The focus of this session was 'Ethics', referencing Course Reader 5.
We began by discussing our interpretations of the word 'ethics' :
- good and bad
- fair and just
- rules
- protection
- core values
- regulations
- virtues
- right and wrong
- morals
- code of conduct
Ethics ----->>> 'Ethos' - Greek for 'Character'.
We established that it can be a fine line between an ethos and a purpose/mission. E.g. in a school, the purpose/mission is WHAT is done, the ethos is HOW.
Virtues - values, good-bad qualities. E.g. kindness, patience, honesty.
Once we had established the terminology, we put it all into practice, firstly by exploring our own personal values -
Personal Values
* Determination/drive
*Optimism (see the good in everyone and everything)
*Honesty
*Respectful - treat others as you want to be treated.
Professional Values
*Determination/drive
*Motivation
*Respectful
*Always give 100% effort, no matter what
From comparing eachothers' professional ethos, we could determine that a 'good professional' in any career field requires qualities such as:
*Determination
*Reliability
*Ruthlessness, where necessary
Conflicts with Personal Ethics
*Salesmen often find themselves facing a moral dilemma, having to push-sell items they don't necessarily believe in, as a way of paying their bills. Mark gave a brilliant example of this, from his own experience.
Doctors also face ethical issues on a daily basis - they take the Hippocratic Oath, and yet personally, their compassion must urge them to put terminally ill patients out of pain and misery.
I am also no stranger to brushing certain morals under the carpet, if it means I can pay my bills or afford to go to an audition that week. It has made me think how many personal ethics we have to forfeit, in order to be a successful professional.
The reader highlights a thought provoking example of this. For those of you who haven't got around to reading this, here's a short extract:
'In 1993, Kevin Carter, a documentary photographer, came across an impoverished girl in Sudan struggling to crawl towards water where everyone else had headed. As he was observing her, a vulture landed near the girl. Carter waited for nearly 20 minutes for the bird to spread its wings in order for a good photograph, but it never did. After taking some photos anyway, he did not help the girl reach the feed station and instead left her to die. The controversy continued when in 1994 Carter won a Pulitzer Prize for the photograph. Sadly, he committed suicide on July 27th, 1994 due to the extreme guilt that he felt for letting the Sudanese girl die when he knew he could have prevented it. His suicide note read, "The pain of life overrides
the joy to the point that joy does not exist."
There have been many arguments that Carter’s lack of intervention on the girl’s
behalf was fully justified. Before leaving on the assignment, he and the other
photographers were instructed not to touch anyone for fear of epidemics.
Furthermore, the ethical role and duty of a photographer is to observe and not
interfere.' (BA Professional Practice Course Reader 5, Professional Ethics, 2010/11).
We also discussed the affects law has on ethics, i.e. enforcing ethics. Comparative ethics can be seen between countries with different laws and different cultures. Examples of this include polygamy and homosexuality.
We were then given the following passage -
" The film 'Billy Elliot' tells the story of a boy in a mining town in the North of England during the miner's strike and his fight to study ballet. One scene showed 'Billy' practicing pirouettes over and over again in his quest to get them right. The delight on his face was obvious when he showed his dance teacher his achievement but the delight instantly turned to disappointment when no praise was offered. Instead his arm placing was criticised."
We were given three theoretical approaches to ethics, with which to 'make sense' of this passage, so to speak. They were :
*CONSEQUENCIALISM - e.g. an approach used by Utilitarians - 'The greater good'. e.g. killing one person to save nine lives.
*DEONTOLOGIST APPROACH - There is no 'grey' area, where morals can be reasoned, depending on circumstances. Something is either right or wrong, black or white. e.g. All lying is wrong, no matter how small or big the lie.
* VIRTUE ETHICS - Assessing the situation and the character of the person, before making a moral judgement. e.g. Crimes of passion.
Looking at these three approaches, my group came to this conclusion:
Consequencialism - small disappointment for Billy, but correction makes him a better technical dancer
Deontologistical - No positivity about the pirouettes, just negative about the arm lines.
Virtue Ethics - The teacher was doing what she believed to be ethically right, in her role as Billy's teacher, and she knew he would respond well to this method of teaching - 'Body Centered Approach', as opposed to a 'Person Centered Approach'.
Leading on from this task, we briefly discussed our own experiences with these two main teaching techniques, which worked best for us, and why.
Case Study
Once we had explored these examples, we were given case studies of our own. My group was given an Internet article dating June 2009, about an alternative outreach dance project, organised by a team from the Royal Opera House. A team flew out to China, to teach an intensive creative dance course for a week. The course included students of all ages and abilities, some disabilities, and students suffering the affects of the recent earthquakes. The issues being dealt with included:
- language barriers
- cultural/religious differences
- the approach needed to teach a variety of ages and standards
- the handling of delicate subjects, including disability and the earthquake
- the consequence that their visit would have on the students
Therefore, a good Ethos for this particular project would include the following virtues:
- Appropriateness, and an ability to cater for all needs
- Sensitivity
- Good communication
- Patience
Final Task
Our final task of the day was to re-group, and come up with an appropriate code of conduct for our profession. My fellow 'performers' and I came up with this:
CODE OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS - PERFORMER.
1. Performers must have consideration and respect for the Ethos of those they work for/alongside.
2. Performers must be dedicated throughout, including during the preparation, rehearsal and product stages.
3. Performers must conscientiously use sheet music and choreography, in an appropriate way, during teaching and audition processes.
4. Performers must have a responsibility to deliver to the best of your ability at all times.
5. Performers are obligated to fulfill contract requirements.
6. Performers must strive to not deliberately endanger oneself. e.g. reckless/avoidable accidents.
7. Performers must have a responsibility for the safety of themselves and others in the work place.
8. Performers are obligated to take care of all legalities involving self-employment, i.e. taxes, national insurance.
Conclusion
I found this session extremely helpful on so many levels. I began the lecture at a complete loose end with regard to my inquiry, but this has really whetted my appetite for going down the routes of ethical links and how far people would be prepared to go, to become 'successful'. That also raises the question, 'by which standards are we measuring success?' I left this session feeling that I have gained a lot of tips and aids for my teaching job too, which I will definitely try out next week. Overall, an extremely useful campus session, once again. Now I need to organise my thoughts enough to establish my inquiry.
Wednesday 23 February 2011
Sunday 20 February 2011
Campus Session - 08/02/2011
Hi all.
I thought I'd best get this first entry on the go, whilst everything from the session is still fresh in my head!
This session was my first trip to the campus, I regret to admit, but I'm going to try and make it to every session for this module, as I have already felt the benefit after just one session - last module, I felt I was consantly trying to play catch-up, and I could not fully engage in discussions on blogs, as I wasn't entirely sure what everyone was talking about!
I'm going to start off by briefly talking about the tasks of the day -
1. Knowledge
We were asked individually to consider what knowledge we needed, to become successful in our chosen careers. We then were put into groups, relevant to our professions; I was put in a group with 3 fellow performers. We collaborated our lists, and ended up with a big list along these lines:
- Castability (vocally, visually and physically)
- Talents (skills and limits)
- Different learning techniques
- Taking care of yourself
- Social Communication
- Intrapersonal skills
- Web based tools
- Preparation
- Presentation, and awareness of the impression you give people
- Knowing your own mind
- Audition Technique and etiquette
- The ability to critique yourself efficiently
Adesola looked at our list, containing predominantly professional knowledge, and threw in the idea of less specific knowledge. Things such as budgeting, time management and general survival, which are all used by 'ordinary people' and aren't just specific to performers.
We were then asked, in our groups, to present our lists as a graphical representation. As we trie to categorise our list, we noticed a lot of overlaps. I considered using a Venn diagram, to demonstrate the overlap between general and professional knowledge, as we established that things such as time management, social communication and preparation are important in general day-to-day life, as well as in our profession.
However, we then spotted that, for example, web based tools are a sub-category under social communications, so we decided to present our information in the form of a flow chart, which ended up more like a mind map of all the links, using main headings and sub-categories. This, and the other presentations can be found on Rosemary's blog.
<<<<< This is the mind map my group came up with.
4. Specialist Interests Groups (SIGs)
Our final task of the day was to discuss how best to go about setting up SIGs, as aids in our inquiry. We considered questions such as:
- How many SIGs should we join?
- How do we decide on membership? (exclusivity, numbers, etc)
- What do we expect of the SIG members?
- What responsibilities should I have, as a member of a SIG?
- What technologies should we use?
My group came up with the following suggestions:
- We should join around 3 SIGs, so we can give them all a decent amount of attention - don't spread ourselves too thinly!
- The possibility of each of us BAPP students being able to invite two guests of their own, that will have a beneficial contribution to the SIG.
- The members should be expected to contribute to discussions appropriately, and try to check up on, and have an input in, the SIG at least once a fortnight.
- Suitable technologies could include the Blogs, Facebook or Twitter.
When the groups came together, we were all pretty much on a similar wavelength, and steps have since been taken to set up a SIG on Facebook. The creator of each thread will be responsible for Blogging an overview of the discussions on the particular thread, and this main group will eventually split off into more specific SIGs. The address for the Facebook is >>>>> hBA-Professional-Practice-Arts-Middlesex-University, for those of you who haven't joined it yet!
I thought I'd best get this first entry on the go, whilst everything from the session is still fresh in my head!
This session was my first trip to the campus, I regret to admit, but I'm going to try and make it to every session for this module, as I have already felt the benefit after just one session - last module, I felt I was consantly trying to play catch-up, and I could not fully engage in discussions on blogs, as I wasn't entirely sure what everyone was talking about!
I'm going to start off by briefly talking about the tasks of the day -
1. Knowledge
We were asked individually to consider what knowledge we needed, to become successful in our chosen careers. We then were put into groups, relevant to our professions; I was put in a group with 3 fellow performers. We collaborated our lists, and ended up with a big list along these lines:
- Castability (vocally, visually and physically)
- Talents (skills and limits)
- Different learning techniques
- Taking care of yourself
- Social Communication
- Intrapersonal skills
- Web based tools
- Preparation
- Presentation, and awareness of the impression you give people
- Knowing your own mind
- Audition Technique and etiquette
- The ability to critique yourself efficiently
Adesola looked at our list, containing predominantly professional knowledge, and threw in the idea of less specific knowledge. Things such as budgeting, time management and general survival, which are all used by 'ordinary people' and aren't just specific to performers.
We were then asked, in our groups, to present our lists as a graphical representation. As we trie to categorise our list, we noticed a lot of overlaps. I considered using a Venn diagram, to demonstrate the overlap between general and professional knowledge, as we established that things such as time management, social communication and preparation are important in general day-to-day life, as well as in our profession.
However, we then spotted that, for example, web based tools are a sub-category under social communications, so we decided to present our information in the form of a flow chart, which ended up more like a mind map of all the links, using main headings and sub-categories. This, and the other presentations can be found on Rosemary's blog.
<<<<< This is the mind map my group came up with. Once we had presented it to the rest of the group, Jo came up with an interesting visual interpretation of this idea - she suggested portraying this like a map of the London Underground, each point being the stations and the categories being the lines. I really liked this idea, so I attempted it when I got home. The hand-drawn copy I have done is really clear, as I have been able to incorporate colour into it, which I enjoy using in exercises such as this, and revision. The computerised version is still a work in progress, but I will post it up once it's done, as I feel it really does represent the pathways of knowledge and the overlaps well.
2. The 'Big Question'
After a short break, we were asked what our 'Big Question' was. Once we'd established our own questions, we shared with the rest of the group. There were questions such as "Why are Musical Theatre actors taken less seriously than 'straight' actors?", "How does music influence children?" and my personal favourite, "What is next?". My question related to what is next for me, while I am still recovering from my ankle injury. We then took our questions and explored a selection of sub-questions, which we may then use during our inquiry.
3. What are the opportunities and challenges of being an 'insider' in your profession?
My group, a selection of performers and people involved in visual and Arts management, found that a lot of the challenges faced by performers could be used to the advantage of those on the 'other side', for example age and experience. Experience may seem important; however, especially in this economic climate, experienced dancers will be less willing to work on a voluntary basis or for lower pay than they are used to, whereas fresh graduates will be prepared to do pretty much anything, as cliche as it sounds, to get a job. Below is a table summarising our findings.
After a short break, we were asked what our 'Big Question' was. Once we'd established our own questions, we shared with the rest of the group. There were questions such as "Why are Musical Theatre actors taken less seriously than 'straight' actors?", "How does music influence children?" and my personal favourite, "What is next?". My question related to what is next for me, while I am still recovering from my ankle injury. We then took our questions and explored a selection of sub-questions, which we may then use during our inquiry.
3. What are the opportunities and challenges of being an 'insider' in your profession?
My group, a selection of performers and people involved in visual and Arts management, found that a lot of the challenges faced by performers could be used to the advantage of those on the 'other side', for example age and experience. Experience may seem important; however, especially in this economic climate, experienced dancers will be less willing to work on a voluntary basis or for lower pay than they are used to, whereas fresh graduates will be prepared to do pretty much anything, as cliche as it sounds, to get a job. Below is a table summarising our findings.
Challenges | Opportunities |
Stereotyping – stunts growth | Stereotyping – can mean you have a job for life |
Supply of graduates every year | I am a graduate right now |
Knowledge can hold you back | Experience and knowledge |
Age changes castability | Age – depends what directors are looking for |
Staying current | |
Making contacts | |
Maintenance (staying at the top) |
When I looked at blogs, such as Mark's, I saw a different approach to this task, looking at opportunities and challenged from a different angle, more specific to the inquiry. Below is a table summary of his thoughts which I found I could relate to.
Opportunities | Challenges |
You are in the perfect position to understand problem areas that need to be fixed | You may be too involved, and therefore overlook basic/obvious elements of the inquiry |
You have a passion and an interest for the inquiry | You may have preconceptions and may have a desired outcome, which could lead you to manipulate the results to suit your needs/only focus your attentions on information that supports your own preconceptions. |
You would be directly affected by the inquiry, and so in a position to reap the benefits | Difficulties may arise if you have a strong emotional attachment to the inquiry, or to a person affected by the inquiry. This could raise ethical issues. |
4. Specialist Interests Groups (SIGs)
Our final task of the day was to discuss how best to go about setting up SIGs, as aids in our inquiry. We considered questions such as:
- How many SIGs should we join?
- How do we decide on membership? (exclusivity, numbers, etc)
- What do we expect of the SIG members?
- What responsibilities should I have, as a member of a SIG?
- What technologies should we use?
My group came up with the following suggestions:
- We should join around 3 SIGs, so we can give them all a decent amount of attention - don't spread ourselves too thinly!
- The possibility of each of us BAPP students being able to invite two guests of their own, that will have a beneficial contribution to the SIG.
- The members should be expected to contribute to discussions appropriately, and try to check up on, and have an input in, the SIG at least once a fortnight.
- Suitable technologies could include the Blogs, Facebook or Twitter.
When the groups came together, we were all pretty much on a similar wavelength, and steps have since been taken to set up a SIG on Facebook. The creator of each thread will be responsible for Blogging an overview of the discussions on the particular thread, and this main group will eventually split off into more specific SIGs. The address for the Facebook is >>>>> hBA-Professional-Practice-Arts-Middlesex-University, for those of you who haven't joined it yet!
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