Adesola's Skype session on 'Ethics'

Image source:http://www.ualr.edu/vspillai/images/Ethics-cloud.png

I found this Skype session very valuable. Adesola gave a very clear view of what Ethics are actually all about saying that they are about how what you do and the way in which you do it affects everyone around you. It is about questioning the impact of what you are doing on other people.

She emphasised the fact that the research for our inquiry is about helping ourselves become better informed in our own professional sphere. It is a voyage of self discovery and we are not trying to change the world.

This point hit home with me because, after reading Anna Kennedy's book "Not Stupid" and seeing how she had managed to make a considerable difference to the lives of so many autistic people, I had been inspired with the desire to try to do something with my enquiry that I could follow up later that might also help autistic people. Adesola's comments brought me down to earth! She said we should ask ourselves the question "who am I to think that I can come up with the answer for someone else?"

I had been feeling that I should try to discover some answers in my enquiry, so it was very reassuring to discover that this was not the aim of the inquiry and that we were just trying to gather information and see what other experts in the field had written about it, collect the views of others and then analyse them and decide which, if any viewpoint we agreed with.

She told us to remember that questions and answers aren't inherently linked and that it is ok to answer a question with another question.

She also told us to consider the power of the researcher saying that as soon as you walk into a space and announce you are doing research it affects the way people will respond to you. She also said to be aware of what people will expect you to do with the information about them that you have gathered and that they will need closure so its important that they know when the research is over.

Adesola asked each of us to consider a different way of phrasing our inquiry question so that it might be viewed in a more ethical way. This really made me think about how others might perceive my question in a way I hadn't previously considered. I was initially thinking of a question along the lines of : 

      "Do dance teachers think they should be better informed about autism and that this should be addressed in the training of dance teachers?"

I realised that this was not an appropriate question to ask because it was implying that dance teachers had little or no knowledge of autism and could be viewed as being derogatory. It could also be seen to be casting aspersions on the way that dance teachers are trained and suggesting that the training is inadequate.

I am now looking into other questions that look at the different dance teaching approaches to autism. As a result I am looking at a wide range of literature to give me ideas on how I might frame my inquiry question.