Critical Reflection- Four Main Tools for Inquiry (6B)

“The main focus of experimenting with the inquiry tools will be to enable you to design our own practitioner research and learn from the experience.”(Readre 6, p.g 4)

These four main tools- observation, interview, focus groups and surveys/questionnaires, are designed to capture those real life experiences in a structured and ethical manner, as well as producing valid, reliable and qaulitive data.

In order to achieve this I believe it also necessary to focus on a few that will benefit your own, otherwise it becomes too time consuming and findings would lack quality.

Observations

This type of analysis could be done as an outside/ inside researcher, depending on what data is being collected and the role of the researcher.

Requirements:

·      Confidentiality and permission agreements considered

·      Ensure sensitivity in responding to any related ethics or issues

·      Need to reflect on own values and actions to be able to recognise your involvement (outside/inside observer)

·      Diary/log is absolutely necessary to record research findings (triangulation)

·      Be aware of the research environment

Benefits:

·      Provides a rich source of information of a behavioral nature

·      As an insider researcher- know the context and workplace, how sectors operate, greater access to people and connections!

Downfalls:

·      Be aware of preconceptions, personal opinions (biased)

·      Cannot be influenced by the culture of the organisation or its politics

·      A lot of ethical considerations involved

·      Time consuming

Observing might be beneficial in some ways for me as you can easily reflect on the different feelings and motivators within a dance environment.

Keeping a log, or jotting down notes here and there I always do, and so I could possibly write down my observations. However I won’t focus on using this tool as much, but to use some if its qualities I will consider.

Interviews

The main attraction about this tool is that it’s purely a qualitve method where the evidence you collect is from what people say. There are various methods to follow- structured to follow specific questions, semi-structured following questions and themes but allowing flexibility of emerging interests/issues, open interviews to allow freedom to relate to the interviewee specifically. I also like how there are various ways depending on your situation/occupation- face to face or over the phone, with an individual or a group, structured or informal.

Benefits:

·      “Can follow up on ideas, probe responses and investigate motives and feelings.” (Bell, 2005, pg.157)

·      Can ask ‘why’ questions

·      Feed off knowledge from experience- information that will be key for me!

·      Participants interpretation can be the main source of data

Downfalls:

·      The interviewer may affect the responses- personal qualities, gender, culture

·      Time consuming, but adaptable

·      Interviewees might feel intimidated, or lead to respond in one direction.

Here I would make sure to give the dancer the freedom of her/his own opinions.

There are certain considerations to be met here too, such as thinking exactly what data to collect and who from, where to interview and what to ask, get permission slips signed, how to record it and keep matter confidential, especially when videoing!

Because my inquiry focuses a lot on ballet dancers’ own opinions and experiences, interviewing would benefit me greatly in order source valid and enriching information. It would also be necessary when creating my short video.

Focus Groups

This is a tool I did consider to save time etc. however it leans more to a discussion group idea, rather than a group interview.

Requirements:

·      Groups of people with similar interests

·      Participants to be comfortable with one another

·      Need to be able to manage well

·      Permission to use their discussion as data

Benefits

·      Brings up good issues, opinion that could stimulate each others’ ideas that might not be thought of themselves

·      Triggers topics

Downfalls:

·      Stronger personalities take over, and can’t get full opinions from everyone

·      Can’t get all personal opinions within a group, especially the shy ones

·      Analysing and transcribing is difficult from a whole group.

In some sense this method would be useful in bringing up ideas to research further, however this is already done in SIG groups. These groups have helped in triggering topics within my inquiry. However I would prefer to get personal opinions and experiences that merge together in the end.

Surveys and Questionnaires

Surveys and especially questionnaires incline more to a quantitive research method. One thing that is vital is to think about the questions asked here in order to know what to interpret.

Benefits:

·      Collect data from a wide range of participants

·      Convenient

·      Easier to access

·      Less time consuming

Downfalls:

·      Need to ask a range to ensure validity

·      Lacks qualitive nature

·      Not personal

Surveys, rather than questionnaires, I thought would be great to start off with to be able to gain ideas, leading to clarity of what to ask in the interviews and how to move forward. When I read, “Blank spaces are inserted in the survey for worded qualitative responses…” To begin with I thought this is the way to go!

Articles, books, blogs, journal entries all will help in the development of my questions too. Keeping a journal is another great idea because ensures recording of your own reflections. It also shows the researchers’ involvement throughout the whole process. To me I would not keep a diary per say, but will jot down notes on the side to help develop my thoughts.

Therefore, based on the merits and limits of these different ‘tools,’ I have chosen to focus on two that would benefit me the most- Interviewing as my primary source, as well as a surveys and literature sources.