Module 3 - Starting Out & Reviewing Feedback

In my opinion this module has come along so fast! I remember starting my course and thinking this point was ages away but it is here.  I have received and reviewed the feedback from Alan.  Thankfully I am not going to have to change my final inquiry project too much based on the feedback, but with this being said, there are a few changes I have decided to make following the feedback.

The main change that I am going to need to implement into my inquiry plan is my proposed use of interviews and surveys with my students.  My initial idea was to conduct interviews and surveys with my students to ask them what they feel are the benefits of studying Drama at the Pupil Referral Unit and how they feel it is aiding their development socially as well as academically.  In his feedback Alan stated:

My main concern is the survey of young people. I am not convinced they will be able to give any deep insight, and their inclusion raises all sorts of issues, not least the reliability of data from a survey of children.

As you can read, there were two main issues here presented by Alan, one was an ethical issue and the other a reliability of data issue.  With regards to the ethical issue, the main problem was that whilst I was going to seek permission from the parents/guardians of my pupils, I didn't want them to know what my study was looking for.  Alan went on to say that this could leave the students in a 'vulnerable status', something that on reflection, I fully agree with and support.  The other main issue was the reliability of the data collected.  Students are likely to want to 'do well' when they are interviewed or surveyed which can cause a limited reliability in the data collected.  To combat these issues I have decided to remove the student surveys and interviews from my professional inquiry and replace these with a greater reliability on my field journal, in which I am monitoring the development of the students from lesson to lesson and making judgments on what I feel the impact of Drama is.  Alan went on to state that he thought my proposal was strong.  In the feedback he said:

This is a really worthwhile proposal. It is well structure and achievable, and you have been very effective in explaining its rationale and value to your practice and more widely. This is a mature proposal, and demonstrates your growing skill in reflection and academic work.

Moving forward, one of my key areas to develop and add strength to is my use of literature.  During half term I will be spending lots of my time in the library looking into previous studies and the views and opinions of other professionals in relation to the value of Drama when considering the social development of students, especially those with additional social needs.

Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

This module has taken me from following a structure and answering question to developing questions of my own.  This module has required me to become more independent in my thinking and to take a greater deal of responsibility for the production of my own work.

When I started to consider my inquiry questions I was initially stuck as to what I wanted to find out, but shortly after flooded with different possibilities.  After collating the list of inquiry questions, I initially thought that I was in a good position but actually this put me in a difficult situation as I had to revise and rework my questions towards a more specific point/direction.

After considering a specific direction for my inquiry to head in, and deciding on inquiry questions, it was then for me to contemplate which inquiry tools I should use, and what benefit they would have for my study.  This module has lead me to be able to consider which tools would be best suited to my inquiry and after discussing my initial proposal with Alan, I have selected the tools that I think are best suited to gathering the data that my inquiry is needing.

One of the first aspects that was considered in relation to my final inquiry was the ethics that would impact my professional study.  One of the main aspects of ethics that has held influence over how I am conducting my inquiry are Professional Ethics.  There are aspects within my study that require me to think beyond the study and consider my overall professionalism.  With regards to ethics, there are other areas that hold influence over my inquiry.  My inquiry will also be shaped by the Workplace Ethics that are present at my current place of work where my study will be conducted.

Throughout this module I have had to rely on my SIGs for advice, support and also to conduct a pilot of my inquiry.  I have used different SIGs for different needs.  The main thing that I have used my Facebook SIG (containing other people on the BAPP course) for is advice and opinions on the process of designing my inquiry.  Whereas another SIG that I have used (containing colleagues from my work place) has been used to conduct my pilot inquiry.  I conducted a pilot to check that my inquiry had a clear enough focus and that the tools that I had selected were appropriate and the best possible to use.

The final part of this module has required me to consider my final award title.  This was something that I did fully independently as I knew that this was something that directly affects me and future career progression.  I eventually decided me on BA (Hons) Professional Practice (Performing Arts) as I felt this title left me enough scope that it wasn't restrictive, whilst also giving me enough direction to move forward in my career.

6C - Award Title

I have been debating my award title with myself over the past few weeks, also taking into account the thoughts and opinions of my colleagues and members of my SIG.  I have been trying to decide on choosing either; Drama, Dance or Performing Arts, as I have expertise and professional experience in all of these areas.  As I currently teach Drama, my initial thought was to create my own award title - Drama.  Whilst considering this title, I thought back to when I started my degree, at which time I was teaching Dance.  This encouraged me to consider Dance as an award title as it's an area of my practice that I will always put first and is my main practice as a practitioner in the arts.  After a while I decided that both of these award titles were very specific and would narrow my career progression when looking forward.  After this realisation I decided to consider an option that was more open and one that encouraged a varied development throughout my career.  I also decided to take my prior experience into account, something that I had to do right at the very start of my degree.  Due to the variation of my prior experience, I have decided to title my award BA (Hons) Professional Practice (Performing Arts).  I think that this option will allow my career to progress in a way that is not confined as it would be with the previous two titles.  

6a/b - Review of Reader 6 and Inquiry Plan

This stage seems to have come around very quickly.  The time between considering lines of inquiry to actually conducting the research has been very short, but full of learning.  As Reader 6 states, this stage of the inquiry involves me capturing evidence from [my] workplace using social science research tools [and] methods.  After reading and reflecting on Reader 6 I have began to consider the tools that would be most beneficial for me to employ in my research to ensure I am using real-life experiences and phenomena in a systematic and ethical manner.  The following are my initial thoughts on how my inquiry should be designed and structure.  I am expecting these thoughts to change and develop but wanted to blog my initial thoughts along with the reasonings for them.

I have looked into the four main research methods; Observation, Surveys, Interviews and Focus Groups, and I am beginning to think that I will use Observation and Surveys as my main source of data/information, though I may also include Interviews and Focus Groups throughout the inquiry depending on the quality and specificity of the data/information gathered through my first two research method choices.

The main reason that I have chosen these two research methods is to ensure the validity of the information gathered.  Baxter states that it is important to consider whether your methods, approaches and techniques actually relate to, or measure, the issues you have been exploring.  The reason that I have chosen to include Observation in the design of my inquiry is because I have already began to observe the students, importantly their progress, since September, before I knew why I would be observing them.  The fact that I will using the data gathered through these observations, which have been taking place since before I understood the specifics of what I am looking for, means the data should be true to form and accurate, not manipulated to either fit of disrupt the line of inquiry, either consciously or unconsciously.  Though my observations will now follow a specific focus, I believe that this continuing of practice will work to secure validity in my data/information collected through subsequent observations of students and colleagues.  There are three main parts to observations: watching, recording and analysing events of interest.  Due to the nature of my inquiry involving me working as the teacher, or when not teaching, still being a 'member of teaching staff' I will continue to record my findings following the research, as recording throughout the observation may disrupt the process.  The most important features of using observation as an inquiry tool, as stated in Reader 6, are that I will need to ensure that [I am] able to respond sensitively and appropriately to issues of ethics, permission and confidentiality.  As stated previously, I will also be using Surveys to gather the data/information for my inquiry.  The reason that I have chosen to use surveys is that they can be completed anonymously and should therefore hold more validity, which again has been planned around Baxter's thoughts on the design of an inquiry.  A lot of my current line of inquiry focuses on and works around the opinions of different people.  Surveys are [...] associated with the idea of asking groups of people questions about [...] or what they ‘think’.  Using surveys will allow me to gather opinions and points of view from a wide range of respondents, respondents that I can select carefully to ensure the people answering the questions are the people I want to be asking.  I am currently considering using an attitudinal scale, popularised by Likert, with the main reason being that it allows for a greater range of responses [as apposed to] yes or no.  In Reader 6, Black describes an attitudinal scale as a method that allows attitudes to be ascertained by presenting a list of declarative statements and asking respondents to rate them in terms of agreement or disagreement.  Along side the attitudinal scale, I will also seek explanation by including the ability for my respondents to put their reasonings and thoughts alongside their answers.  

I am planning on performing a pilot inquiry to check that my initial design will work in the ways that I am expecting it to.  The pilot will run in the same way that I am planning to run the inquiry to ensure that it is a valid test.

As stated above, these are my initial thoughts as to how my inquiry should be structured and designed.  I still have a lot more thinking, reflecting and developing to do in relation to the structure and design.  I need to consider how I can use Interviews and Focus Groups to extend my data/information and understanding in relation to my inquiry.

5c - Reader 5 Professional Ethics

In education, many schools are continuously promoting and discussing their 'ethos'.  Reader 5 describes an ethos as 'how we do things around here', the way that a collective; be that a family, business or other organisation, decide to go about 'being' and interacting to reflect a positive and good image.  A school's ethos is very important as it is something that will be delivered to the parents of prospective students in a hope that their child is then sent to that school.  A few of the schools that I have worked in have an ethos which focuses on developing the individual.  Projecting this kind of ethos will encourage the parents of prospective students and they will then be assured that their child will not just be a number and will be able to develop as a individual with the attention focused solely on them.  However, it isn't uncommon to see a school with an ethos focusing on the development of the community and working as a community.  Here the parents of the prospective students will see that the school is working beyond its parameters and looking for the development of the child within the society that they are part of.  The most important part of an ethos is that it needs to be positive.  As an ethos is a message, delivering an idea of 'how we do things around here', that ethos needs to speak to everyone and tell them what they want to hear.

Ethics maintained and displayed by the staff working within the community need to meet and work to the main points of the ethos.  This ensures that all staff are working positively and working together, pushing the community forward in the same direction.  Without an overarching ethos for staff to work to the community's aims and ideas could be diminished and lose a focus.  Equally, without ethics promoted by the staff within the community, an ethos will be lost and not maintained or delivered.  Workplace ethics work best with an ethos and a professional ethos will struggle work without ethics.  

Within the professional world, personal ethics can sometimes be changed or altered to ensure professionalism is maintained.  This is quite a bizarre statement to make, especially from an teacher's perspective, but I will explain my statement further through the use of a case study.  The second case study presented in Reader 5 informed me about Kevin Carter, a documentary photographer who won awards for his photograph of a impoverished girl crawling towards water.  

The girl went on to die due to not getting to the water, though Carter could have intervened and helped the girl, which could have resulted in her not dying.  In this position, Carter was upholding the professional photographer's ethical role, which is to observe and not intervene.  This case study does however raise the question, at what point should professional ethics be dropped and personal ethics take over?  After debating this question with colleagues, peers and my friendship group I have come to the personal conclusion that ethics can never be dropped, as if they are able to be dropped then they are not ethics.  Ethics could be considered as rules to live, work or interact by.  If there is a point at which these rules should be broken, then the rules are not solid and lack in the most important quality of an ethic, positivity.  Ethics are for the good of the greater community.  I have taken the figure below from Reader 5 to help demonstrate this point.  As you can see, there is a ripple effect that streams from the personal into the further three areas, a personal action will result in a professional reaction, which will then cause reactions from the following two stages.  The initial personal action with result in the next three reactions and depending on the initial action, the reactions could be either positive or negative.

The idea of the ripple effect links with the idea acknowledged in Reader 5 as the consequentialism approach.  This approach basis the success of an action depending on whether the consequences (or reactions) are positive or negative.  The the consequence is positive then the approach would say that the initial action was also positive.  Within this section the Reader talks about how lying can be considered as a positive actions due to producing a positive consequence.  In her blog, Iona Holland suggested an interesting situation, where a singer may not achieve a performing job and is given the reason that they are too short, rather than the truth which would be that they cannot sing.  Consequentialism would suggest that this lie was a positive action as it would leave the singer wanting to try again as they may be the right height for the next job, however, personally and professionally, I would not be comfortable with this action and would argue that the consequence is not the most positive none possible.  The consequence here would result in the individual not being hurt and feeling confident in their ability ready to walk into another audition.  This is not a positive consequence as the individual may walk into the next audition and receive the truth rather than a lie, resulting in a crash from a higher point which takes into account the lengthened audition process the individual has committed to.  

Within my profession, initially I found find a point in which it is part of my professionalism to lie or bend the truth, however, after reflecting I have considered the following to partially fit into the consequentialism approach.  If I am meeting with a struggling parent who is finding it hard, even if this is clear, I would not fully admit to the fact that I can see this is the truth, instead I would use the positive/negative/positive sandwich.  This is where you, as the professional, would offer praise and congratulate something positive before offering the negative and then end on a positive that can be a way to move on from the negative aspect.  Whilst this i not lying in the same terms as cited from Iona's blog post, it is still not being completely truthful and I do question if I am not being completely truthful am I completely maintaining the community's ethos?  

My inquiry focuses on the place/point/validity of Drama within non-maintream educational establishments, working with students that have been removed from or cannot attend mainstream schools.  From reading Reader 5 and reflecting on both my inquiry topic and my professional practice I understand that ethics within professional practice are an extremely confusing topic.  What is ethical on a personal level may be unethical at a professional level, like in the example above regarding documentary photographer Kevin Carter.  With regards to my inquiry I need to ensure that whilst I am currently working from a personal level, I do not effect the professionalism of myself or my colleagues. At no point can my personal level of inquiry diminish my professionalism.  I will continue to ask questions, reflect and find the answers in the same way that I have done up until now but ensure I am careful with the materials I am sharing and the thoughts that I am displaying and, in some cases, promoting.

                                                                                                    

With a final thought back to Kevin Carter, I'm afraid to say that my personal opinion is that his actions were wrong.  Whilst it is his professional code as a photographer to observe and not intervene, I also think it is part of the code within that profession to preserve.  In this case to preserve would have been to help preserve the life of the little girl, which ultimately, would have preserved his own too.  This is a topic that I am really forward to debating with my Module 2 SIG.

5b - Workplace Ethics and Codes of Practice/Regulations

When working in an environment swarmed by codes of practice and regulations I was expecting to discover a lot of different policies and practices when I started to research this area properly, though I didn't expect to find the range, breadth and depth of material that I found whilst searching articles and scholarly sources.  I narrowed my search and focused on my immediate surroundings which enabled me to find relevant material to share here on my blog and to reflect on in relation to my professional practice.

The place that I have chosen to look in this narrowed down search is the Department for Education, more specifically their website and the Statutory Guidance section.  This organisation offers guidance for schools and governing bodies to create their own policies that need to be in place within the school.  I read through the guidance most relevant to my place of work and below are the key points of these areas that I consider to be the most relevant.

• Behaviour Management Policies: One particular area of the behaviour management policy section that stood out to me was the section on misconduct from students beyond the school gates/premises.
• any bad behaviour when the child is:
• taking part in any school-organised or school-related activity
• travelling to or from school
• wearing school uniform
• in some other way identifiable as a pupil at the school.
• or, misbehaviour at any time, whether or not the conditions above apply, that:
• could have repercussions for the orderly running of the school
• poses a threat to another pupil or member of the public
• could adversely affect the reputation of the school. 

On reflection I am finding it so strange that I didn't list a Behaviour Management policy in my first post, 5a.  The Behaviour Management policy is one of the most commonly referred to in my place of work due to the types of students that we have on role within the establishment.  Whilst I have a good understanding of the behaviour management policy at the school that I work at, I had never considered the elements of the policy that are enforced beyond the school gates, when students are displaying negative behaviour off the school site.

• Supporting students with Special Educational Needs (SEN):  Whilst I touched upon this particular area through the consideration of 'All Students to be Considered as Equal' and 'Differentiation' under the heading of 'Ethics' in my previous post, researching this area as a whole further has really opening my understanding of this vast area.  The main features of the piece of statutory guidance that I read mainly seemed to focus on the SEN provisions taken from the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001, which are:
• a stronger right for children with SEN to be educated at a mainstream school
• new duties on LEAs to arrange for parents of children with SEN to be provided with services offering advice and information and a means of resolving disputes
• a new duty on schools and relevant nursery education providers to tell parents when they are making special educational provision for their child
• a new right for schools and relevant nursery education providers to request a statutory assessment of a child
• working in partnership with parents
• pupil participation
• working in partnership with other agencies 

It needs to be considered though, that whilst SEN policies encourage the inclusion of students with Special Educational Needs, this policy in not specific to any particular need and is not a generic methodology of how to encourage the inclusion of any student with a particular need, equally, this is not a 'one way' of including all that have been identified as having a Special Educational Need.  The policy that can be created from the these guidelines supplied by the Department of Education encourages the staff within the education establishment to consider those in their care who have been identified as having Special Educational Needs and work to ensure the needs of the individual are 'understood, addressed and acknowledged' throughout the delivery of all lessons.

• Teachers' Pay and Conditions:  Again an area that on reflection should have been one of the ones that was at the forefront of my mind when I was creating my previous post.  It is incredibly vital that every educational establishment has a teachers' pay and conditions statutory policy, all based on the national one processed by the government.  However, with the recent increase of establishments outside of the Local Educational Authority's (LEA's) maintenance, the policy doesn't necessarily have to follow the national one. The aspects that I consider to be key from the guidance published by the Department for Education are:
• entitlement to specific salary and allowances
• leadership pay scales and duties that entitle additional bursary
• application for move through threshold and onto upper pay scale
• detailing of allowances for classroom teachers and Teaching and Learning Responsibilities (TLRs)
• part-time teachers 
• 1265 (Allocation of paid hours within a year)
• contractual framework for teachers
• sickness, long-term sickness and authorised absence pay terms
• non-authorised and strike action pay terms

In a time within the education system where pay and working conditions are moving quickly it is important that staff, leadership and governors have a detailed understanding of their specific establishment's policy.  It is key that the policy is refined and kept up to date in relation to the moves made by the government to ensure all staff understand that the policy that specifically constitutes their workload is inline with the changes that are being fought for.

This task has really opened my eyes to areas of the education system that I thought I had a fairly good idea of.  As stated in my previous posts, as I have recently started my new job at a new school I have been inundated with policies that govern how I am to work, and nine times out of ten flick through them and file them away.  Detailing specific areas of key policies that affect my professional practice has encouraged me to reflect on how much I really understand and know.  With regards to policies, each policy needs to be specific whilst considering its placement within the overall statutory guidance that is given from the overarching authority.

Task 5a - Workplace Ethics and Codes of Practice/Regulations

Task 5a asks to consider the workplace Ethics and Codes of Practice/Regulations without any consultation of any documents or discussion on these topics, relying wholly on my own thoughts and opinions.  Initially this struck me as strange, something that goes against the grain of writing posts towards this module but then I thought about it on a professional level.  These policies, regulations and codes of practice should be present in the minds of all staff working within the establishment and as a new member of staff at my current place of work I should be completely up to date.  So why be phased by this?  In my professional practice, teaching, I think that we (teachers) are continuously tested on our knowledge of routine practice, procedures and codes of practice, and in the effort to get these tests correct refer back to the policies directly.  Being asked to consider these policies without consulting the policy directly requires me to strive for the same element of perfection but without the safety net.  After considering this task for a little while I realised that this task isn't testing me in anyway but it is another chance for reflection.  A chance for me to consider what I do everyday, not an opportunity for me to be tested to check I'm doing what I should be doing everyday.

After getting over this initial frame of mind, I then set to the task in hand - reflecting on the Ethics, Codes of Practice and Regulations:

Ethics:

• Every Child Matters - Though this initiative has now been taken out of the education system the key factors that it aimed to implement still should be present within every young person's experience throughout compulsory education.  Every students right to an education should be honoured.
• All Students to be Considered as Equal - It is important that all students are considered as equals within the classroom.  This means that all students should be treated equally and all students should have their opinions, beliefs and thoughts listened to a considered equally against one another.
• Safeguarding - This is the protection of all involved within the education establishment, especially the protect of the students.  It is important that all students are given a safe environment in which they feel confident and comfortable to express themselves in an appropriate way and are confident to discuss any issues they are experiencing on a day-to-day basis.
• Differentiation - It is important to give all students the ability to access the learning that is happening within the classroom through the use of differentiation strategies.  The ability to learn links in with the Every Child Matters (ECM) initiative as it ensure all students are given the opportunity to learn.

Codes of Practice/Regulations:

• Teaching Standards/Ofsted Criteria - It is important that all teaching staff have an understanding and an awareness of the current teaching standards.  The reason for this isn't only to ensure that staff are awarded a high level when inspected but to ensure the development of all students is consistent and appropriate. 
• Confidentiality - Confidentiality is something that there is two sides to within education.  Whilst it is important to keep the information stored confidential, it is also important not to promise confidentiality to a student that makes a disclosure, whether this be deliberate or inadvertently. 
• Health and Safety/Professional Facilities - It is the responsibility of the teacher as well as the school leadership (responsibilities of the site) to ensure that all working spaces meet the Health and Safety Regulations.  It must not be possible for anyone to find harm within the school, with all eventualities thought through and minimised.  It is also important that protocols are considered and put in place if something does happen.
• Professionalism - Professionalism within teaching requires the member of staff to ensure whilst in work and outside of work they maintain the expectations that are made of them by the students and by the school.  Social medial usage needs to be kept to a minimum and when used, it is important that everything shared is still professional and kept private.  It is also important that there is no communication outside of the education establishment between staff and pupils or parents of pupils.  This will ensure that the professional image of the school can not be tainted.