Can you ‘theorise’ your own worker-researcher position? How do you ‘fit in’ within your organisation(s)?
Because I am working full time for a council in a call centre, it not the ideal setting for this inquiry. Fortunately, I have several people interested in my line of inquiry, who I have liaised with on the audition circuit.
I also have a friend who is a drama teacher in a secondary school, another friend working as an RAD accredited teacher in a secondary school/dance teacher in dance school, and people on this course interested in my research.
I choreograph for an ametuer dramatics society and perform regularly in a local theatre and have contacts there regarding what they would look for on a CV when casting shows/positions in theatre or commitee.
I feel a bit like I am spread over lots of different areas of work, but actually this is why my line of inquiry has lead me to what I am researching.
How does this position as an insider-researcher’ affect the way your think in terms of the questions you are asking?
I absolutely think that because of the paths I chose; dancing growing up, GCSE Dance and Drama, A-Level Performance Studies and National Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre, have affected how I look at my inquiry. My main argument is that I should (and could!) be able to do a PGCE based on the qualifications I already have/experience I have.
My Level 6 National Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre which I gained through Trinity College London is the same NVQ level as a degree. Someone, somewhere feels that this diploma we worked for, 8:30-5, Monday to Friday for 3 years, is not good enough by equivalent to be used for a PGCE. Because I am one of the people who has the diploma and not the degree, this certainly sways my opinion. I wonder what people with just the degree would think.
Can you find sources within your organisation, such as company policy papers or job descriptions that clarify how your relationship to the organisation will affect your inquiry?
I have been researching this week and already found several job descriptions which have really interested me. Uni lecturers actually sometimes require less qualifications than a secondary school teacher strangely enough. I am going to ideally get in touch with these people to find out their opinions, within their organisation, on this.
I have to research more in to policy papers. I am hoping I will see, in black and white, exactly why a diploma won't count for a PGCE in the arts... I will still contest it obviously, but it would be ideal to see the reasoning!
I mentioned above, how I know I am biased because "I am one of the people who has the diploma and not the degree", but I know I am not alone with this.
It's interesting that you mention 'I wonder what the people with just the degree would think' - it might be worth finding people who do have dance degrees from a university rather than somewhere like ArtsEd or LSC?
ReplyDeleteFor example, when I was in sixth form I was pushed towards university as I had good grades and it was what the teachers expected. I remember being told outright when I showed my head of year prospectuses for places like Bird or Laines that she wouldn't even bother looking at them as they were useless! So I did the whole filling in of the UCAS forms and even went to a few interviews - one of them was at DeMontford in Leicester, and it was a beautiful campus, a respected degree in Dance... with one hour of ballet each week! They explained that the practical was there to back up the theory, so you might learn about the muscles needed to make the toes point, then do a practical session on pointing toes. Flippin' ridiculous! I mean, maybe it's changed now, I am talking over ten years ago, but they said they were teaching people to be dance teachers and things like that rather than *actual* dancers. Crazy, no?!
xx
Oh Dani I know exactly what you mean! My 6th form tutor actually yelled at me because of what a waste theatre school was! She specifically shouted "but everyone must fill in UCAS!"
DeleteI didn't.
Yes, I have a friend who did Dance at Uni actually, and she now works as a performer for Alton Towers. It may be interesting to see how she feels regarding the above, and if she regrets uni and wishes she had gone to theatre school now she is performing.
I really want to look in to why, a PE teacher can teach GCSE Dance yet we would not be allowed to... I think it may be worth me looking in those schools that have acredited RAD teachers as well and how that development of dance teachers teaching in the education sectors happened.
I have wrote this on a previous blog post this week:
"I have also looked in to schools like The Brit School or Sylvia Young, where they are shaping their students for Musical Theatre colleges. It is still the same situation. BTECs are the qualification the children work towards in these schools yet again, someone like me, who went to a MT college, still needs the degree to be able to teach these children, despite them wanting to obtain a National Diploma in the end!"
A lot for me to look in to hey!!!