Stage 1- Reviewing and clarifying the plan

Working Title:

An inquiry into the most effective ways to make a successful career transition from one industry into another, specifically from a dancer to a television presenter.

Aims and Objectives of the inquiry:

·         Use literature to identify existing theories on career transition both in a general sense and those specific to dancers.

·         To prove or disprove those theories by researching and interviewing professionals who have undergone/attempted to undergo career transition.

·         To identify the common factors between those who have undergone successful career transition which may lead to the discovery of successful methods of career change.

·         To investigate the skills which are necessary to work in both industries in order to identify those skills which are acquired by a dancer that can be transferred to help towards a successful career in television.

·         To learn about the nature and characteristics of the television industry by participating in courses/workshops and interviewing those working within it. This could help prepare aspiring presenters for the obstacles they may face before they arise.

·         Observe existing and aspiring presenters in order to identify the similar and different attributes between the two in order to help identify what may be necessary to succeed as a presenter.

·         Identify the pressures and demands of the television industry compared to those in the dance world to see the importance of various factors and how they differ. This includes research into the pressures of age, body image and physique to see whether they are as strong as they are in the dance world.

·         Discover and highlight other possible career options which come to light to help other dancers in transition, either through choice or injury.

·         Make a new show reel to be used as a television presenter within the industry. This should reflect all new information learned during the inquiry, which should, in turn, improve the likelihood of a successful transition.

Inquiry tools to be used:

·         Surveys: These will be sent out using www.surverymonkey.com to at least 20 professional dancers. The aim is to research their opinions on the process of career transition, whether they are interested or worried about career transition for themselves and the main reasons they believe dancers may undergo the process.

·         Interviews: Three dancers who took part in the survey will be selected for interview. These dancers will have undergone/ be undergoing career transition, one will be from the BAPP network and the others will be dance professionals. They will be interviewed on the obstacles they have found/overcome and their personal experiences of the transition process. A dancer named Jessica will also be interviewed to discuss her situation where she is being forced into career transition through injury as opposed to choice. Max Clifford (TV celebrity publicist) will be interviewed for his views on the television industry and what is needed to be successful within the industry. Lastly, Stacey Solomon (Singer turned presenter) will be interviewed for her story on breaking into presenting and the main pressures she has found so far.

·         Observation: I have undertaken the role of an insider researcher during a presenting course I attended. I observed the participants who were also on the course, particularly focusing on their current careers and how these careers helped or hindered their ability as a presenter during the course. This has helped me to identify many skills which are transferable to a career in television and those which are vital to have a chance of success. All findings have been recorded and I will be posting about them soon!

Stage 1- Review of feedback

I hope everyone had a great summer and is ready to get back into the inquiry project! I am making the most of the free day I have today to catch up on all the blogs and get some work done of my own!

So I have made a start on stage 1 of the inquiry process by going over the handbook and reader 7 for a second time as there was so much information to take in at once! I have also begun to review my feedback from the inquiry plan. By highlighting the more critical elements of the feedback I have been able to identify where I can add to the depth and clarity of my pending project.  An interesting point made was ‘Be clear in the criteria for sample interview choices.’ (Nottingham 2011).  In my plan I had stated that I was going to choose three dancers from the surveys who had had successful career transitions for further interview. However, I had not specified any other criteria for my selection. I have now identified a more detailed list of attributes these dancers will need to have in order to benefit my inquiry process. Details are as follows;

Criteria for dancers who participated in the survey to be selected for interview:

·         Have undergone successful career transition from dance to another sector or are currently undergoing successful transition.

·          Preferably two dancers who have transitioned to a completely different industry (e.g. television, production, business, management etc) and 1 who has transitioned within the dance industry to a different role (e.g. choreographer, teacher)

·         At least one dancer should be from the BAPP network and the other two will be other dance professionals.

During my inquiry plan I stated that I was going to interview a dancer I know who has been forced into career transition through injury as opposed to choice and a TV publicist who can give views on the television industry. However it was pointed out in my feedback that it may be good to ‘Interview someone in the role of presenter, who could challenge or counterbalance some of the other interviews suggested.’ (Nottingham 2011) Therefore, over the summer I have obtained provisional permission to interview Stacey Solomon who is successfully presenting primetime television shows and hopefully she will be able to talk of the transition between a singer and a presenter. I am hoping that this will show whether career transition theories can be generalised or if transition from dance is unique to other professions.

‘Referencing change management and career change literature might also be helpful’ (Nottingham 2011) I have found and read a book entitled ‘Ballet Dancers in Career Transition-Sixteen Success Stories.’ By Nancy Upper. It is compiled of short stories of ballet dancers who have transition and gone onto other careers. It is diverse in that it explores dancers who have transitioned within the ballet world and those who have completely changed their path, e.g. dancer to accountant. Due to this diversity it draws common ground as well as differences between all the dancers. Therefore, it is useful in providing general theories in relation to career transition. During my inquiry I aim to identify those theories and prove or disprove them with my findings. Full review of the literature to follow soon!

After going through my feedback in more detail I have been able to identify ways I can improve my inquiry process. I aim to maintain the positive points in this module and improve those which were more critical. By doing this I have already been able to clarify parts of my inquiry which may not have been clear to the reader previously.

Wiki page

Here is a link to my wiki page where I have posted another copy of my digital portfolio:

http://natalieless.wikispaces.com/

Critical Reflection and Summary: Digital Portfolio

After the first campus session this term, I started the module with a clear idea of what topic I would like to base an inquiry on. At the session the question ‘What is it you want to know?’ was posed, for which the answer was how to break into a new industry, specifically television presenting. From this I was able to develop a set of sub questions (Appendix A) which has shaped my pending inquiry.

Through blogging these questions I received initial comments on my topic from tutors as well as other students. This in turn led me to research other ideas about presenting that had not been previously considered. For example, a comment was made by Paula Nottingham: ‘Tell us about the presenting business - what is it - who does it- are there different levels of presenting - what are the competencies or capabilities?’ (Nottingham, 2011). After researching these ideas I wrote up my findings in a blog post (Appendix B). This solidified my understanding and allowed me to further develop my questions.

Through the introduction of SIGs on the Middlesex University facebook page I was able to create my own group entitled ‘The Television industry’ (Appendix C), where I discussed my questions with others who had similar interests. This was important as the discussion led to further new ideas, including the importance of genuine passion on the presenting subject versus developing skills to ‘fake it’ (Adeyinka 2011). This led me to consider the necessary skills to be a good presenter which now forms a sub section of my pending inquiry.

Through developing my questions within the professional community I gained the opinions of a television agent and a friend who is attempting career transition (Appendix D). I used their knowledge and experiences to decide which other sub questions I would investigate in my actual inquiry. Their ideas on whether television was a more stable career than dancing were contrasting. I therefore felt that the pressures and demands of the television industry would be an interesting topic to explore further, through another sub section of my planned inquiry, in order to understand the stability of a career in presenting.

I formed my own ideas on a code of practice for a dance teacher (Appendix E) by analysing ethics. Furthermore, I looked into an official code of conduct from my employer (Appendix F), indicating that there were rules that I had not previously considered, including the importance of having full knowledge of all risks involved. This helped me in acquiring a base knowledge of ethical practice, most of which I previously adhered to naturally. This made the understanding of the ethics reader more relevant to my practice.

After studying the ethical theories presented in the reader (Appendix G) I discovered that there are ethical ideas that can help me be a better professional during my inquiry and in the long-term. By being aware of the organisational ethics in the work place, I can now comply with ethical standards, for example gaining permission from interview participants in my inquiry to eliminate disruption in their workplace.

From piloting various inquiry tools such as an interview, survey, observation and focus group, I gained important experience of using the tools that would help me research ideas during my inquiry. After conducting the pilots I assessed the merits and limitations of each tool (Appendix H) and concluded the methods that would be most useful in obtaining results for my inquiry.

Through locating pieces of literature already written on my topic I was able to review ideas that others have had on career transition among dancers (Appendix I). From the literature I identified gaps in the existing research, including a lack of research on dancers in the UK compared to those in other European countries. This has helped me to form my inquiry as I aim to cover many of the gaps identified during literature analysis. I then bookmarked this literature and other useful research sites using Delicious. This site allows ease for frequent access to refer to previously saved literature for quotes or research. By creating my own Delicious profile (Appendix J) I can also see what sites other students have bookmarked, to help expand material for my literature review.

All of the tasks undertaken have helped convince me that my inquiry into dancers and career transition will be beneficial for my professional practice. They have allowed me to gain enough research, knowledge and experience to plan my pending investigation into the most effective way to make a transition from dancer to television presenter.

Appendix A: http://natalieless.blogspot.com/2011/02/developing-line-of-professional-inquiry_10.html

Appendix B:http://natalieless.blogspot.com/2011/03/questions-and-background-research.html

Appendix C:http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/topic.php?uid=145821545478191&topic=59

Appendix D:http://natalieless.blogspot.com/2011/03/4c-developing-questions-within.html

Appendix E:http://natalieless.blogspot.com/2011/02/ethics-and-codes-of-practice-task-5a.html

Appendix F:http://natalieless.blogspot.com/2011/03/5b-official-code-of-practice-and.html

Appendix G:http://natalieless.blogspot.com/2011/03/5c-reader-on-professional-ethics-and.html

Appendix H:http://natalieless.blogspot.com/2011/04/6b-reflections-on-inquiry-tools-merits.html

Appendix I:http://natalieless.blogspot.com/2011/04/6c-literature-reviews.html

Appendix J:http://www.delicious.com/natalie_less

6d. Delicious

I have set up my Delicious account which is quick and easy to do. Once you have created an account you can bookmark websites which then leads you to discover other people who have bookmarked the same website which means you can then discover all the other sites that they use as well. It is a good tool for discovering new sites that won't necessarily come up through Google and sharing them with others.

This is the link to my Delicious account:

http://www.delicious.com/natalie_less

I have bookmarked ten websites which I use for this course and for my professional life in general.

6c. Literature reviews

The first piece of literature is a report on an inquiry into dancers and career transition entitled ‘Life after dance: Career transition of professional dancers’ conducted and written by Joan Jeffri and David Throsby in 2005. Jeffri and Throsby studied dancers and their career transitions in three different countries- Australia, Switzerland and the United States with the aim to discover ‘Insights into challenges of career change as seen from the viewpoint of the individual dancer’. (Jeffri and Throsby, 2005).

While this inquiry explores a wide range of dancers (classical, contemporary, folk, commercial and others) one of the main limitations for my research purposes is that it does not cover dancers in the UK. It States that there is a ‘difficulty in speaking about career transition in a global way’ (Jeffri and Throsby, 2005) so this made me consider there could never be fair results globally as each culture would treat the topic differently. However, I still feel the results are useful to me as a general guide and many of the ideas represented in the paper are reflected in examples of dancers from the UK who I have come across. For example the paper argues that there is a ‘higher level of post-transition career satisfaction among those fully prepared to meet transition than among those not fully prepared.’ (Jeffri and Throsby, 2005). I agree with this statement as many of my friends and colleagues who have been successful in career transition have been more prepared than anyone else. However, in my experience there are also many other factors that contribute to success which are not explored in the report such as willingness to change, desire, reason for change, current skills, knowledge, attributes, networking, luck etc. This led me to consider exploring all these other factors in my own inquiry in order to establish which are the most important factors in achieving successful career transition.

The author concludes that the majority of dancers go on to work in something related i.e. dance teaching or choreography and there is only a small number who go on to explore a different field completely. I agree with this as in my experience most dancers I know have done teaching at some point in their career or as a transition due to injury but the inquiry did not go on to research the other careers which are unrelated and what they may be. As I want to go into television, which would be a different industry altogether, it is the unrelated careers which perhaps interest me more and it also did not explore why dancers may want to try something new. I also found it limited as it only researched into dancers undergoing transition as a result of injury or age but not those who simply have a desire to work in a different industry. Therefore in my own inquiry I would like to explore transition at a younger age among dancers who have ambitions and goals in other areas.

I found it particularly useful that the report noted skills including ‘Self-discipline, team work and stamina’ (Jeffri and Throsby, 2005) which are acquired by a dancer which are useful in most professions. It covers the importance of education and qualifications in order to progress in other careers and the importance of retraining for other careers in advance of needing to undergo transition. All of the conclusions are agreeable and justified by data collected from surveys and questionnaires. The main conclusion that is reached is that ‘expectations and realities differ’ (Jeffri and Throsby, 2005) which has been useful to me as I am now aware that the ideas of the dancers I may interview may not be the reality of how their career will progress. Overall, the report was useful in establishing the importance of preparation, awareness and transferable skills towards a successful career transition. However, it does not go in depth into other possible careers for dancers and other reasons why dancers may choose a career transition. Therefore, I would like to include the points in my own inquiry.

The second piece I have been looking at is a newspaper article from The Guardian entitled ‘Former Countryfile presenter fronts ITV investigation into ageism on TV’ written by Tara Conlan in February, 2011. It focuses on the case launched by Miriam O’Reilly against the BBC for age discrimination after she was sacked from her job as the presenter of Countryfile. The article tells of how O’Reilly won the case and as a result is now potentially going back to work for the BBC. I found this interesting as it showed the nature of the industry and made me realise how important public support is to its success. The BBC are obviously more concerned about losing public support than sticking by their view on who is right for the job. This was useful to me in researching the culture of the industry and the pressures and demands that come with it. In my inquiry I would like to look into pressures I may be faced with if I was to succeed in making a successful transition to a television presenter. The article highlights others who have faced this same pressure such as Arlene Philips which pointed out the urgency in making this transition sooner rather than later.

In the article the author quotes Miriam O’Reilly herself saying that ‘My ability to do my job on Countryfile had never been questioned. I didn’t think it was fair to lose it for something I had no control over- getting older’ (O’Reilly, 2011). While I agree that obviously ageism is wrong and she had the right to fight against the BBC, unfortunately dancers face the same obstacle of losing their jobs due to age but because they are not in the public eye they cannot launch cases of ageism against all agents, directors and employers. There was barely any counter argument presented in this particular article. All quotes were from O’Reilly and none from the opposing. Therefore, I feel this article may be biased towards O’Reilly as it does not show a balanced view and then reach a conclusion. To me it would have been plausible for the BBC to want to give the show a younger image and attract more viewers through a young presenter, this does not mean she would not be suited to any presenting role.

The only counter argument provided throughout the whole article was one quote from former newsreader Buerk who argues ‘Get over it. It’s show business’ (Buerk, 2011) This is not taken any further in the article and the writer then goes on to defend O’Reilly by stating that the public want to see older presenters on television. I found this article useful in highlighting age as a major pressure on many television presenters. Perhaps, at the moment this is a good thing for me as I have youth on my side. However, if I am to make a successful transition then I fear this is a pressure which may come around all too quickly. During my inquiry I would like to research into other pressures and demands facing television presenters and how these could possibly be overcome or eliminated.

The last piece of literature I am going to review is another report on an inquiry launched into dancers and career transition entitled Retirement Transition in Ballet Dancers: Coping Within and Coping Without’ by Irina Roncaglia. The aim was to investigate the experiences of career transition in ballet dancers, from a life course perspective. It also focused on how ballet dancers cope with the transition and the different factors influencing the coping process. One of the first limitations with this report is that it only focuses on ballet dancers. Due to the fact that I am not a ballet dancer I feel that some of the conclusions reached may be different depending on the type of dancers being studied. I would like to study a range of dancers in order to get a more rounded and fair conclusion. However, many of the same principles can still be applied. The paper states that the data was established from ‘semi-structured interviews from fourteen international ballet dancers (Roncaglia, 2010)’. While the qualitative data gained from these interviews must have been helpful in establishing the views of the dancers, it is not a very large number of people to base statistical results and conclusions on. During my inquiry I am to interview and survey a much greater number of dancers in order to make my results as fair and accurate as possible.

The paper uses Schlossberg’s model (1981) as a framework for coping strategies used. It identifies these as ‘situation, self, support and strategies’. It then uses Taylor and Ogilvie’s model (1994) to show causes which initiate the retirement or transition process as ‘Age, deselection, injury and free choice.’ This was useful to me as it covered free choice as opposed to being forced to transition. However, unfortunately it did not go as far as to explore the reasons for free choice and what other careers are available. Therefore, I would like to cover this in my own inquiry. The paper identifies eight psychological processes as possible coping strategies for retirement or transition as ‘denial, alienation, letting go, isolation, severance, acceptance, renegotiation, reconstruction’ (Roncaglia, 2010). I have found all of these to be applicable to transition as well as retirement and from my experience so far I have found that people find letting go and acceptance among the hardest to deal with.

Overall, the paper was useful in providing reasons for transition outside injury and age and in exploring the notion of free choice which is something I would like to focus on more. It was also interesting to learn about the coping strategies experienced by the dancers interviewed and this may be something I can come back to during my inquiry. However, the report was limited as it only focused on ballet dancers and used such a small amount of people to provide such general results.

References:

Conlan, T, 2011, Former Countryfile presenter fronts ITV investigation into ageism on TV, published by The Guardian Newspaper. Available from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/10/countryfile-miriam-oreilly-tonight-itv?INTCMP=SRCH (accessed 28^th March 2011)

Jeffri, J and Throsby, D, 2005, Life after Dance: Career Transition of Professional Dancers, available from http://neumann.hec.ca/aimac2005/PDF_Text/JeffriJ_ThrosbyD.pdf (Aaccessed 28th March 2011)

Roncaglia, I, 2010, ‘Retirement Transition in Ballet Dancers: Coping Within and Coping Without’ Forum: Qualitative Social Research FQS , Volume 11, No. 2, May 2010. Available from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/viewArticle/1348/2929 (accessed 29th March 2011)

 

6b. Reflections on inquiry tools- merits and limitations of each method used for pilots

Having completed a pilot of the four inquiry tools, I am now able to evaluate the merits and limitations of each one.  From conducting the pilots I have been able to see which of the tools may be appropriate for my inquiry. In order to help me decide, I am going to evaluate how effective each tool was in helping to answer my questions.

SURVEY: I created my pilot survey using http://www.surveymonkey.com/ and the questions focused on participants current careers compared to their ideal career goals. It focused on how likely they were to undergo career transition and tried to find out the main reasons why dancers may want to undergo career transition.

Merits:

·         I found the process of creating the survey (using http://www.surveymonkey.com/) quick and easy. The website guides the user through the process and it is free to create a basic survey.

·         Due to the fact that my survey was created on the internet meant that it could then be easily accessed by others to take part. I posted the link to my blog and to the BAPP facebook page, meaning that I got a good number of responses. In just a couple of weeks 21 people from this course completed the survey, meaning that my results and more rounded and fair. This was just by posting the link in two places. I feel confident that I can use this tool to reach many more people during my inquiry as I can send the link to more people and allow a longer time period for people to answer it.

·         The survey was also good as it allowed for a variety of different types of questions including; multiple choice, comment boxes and rating scales. This meant that my results were both quantative and qualitative.

Limitations:

·         People skipping some questions means that results may not be fair. A few people skipped the responses in the comment boxes so some results were lacking an explanation.  During my actual inquiry I am going to use the option to make some questions which can’t be skipped in order to make results as fair as possible.

·         A survey is limited for results with expanded explanations. Even though there is the option for comment boxes, people do not tend to leave long answers. This could be a limitation if you were looking for a lot of qualitative data.

INTERVIEW: For my pilot interview I interviewed a friend of mine who is currently attempting to undergo career transition from dancer to television actress. I used a semi- structured approach and the areas of discussion focused on; Why she wants to transition, the obstacles she is facing, how she plans to get to her ideal career goal and her views on whether someone undergoing transition should continue to work in their previous area or industry.

Merits:

·         It was useful to talk to someone on a one on one basis as you can go deeper in to their individual ideas much more than you can with a general survey

·         The semi structured approach meant that I could be spontaneous with some of my questions if the interviewee brought up something of interest which was relevant to explore but it still gave a structure which meant I could get back to my questions at any time. This also meant that we covered all my planned questions in the interview without getting too much off the point.

·         I recorded the interview using a Dictaphone so I didn’t have to spend the whole time writing notes. This allowed me to focus on the responses I was getting so I could effectively steer the interview depending on what she was saying.

·         This tool was also good as the interviewee did not feel intimidated as there was no one else in the room unlike during a focus group. I was able to give her my full attention without having to worry about controlling a whole group of people.

·         It was easy to organise the interview as she lives close to me. We met on neutral ground at a coffee shop to ensure that she felt as comfortable and relaxed as possible.

Limitations:

·         Compared to creating and sending out a survey, the process was quite time consuming. We had to arrange the meeting around a week in advance due to both of our busy schedules. I also had to allow travel time in to my day and time afterwards to listen to my recording and then make notes. The process took a lot more time than the survey and I only had one person’s answers at the end compared to a large number of responses after the survey. However, the responses were much more comprehensive and insightful.

·         I sometimes found it hard to maintain professionalism due to the fact that I was interviewing a friend. It was hard not to slip into a friendly chat and steer the conversation back to my questions.

·         It was hard to maintain objectivity when talking in person as often the person can see your opinions through your expression and reaction even if you do not say exactly what you think. This could then influence their answers even if they are not aware of it.

OBSERVATION: For my pilot observation I observed fellow participants during a day presenting course I was on. I focused on looking at how their previous or current career affected their skills as a presenter, both favourably and adversely. The results were useful in highlighting the skills necessary to be a good presenter and the likelihood of a successful transition from various careers.

Merits:

·         This tool was effective as you can see things from a firsthand perspective.

·         It is the only tool which doesn’t rely on other people’s opinions, but instead allows you to analyse their behaviour. This was useful as sometimes people do things they aren’t necessarily aware of. If they were asked which skills they gained from their previous career best help them as a presenter they may not necessarily know. However, just by watching the other participants and comparing them to each other I was able to clearly see which skills they had acquired and which were necessary to come across as a good presenter.

·         I used an overt observation, meaning that I informed the participants beforehand that I would be observing them for academic purposes. They all consented and this didn’t seem to affect their behaviour. I felt it was more important to take ethical considerations.

Limitations:

·         There is a risk when using an overt observation that it will affect the behaviour of the participants. However, then there is the dilemma that conducting a covert observation may be ethically wrong.

·         As a participant on the course myself it was sometimes hard to record the data from my observations as I was also concentrating on making sure it didn’t affect my learning on the day. I had to record my observations during the breaks which meant that some information may have been missed.

FOCUS GROUP: To pilot this tool I arranged a focus group with 6 friends who I trained with at college. All were trained dancers but I tried to include people with a variety of careers and ideal goals. Three of the participants were happy with their careers as a dancer but the other three were all looking to already undergo career transition, either into television, acting or management. During the discussion we focused on why they did/did not want to undergo transition, the main obstacles they were facing, how they saw their ideal future, the importance of being happy in your career and the way they felt their experiences during training has affected what they want to do.

Merits:

·         Due to the number of people there I was able to gather a variety of opinions and ideas rather than the view of just one person like in an interview.

·         Individuals were able to bounce off other people in the group leading to a more dynamic discussion

Limitations:

·         A large number of different personalities meant that some people’s opinions may have been lost or swallowed up in the discussion

·         The conversation tended to  go round in circles rather than reaching any solid conclusions

·         It was much harder to steer the discussion back to my questions with this number of people

·         It was a time consuming process to organise everyone getting together at a convenient time

·         It was hard to record the discussion as even though everyone said their name on the Dictaphone before we began, it was still hard to differentiate between the voices when listening to the recording

·         The discussion moved too quickly to make any detailed notes