Critical Reflection on Professional Practitioner Inquiry

I have found the process of choosing my line of inquiry very helpful. When I first started I had so many questions that all led off in so many different directions, As you can see from my post “question time” (http://eloiseaharris.blogspot.com/2012/03/question-time.html). I didn’t know what I wanted to do my inquiry about as so many different aspects of my teaching career are important to me and I struggled to clarify initially what would be most helpful for me and my career and also relevant. In hindsight my initial questions were either not focused enough and so broad it would have been nearly impossible to do and inquiry on, or they would not actually help my career in anyway so there seemed little point in doing them as if it was a matter of personal interest I could just research it. After discussing it with my tutor we agreed that it would be an opportunity missed not to do it on my time teaching in the UAE so I decided on ‘ How does my dance teaching practice in the UK compare to my dance teaching practice in the UAE?’

After deciding my title I then moved on to the ethics tasks of section 5.  I had recently had a couple of meetings at work about the ethics expected in our profession so I was already aware of the professional codes of practice that we followed. (http://eloiseaharris.blogspot.com/2012/05/ethics.html)  However know that I knew what my inquiry was about it helped me to think about the ethics involved in my inquiry. My inquiry is to be self-reflective and no children will be interviewed, videoed or named throughout the process so there are no ethical issues there. I did however know I wanted a second opinion within my inquiry to help me form opinion better. Whilst my opinion and views will ultimately shape my inquiry I want to make sure I don’t make any sweeping statements etc. 

When deciding on what method to use to extract information from other dance teachers in my position I tried three different options; a survey, a interview and a focus group. ( http://eloiseaharris.blogspot.com/2012/05/research-tools-evaluation.html) Before I even started I thought the focus group would be most helpful, as it would allow discussions to evolve between the teachers. As mentioned in my ‘Research Tools Evaluation’ I would have like to of done a class observation but it would just not be feasible. I did find the process helpful as after doing the interview I had an idea of what questions helped the candidates give the most amount of information so then I used these questions when holding my focus group. I did post my survey within my SIG ‘ teaching dance to young children’ however I didn’t get any response as I wanted only people that had taught both in the UK and abroad to fill it in. I asked other professionals I know that have, but as mentioned in my evaluation I didn’t find the survey overly helpful. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HP2FYZ5.

Over all I have found the development process I have gone through very helpful. Deciding my line of inquiry early on was excellent as it allowed me to have a focus in mind when going through the different stages of both the ethics section and inquiry tools. Without having gone through these stages I do not feel my plan for my inquiry would be as focused.