6a- Reviewing Reader 6- Thoughts on Inquiry and More Ethical Considerations

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Prior to reading Reader 6 I had very little idea of the different types of research and the various methods employed in the process of gathering information for an inquiry. I found the succinct definition provided in the Reader of qualitative research and quantitive research very helpful in determining which sort of approach was pertinent to my line of inquiry of dance teaching and autism. 

The Reader describes the qualitative approach as being that:

      "which relies on the words that people use to understand phenomena.'

 Quantitive research, on the other hand, is something that :

       "can be translated into numerical data."

When I first thought about what my inquiry question would be I was looking at dance teacher training for the teaching of autistic children. My initial question was :

      "Should all dance teachers receive training about autism?"

 Having considered the ethical implications of this line of questioning and discussed it with my SIG, I decided that I needed to approach it from a different angle. I had not realised that it was assuming that all teachers had an inadequate knowledge of autism or that it could be construed as undermining the existing teacher training that is available. 
Costley et al in "Doing Workbased Research" state:

      "Any possible criticism that the researcher makes in evaluation of the research will be instantly perceived by the organisation and could cause tension between the researcher/worker and the organisation." ( 2010, p 32,)


Initially, I had drafted a questionnaire and was thinking of conducting a more quantitive approach to my research, but, now I intend to look at the dance learning experience for people with  Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Consequently,as a result of this shift of focus, I now think that a qualitative approach is far more appropriate.

The reader discusses the 'positioning' of the researcher in qualitative research saying that, when you are conducting an inquiry within your own professional sphere, you are adopting an insider- researcher position because of the knowledge and experience about your area of work that you already possess. It refers to reflexivity as:

      "a term used in social science to signify that the researcher needs to try and be as objective as possible about the inevitably subjective practice of research"

I also found the following in the BERA ethical guidelines:

      "Researchers engaged in action research must consider the extent to which their own reflective research impinges on others, for example in the case of the dual role of teacher and researcher and the impact on students and colleagues. Dual roles may also introduce explicit tensions in areas such as confidentiality and must be addressed accordingly." (p 5)

I had been considering getting the views of some of my past pupils who are on the autistic spectrum about their dance learning experience but, having read the above, I now think that might not be appropriate. 

 One of my friends in my SIG teaches some students who are autistic and has volunteered to give her views for my pilot research. I am also considering seeking permission from the college she works in to do some video observations and interviews for my actual inquiry.

In further reading about practitioner research I found the following quote by Baumfield et al in "Action Research in Education: Learning Through Practitioner Enquiry" :

      "The intent with which you undertake a piece of practitioner enquiry, the purpose, the process and the audience, all depend on your 'real world view.' Your beliefs and understandings about the world will dictate, consciously or unconsciously, the decisions you make at all stages of the practitioner enquiry process. It is the thing that ties it together. It will influence the literature that you like and use, the types of research questions you ask, the tools that you use, the answers you will accept and all the stages in between." (V Bawnfield, E Hall, K Wall, 2013, p 15)

This is interesting because it is suggesting that it is not only your professional experience that will influence your inquiry, but also everything else that has shaped your life that will impact upon it. Maintaining objectivity and trying to present an unbiased view in my research will, therefore, be quite difficult to do.

Reader 6 mentions the terms 'ethnology', positivist and 'interpretivist'. I needed further clarification of the context within which these terms are used to see which would apply for my research.

 Costley et al in "Doing Work Based Research"  gives the following definition of 'Ethnology":

      "This is a broad methodological category within which different methods, normally qualitative can be employed. It's main principal involves going into (or being in) 'the field' and collecting unstructured data through methods such as observation, discussions and interviews and to explore and illustrate a social situation." (2010, p 89)


Baufield et al gives the following definitions of 'positivist' and 'interpretivist'.

• Positivist

      "The positivist scientific tradition states that we can generate rules and laws based on facts and these can be investigated through experiments that test hypotheses using a deductive framework." (2103, p 17

• Interpretivistic

       "An interpretivist epistemology is often associated with social constructivism, looking beyond the individual to how they relate to their peers, their family, their class and culture and so on." (2103, p 16)

I found the following site which gives an example illustrating the difference between the interpretivistic and positivist approach helpful:

  https://www.academia.edu/342858/Interpretive_Research

It says that researchers working within a positivist paradigm will look at a child's reading disability as something that can be measured and possibly fixed, whereas those working within an interpretive paradigm want to see how the child copes with disability and reacts to those around them.

I have looked at the definitions above and considered them within the context of my research. I think that my approach to my inquiry will be an interpretivistic one as I will be concerned with observing different teaching approaches for young people at both ends of the autistic spectrum and seeing if there are any methodologies that are used that I can implement in my teaching. I will also be getting the opinions of teachers, students and parents about the dance learning experience for people with ASD.

Once I had decided what approach my research would take I looked at the different tools suggested in Reader 6 to see which I thought would be most appropriate to pilot amongst my SIG.

I have actually hit a bit of a problem here in that the tool that I want to pilot is video observation, but, being in Italy working currently with my emphasis on examining dance, it is not feasible for me to trial this approach. I am however quite used to doing video observation of mock examinations in my role as an examiner so this experience should enable me to carry out a video observation for my inquiry. I have therefore decided to pilot an interview and a questionnaire for Module 2.

I hadn't really considered the different interview techniques that there are, so I found the list in Reader 6 below very helpful in deciding which might work best to get the information for my inquiry:

• semi-structured interview which includes set questions or themes with the flexibility of following interesting or useful emerging issues is often most appropriate for the work-based researcher because of its inherent flexibility.
  
• non-directive or open interviews that allow the interviewee to talk about anything they like
  
• narrative inquiry (related to open) where the participants use a storytelling format
  
• informal interviews which have an overall data gathering aim using an extremely non-structured approach
  
• informal/guided interview which provides topic areas to cover but no set questions. Interviews are time-consuming but they can allow the collection of valuable data about motives, expectations and attitudes that are very difficult to collect by any other means. 

I think the semi-structured approach might work best for me as I have some specific questions that I want to ask, but, I also want to give the interviewee the opportunity to tell me about his/her own teaching methods and experiences. This is the approach that I will pilot. I am going to conduct my interview via Skype because it is not practical for me to do this otherwise, as the people in my SIG are all in the UK.

For my questionnaire I intend to use some of the questions from the initial draft questionnaire that I posted on my blog "Lightbulb moment". I have already re drafted these questions in my journal based on the feedback that I received on how to structure my questions from my SIG. I will use Survey Monkey to send my questionnaire to my SIG and other people on my BAPP course.

I have never analysed data before so I found the explanation of the different quantitive and qualitative approaches to data analysis in Reader 6 especially helpful. I anticipate that I will use a qualitative approach.

I will post the results of my pilot research methods on another blog.