reflecting, networking and acting in different ways.  

A professional network is 'a work related community held together by either close working affiliation or more distant but common work interests or needs’ (Cited in BAPP Reader 3).  In my opinion, in all professional practices the professional network is a very important tool which can be used positively to encourage positive outcomes, such as; 'your success, promotion and development, your sense of worth and fulfilment, and even enjoyment in your working life' (Reader 3).  Within the idea of the professional network there are five different concepts which I will now reflect on a analyse their worth in relation to my professional practice.

Cooperation:

The concept of cooperation is one which looks at the rewards and gains available to an individual or all parties within a working relationship.  The concept of cooperation works in relation to Game Theory, a theory based on the idea of two participants working with each other but resulting in the gain of one participant at the loss of the other.  Robert Axelrod states a question within his writing that on reflection I have realised faces every individual every day, 'When should a person cooperate, and when should a person be selfish, in an ongoing interaction with another person?' (Axelrod, Cited in Reader 3).  As society we are constantly questioning what we are being subjected to and the tasks that are put before us.  The one reason that tasks are completed by the individuals is for a personal gain.  That gain could be something that only enhances the life of the individual, or a gain which also enriches the lives of others. 

There is a game which links to the Game Theory called 'Prisoners Dilemma'.  In this game the individual plays 'against' the computer choosing between two choices, one of which is to 'cooperate' or the option to 'compete'.  If both parties choose to cooperate both parties will gain 3 coins, if both parties choose to 'compete' they will only gain 1 coin each and if one party chooses to 'compete' but the other chooses to 'cooperate' they will gain 5 and 0 coins respectfully.  The system is set up in a 'tit for tat' methodology, as long as the individual is willing to 'cooperate' then so is the computer, but as soon as the individual decides to 'compete', the computer will 'compete' in the following test.  Therefore, the only way to beat the computer is to only 'compete' before withdrawing after selecting to 'compete'.  This game holds strong links with the ideas presented by Axelrod as he presents the idea that there are only benefits in cooperating with others until one reaches their highest point of benefit (Reader 3).

In my current professional practice it is important that I undertake the concept of cooperation with all of the other staff that I work with.  An example that I have had recently of cooperation in the workplace is in the trading of expertise with another member of my department.  I offered to take a practical workshop with my colleges class whilst she took a theory session with my class.  This benefited the both of us as we both experienced gains by the reward of our classes being taught by the most capable teacher.  When I offered to take the practical session which I knew my college wasn't keen on delivering I put myself in a position where I could loose out as she could have taken my offer but not given me anything in return.  This would not of been a good idea for my college to carryout as although should would have had an instant gain, she would not be able to 'defect' in the way that Axelrod suggests as she still remains part of the establishment after the 'deal' has been carried out and therefore if she had of defected leaving me as having lost out her reputation would have then gone down amongst all the staff and her reputation tarnished, thus, removing all possibilities to cooperate in the future.

This aspect of professional networking has made me realise that there are people that are continually looking at different situations strategically rather making a decision based on emotions, something that I think I will now be wary of within my professional practice.

Affiliation:

The second concept within the area of professional networks is the concept of affiliation.  The concept of affiliation in relation to professional networks is that of having a support network described by Crisp and Turner as 'a network of support that will help us when we are in need’ (Crisp & Turner 2007 pp266).  To affiliate with someone is to associate one's self with another due to a common interest.  I believe that affiliation isn't only created for professional gain and support but is also an ingrained instinct that is established within us from an early age.  In their writing, Crisp and Turner cite research presented by Larson, Csikszentmihalyi and Grief  in 1982 which stated that 'it was found that adolescents spent about 75 per cent of their waking time with other people. Such sociability appears to yield benefits' (Crisp & Turner 2007).  As children we are constantly with others from an early age, mainly due to the fact that we are dependant, from their we start to affiliate with others similar to ourselves throughout education before then moving into adulthood and affiliating with others.

In my current professional practice I am affiliated with others that working within my department and then my school as a whole, but I do find that I support my expertise through the use of other individuals who I have previously been affiliated with, such as individuals that I trained with.  I often will bring these individuals into school to speak to my students, in a way providing a guarantee to my students of what I have said to them in relation to my professional training or my knowledge of the industry.

Having just writing the last two sentences I have just started to question my understanding of affiliation, once you have become affiliated with something or someone can you then become unaffiliated? I have suggested that these professionals are people that I once was affiliated with, but does affiliation die or get removed? If so, by what?

Looking at affiliation has allowed me to create challenges to me viewpoints, something that until this point I have been less comfortable with doing.  In life it is important to be able to look for another point of view, especially in relation to the concept of cooperation, as it is important to be able to make balanced and secure judgments on occurrences and situations that are presented.

Social Constructionism:

Like some of the other students on the BAPP course, this is the concept that I have found the hardest to establish a concrete understanding of.  In essence I understand that it is a concept of creating meanings for the justifying their social interactions.  In my professional practice I engage with multiple people, both staff and students, and through my experiences I have found that I have established, constructed and justified these interactions and therefore been presented with a meaning for them.

In my opinion, all interactions within the workplace commonly hold more relevance than that of a social interaction as they are always prompted by the working environment which is pushing for a result from the interaction and therefore it is easier to establish understanding from them.  It could be argued however that affiliations that are constructed in the workplace are not solely there for work related interactions and support which then opens up a whole new argument counteracting my previous statement.

Social constructionism is a concept that I need to expand my understanding of and in my opinion is an area that I will be able to gain a greater understanding of now that I am aware of it alongside carrying out my professional practice.

Connectivism:

Connectivism is something that has been thrust into light in the recent years to acknolodege the change in the wy we learn, change caused by social environment.  In essence, connectivism is a learning theory, focusing on the social and cultural context of the information which is being taught and being learned by the individuals.  It focusing on learning being a cycle of practice and reflection on the practice rather than to be taught directly in the more 'traditional' way.  I have witnessed teaching change from being teachers reciting the method, the process and the answer to students doing.  In my current teaching position, independent learning is something that we are encouraged to include into our lessons, letting students do, learn and teach, with minimal teacher input.  Cited in Siemens, Driscoll relates to this idea by acknowledging that 'learners create knowledge as they attempt to understand their experiences' (Driscoll in Siemens, 2004), and thus the learners are creating their knowledge themselves and it is not being embedded in them by their classroom teacher.

I am a strong believer in the fact that it is our experiences that we grow from and we are constantly learning and developing everything in our lives on a daily basis as we inevitably strive for perfection.  Acknowledging the change in a approach and the change in the social context of learning is something that I feel is very important not only for those who teach to undertake but for everybody to reflect upon in their lives.  As I stated, I am a strong believer in the power of experiences and undertaking the reflection upon these concepts is beginning to make me justify and analyse my development and my professional practice.  

Communities of Practice:

Lave and Wegner define a community of practice as 'a set of relations among persons, activity, and world, over time and in relation with other tangential and overlapping communities of practice' (Lave & Wegner, 1991).  After reading the section of communities of practice within Reader 3 I have come to form the opinion that this concept places ideologies from the other concepts and puts them together to form a way of learning, doing and developing.  One of the main key functions for a community of practice is the fact that it needs to be community orientated, cooperation must be present amongst the community members with each taking on their opportunity and responsibility to develop the community.  The process encourages the social interactions amongst it's community, finding meaning within these interactions and developing from these.  The fact that these communities of practice are present in professional and social 'situations' makes links with the changes of learning that is expressed through the idea of connectivism.  

By all means I may be misunderstood or wrong, it may be that as communities of practice was the last concept that was presented to me, but what I have come to realise in my mind and the opinion that I have formed of the communities of practice theory is that it is a group of people that are confident in their social context, willing to put in an equal amount of work and are within the blurred boundary between professional and social, but above all, working within a network which they feel supported and confident within to enable them to develop.  

To Conclude:

On looking back at my work it would be easy for me to suggest that the concept that I have found myself drawn to the most is the cooperation theory, and in some aspects that is correct, but from what my mind is now telling me, I believe that I could assosiate with all of these concepts within the ideas of development and networking.  Networking is something that until recently meant to me attending occasions that I didn't necessarily want to be at to talk to people that I didn't necessarily want to speak to, but now I have realised that a network is far more than this.  Within the influx of Web 2.0 and social media, networking has spread into all fields across social, professional and cultural.  Networking is as much there for support as it is for opportunity.  The different concepts above hold a huge amount of relevance in relation to the opportunity of development but I have decided that in my opinion, the best for of support network is one which you have to give into as much as you take out and therefore confirming my trust in cooperation theory, or is that social constructionism, or affiliation or it could even be the formation of a community of practice.  

You decide.

Task 3c - My 5 Most Important Sources of Information

As well as acknowledging the five sources of information that I consider to be the most important to  me, I have decided to rank these top five to see what is my most important source of information and therefore will be presenting this blog as if it was the countdown of the chart on Top of the Pops.  So here we go!

In at 5 we have - Colleagues

In my current professional practice, my colleagues act as a kind of support network for me.  Not only do they support me whilst I am working through informing me of various techniques and teaching practices but also through informing me of developments within the professional and also information on potential job opportunities along with other outside information.  The reason I believe colleagues to be one of the top five most important sources of information is because on a whole they are individuals that commonly do a similar job to me and therefore they are also professionals in my field.  In any profession, I believe that it is very important for colleagues to work as a team and therefore help each other.  The most common way this help is delivered is by the answering of questions and the delivery of information that may be useful.

At 4 it's - Traditional Media (Newspapers/Magazines)

Newspapers and Magazines, that I have labeled 'Traditional Media', are still a great source of relevant information in my day-to-day undertaking of my professional practice.  One of the main ways in which I use magazines is mainly for looking for job opportunities and also researching the opportunities that are out there to continue my professional development, like classes and seminars for professionals.  Magazines also play a large part in the gathering of information by the delivery of popular culture.  This may seem like something that is not important in the professional industry but it is most definitely important within the arts industry.  The reason for this is because the arts industry is largely based in the world of popular culture and therefore it is important to have a knowledge of the developments within the popular culture world.

A tie at number 2 between - Mobile Phones and The Internet
Much like Melanie Brown I am quite ashamed to say that I do rely on my mobile phone and the internet to gather a great deal of information and I agree with her when saying - how bad is that!  It is crazy to think about how much we all rely on modern technologies when things like these have only been accessible by all in the last few years.  It really raises the question of how people survived, developed and progressed in the past.  My mobile phone is connected to the internet and the two work in unison to make sure that I am continuously updated with the information that I want to receive, so much so that I can wake up to job adverts and go to bed watching the latest choreography of my friends and professional colleagues.  Though said in jest previously, I do feel it is important that we all remember that people were able to develop, progress and ultimately survive without these technologies before the last 15 years and therefore we should not base our existence on them either.  The influx in the reliance on modern technologies is slowly breaking down the use of older sources of gathering information but in a fast moving world it is most important to stay up to date with the progression than work against it.

At number 1 - Friends
The source of information that I consider to be the most important is my friends.  As I said in my previous post, my friends are a huge part of my networks and play a great role in my professional practice and further development.  Through my networking of friends it has been common that if I have a problem or puzzle that I need to solve I will usually have a friend that knows the answer, either due to  having gone through a similar puzzle previously or knowing someone else that knows the answer.  Ultimately, friends are a working network that is constantly being developed, but to be able to rely on this network and this source of information, it is important to help the network out in the same ways that they help you out.  If one was to become a non-active member of a network, and by that I mean not contributing information to the problems, questions and puzzles of others, it is possible that one could become ostracised from the network and therefore loose that which is, in my opinion, the best source of information.

Task 3a - Current Networks

When thinking about how to approach this task I thought that I would take each of the questions and try to answer them individually to make sure that I cover all of the topics to an extent that I can easily check up on and also speak on specific elements in relation to a specific focus and therefore will be listing and answering the questions in this post.

Before answering the questions I decided to have a look at my current networks.  I made a list of everything in my current professional practice that I consider to be a network and then analysed the ways in which I was connect to these.  The list that I created is as follows:

·      Teacher

·      Class

·      Performers

·      Choreographers

·      Musical Theatre/Commercial Dancers

·      BAPP

·      Agent

·      Stage School

·      Clients

·      Friends

·      Family

·      Colleagues

·      Employers

·      BBC/Nickelodeon/Lime Pictures

·      TV & Film Directors

·      Mainstream Education

·      Head Teacher – Mainstream Education

·      Head of Department – Mainstream Education

·      Middle Leaders – Mainstream Education

·      Senior Leadership Team – Mainstream Education

When looking at the above list and beginning to analyse the information which it holds I started to see that many of these link together and that a trace line can be mind to find the origin of my whole network.  On reflection following the analysis I have realised how important networking is, even if I previously haven’t realised that I was in fact ‘Networking’.

What are the current and different ways (tools) that you have, or do, engage your professional network?
And
Are there methods, approaches and technologies that you use socially that might apply and help you develop your professional networking?

There is a great saying; ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’.

I think that in the performing industry there is nothing more true than this statement.  After looking at the different tools of networking that I currently use, or have previously used;

·      Facebook

·      Twitter

·      Blogging

·      Personal Contact Details – Phone Numbers/E-mail Addresses

·      Agent

·      Word of Mouth

I have come to believe that one of my strongest and most successful methods of networking for me has been my network of friends and previous colleagues.  Though the method of word of mouth through my group of friends is the most successful method of networking, in my opinion, due to the influx of social media in the industry, this method would not be as strong without the inclusion of things like Facebook, Twitter and Blogging sites.  It is through these sites that my network of friends is able to strive and work to it’s strongest as I am constantly connected to my friends.  Social media has had a fantastic impact on the way in which professionals within the arts network.  I have found that whilst my Facebook is mainly filled with my friends, I also tend to link up with other professionals that I have come into contact with through my Facebook account.  This enables me to stay in the minds of the professionals that I have worked with and also give them the opportunity to contact me at the click of a button.  This does however throw up some problems with reference to the combining of my private and professional life, similar issue to those that I presented in a previous task.  

Due to the fact that I consider friends and word of mouth to be the strongest and most natural way to network, it is the way that I choose to network the most.  I consider this to be one of the best ways to network due to the fact that a positive relationship can then be included into the working environment, one can have an understanding of how the other likes to work and this can then make the job more enjoyable.  As previously stated there are some problems that can present themselves through working and networking through friends and the establishment of friendships.  One of the most prominent possible problems that could be presented through this kind of work is the blurring of the fine line that stands between professional and personal.  When working with friends I am always careful that the barrier between my professional and personal world isn’t crossed.  The way that I am able to ensure this is mainly due to my change in attitude as soon as the professional scenario has been entered.  With this being said, it is always important to remember that having a positive, friendly relationship with the people I work with will usually enhance my work and the working environment.  

What are the established (and different) ways that others use their networks, especially if they are more established or experienced practitioners that you admire?

When working with more established or experienced practitioners, at first I was quite ‘star struck’ due to the fact that I often admired their works or have an understanding of their works and the success that they held through these. 

Lots of established choreographers have Facebook, Twitter, a blog or their own website which they can be contacted directly through.  They, commonly, will use these aspects of social media to advertise job opportunities, castings that they are holding, perspective projects that they are considering or shows that they are currently working on.  The use of social media in these ways is allowing them to build upon and thus develop their industry network. 

When training I have lots of contact with industry professionals who were brought in to the stage school to either teach classes or deliver lectures.  I found that not only was this a great way for me, as a student, to build my network, this was also consider a great way for the professional to build their network.  Occasional, professional choreographers would hold impromptu auditions for up coming work within the classes that they were teaching.  This meant that they were able to build their network in three different ways at once; they were teaching for a stage school and therefore building up contacts with the owner and other teachers, they were auditioning dancers to build their network of potential cast members and also they were meeting students who admired their work and therefore promoting their profile amongst the next generation of dancers. 

Having professional choreographers come in to the stage school and audition me from an early age was something that I found very useful to start building up my professional network.  I found this particularly useful when graduating as not only did I have a network of professional choreographers, I was also in the network of those their I have auditioned and performed along side. 

After speaking to one of my friends that works professionally within the arts I heard of the how she is relentless in the building of her professional network.  She told me about how she auditions every year as a stage dancer for shows like The X-factor just to be able to meet and speak to the choreographers that work on the show.  She said that even though the show holds auditions yearly, they always seem to have the same cast of dancers, with possibly a few exceptions, due to the choreographer knowing how those dancers work.  This method of networking has recently paid off as she has managed to gain a part of a different ITV show working with some of the same choreographers.

When you reflect upon current networks, can you think about the motives of others to be in the network and what values and purpose they have in mind?

Due to the impact of Web 2.0 on networking, networks and never solely used by the person who has originally built up the network.  The individuals network can be accessed and used by a third party to their advantage and therefore it is common that others will try to build themselves into strong networks and use them to their advantage as they have not had to put in the work that is needed to build up a strong for themselves.  Therefore the superior motive of a third party to join a successful network would be to reap the rewards of being a part of such a network with minimal work output on their part. 

What would your ideal network look like and why?
And
What realistic things could you do to work towards developing your ideal network?

As I have previously stated, my favorite method of networking, and therefore the basis for my ideal network, is the use of my network of friends and the use of word of word of mouth.  The main reason that this is my ideal method of networking is due to the fact that whilst I can come across as a very confident person, my confidence really does show when I am working with people that I have already built a positive relationship with. 

To develop into my ideal network I would have to be for proactive in ‘putting myself out there’ to a greater extent.  The first way that I would do this would be to create professional social media accounts which I could link up with only the people that I would like in my professional circles on.  I could also widen my knowledge of established practitioners and different types of practitioners that are not within my precise areas of expertise.  I am happy with the quality of my networks as they stand but do understand that I commonly achieve in the area that I feel safe and to be able to get out of my safety zone I need to expand my networks to my students and their parents through the use of word of mouth, thus continuing my network cycle and building upon itself. 

What tools and methods do you need to use? What do you know about your current, and intended networks, and importantly, what do you not know?

In today’s 21^st industry, Web 2.0 is a very important tool within networking.  It gives people the ability to be connected within their networks at all times and allows individuals to build on their networks through their contacts.  With this being a very important tool I do also believe that another very important tool is word of mouth and the ability to speak to people in a positive way and a way that is going to make you stay prominent in that persons mind.  With regards to the different things that I do not yet know, I think that there will be many things that fit this category, and not just for me but for everyone.  With the continuous development in social interaction, there are constantly things that not everyone will understand, but I think that one of the most important things that I have learnt about the successful building of networks is to not solely rely on the use of Web 2.0 and meeting and speaking to individuals face-to-face is still something that will make a more memorable impact.