The second weekend of study for the EdD cohort 6 occurred this weekend. Prior to attending I was feeling a little out of sorts, in that I hadn’t fully engaged with the reading expected of me, and was therefore feeling a little stressed at my lack of engagement and motivation – and also slightly overwhelmed by thoughts of having to ‘catch up’ to keep abreast of the next stages of the course that would be introduced.
I am relieved and happy to say that the weekend was enjoyable, motivating, stimulating, thought-provoking and helped to both consolidate and reinforce learning to date, as well as enabling a clearer picture of the way ahead to be formed – and not forgetting a great social occasion with fab food made and shared by all.
The two consecutive study days worked well for me in that after day 1 I was left with wanting more contact and discussion amongst my peers, and wanting this to happen in a different way i.e. with focus on a different subject matter, so that studying policy on day 1 and theory on day 2 worked well for me.
I was also reassured that a majority of the group appeared to have had similar engagement with the amount of reading and study too, so that as a cohort I feel that we appear to work well together.
During the Policy Day (day 1) we were able to work in small groups to unpack our ideas for future research and related policy and this was really useful. I was grouped with fellow healthcare professionals and this was useful for me to talk through my ideas about looking at both arts and health education. As a result the ‘suggested/most apparent’ answer for the module shifted more into focus with the developing idea that I should concentrate on reviewing and comparing the process and policies of art and design education against health and social care education. At present this seems clear and simple and a good way to start… this idea allows for my dual interests and qualifications to be supported and a good foundation on which to consider other arts and health realms…. let’s see how this progresses. I now have a starting pointing to follow at least.
We also had a talk/lecture from Dr Lesley Wollaston at Staffs and it was good to meet another academic from Staffs and see their passion and research interests being supported and developed within employment.
Day 2/Theory on Education.
I felt more motivated for this study day as I had undertaken the required reading and felt fairly confidant to contribute to group discussion. My group had been tasked to read about Pierre Bourdieu and I had found his work and ideas engaging, possibly due to a kinship with my interest in the sociology of learning. I particularly engaged with the simple equation that was used to illustrated his ideas and this served as good starting for unpacking his theories and developing group discussion:
(Habitus x Capital) + Field = Practice
Dr Cheryl Bolton gave a talk on her research trajectory and insight into Bourdieu’s work in relation to her own research interest. I had previously met Cheryl during the ‘acwriupnorth’ writing retreat and it was lovely to meet with her again as well as learning more about how to undertake and tackle doctorate study, particularly in relation to theory and how this fits in.
Dr Amanda Hughes also gave a talk about her doctorate research, which was about self-perceptions and propensities for learning: self esteem, self-concept and self-efficacy. This was good contrast to Cheryl’s work and really insightful to think further about cognitive and affect patterns of learning and behaviour with regard to self
As a result of this weekend I plan to immerse myself more fully into READING and aim to look at Bandura, Foucault, Seven Brookfield and Basil Bernstein for relevant theories that may be applicable to arts & health and reflection & reflexivity, as well as starting to unpack policy on teaching learning within arts and health.
