Through the Skype call yesterday at 5pm many themes emerged which took out discussions down many different avenues and interests. We explored what each other wanted to discuss and through each of us adding our own experiences and ideas it seemed to spark another and it became a discussion and expression of out own ideas and opinions.
The way we veered off track and explored these tangents was a mirror image of the struggle I was having in beginning to formally write my literature review inline with my own research! squashing it all down and trying to get all of these interesting topics, articles and ideas that have formed my discovery of literature. Helen offered the party comparison and I had a light bulb moment! To invite/include in the review the people that should/need to be there. Keeping it relevant to my ideas, to my research and to the direction I am going. I am now working on my 'guest list' and figuring out and narrowing down the voices I am going to include. I now feel that will keeping all of it relevant to my inquiry and relevant to my practice it will allow me to put pen to paper. Parimala offered that I create a skeleton and fill it in as I go along. I think be creating my 'guest list' I will be able to form the bare bones and have a clear aim and idea of structure of how I will go about writing.
Throughout the discussion there were question of validity of sources as they may not be recognized or supported within an academic setting. Some body may not have conducted research formally yet are a critique of performances and share ideas of influence and effects on audiences. I feel this comes under the branch (we seemed to like tree analogy's in the skype call) of RELEVANCE as well. If it is relevant to your practice, if it is relevant to your questions and ideas, then it has validity and you should be able to include and use it to support your work and ideas . Same with those on Module one discussing figuring out AOL'S and Module Two discovering research and interests, it's relevance! It has to be relevant to me and my practice and that's what I took away from the conversation last night ,as my eureka moment, no matter what module we are on or where we are in this journey whatever we write must remain relevant and have meaning to us as individuals.
This has sparked an idea of voices for me, which I am going to post a reflection blog about another day. How I feel our 'voices' are central to our writing and our practice and how this course has helped me find my own 'voice' and possibly amplified it!
This blog is to discuss ideas as I start the journey of this MAPP course at Middlesex University.
Very well wrtitted Alice..Truly agree with your thoughts!!
ReplyDeleteI think when I remind myself that there is no right or wrong or yes or no (thinking about how our conversations steered in different directions), it gives me a sense of peace and calm. This was brought up in the morning chat and it is so true. I think beacause of our backgrounds we were placed in boxes, wrong or right (not very often in my studies!). Finding relevance is personal for me, finding relevance in my teaching, my relationships (professional and personal) my being. What is relevant and why, still to find out.
ReplyDeleteSamantha I completely agree I think relevance is personal discovery and personal journey, I think it's comforting to know there is no right to wrong and perhaps this is relevant with us finding our own voices. I'm planning on being a bit more decisive and keeping my work and google searches relevant to what I am inquiring as I do love a tangent!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this, I am just about to start with my literature review, so this will definitely help me.
ReplyDeleteI just participated in a workshop about solo composition. Your post shows me that doing a choreography is not so different to an 'academic' research. In choreography, we have an order, an assignment, a project... and we have to constantly question the relevance of the movements we are creating during the creative process. We have to make choices based on relevance. Once the project is defined and choices are made, the difficulty is to not jump from one idea to another. Stick with one idea and see what you can do with it. You can very often do so much more with one idea than you think, you just have to get to the bottom of it, dig deeper and deeper so you don't get stuck with your habits. The most difficult part, however, is to find a certain liberty and spontaneity or dynamic within this framework.
I guess it is the same with the literature review. It is not a free improvisation around a wide theme but a choreography with a precise assignment.
This is great thanks for sharing! This has really helped in terms of the literature review especially the guest list idea! I also like the fact that it is linked to us personally as individuals therefore we are all on a different learning journey.
ReplyDelete