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PARIP
Symposium
WORKSHOP GROUP 4 TRANSCRIPT How the academic
contexts of practice as research affect how it is pursued and evaluated.
What characterizes appropriate research contexts for practice as and practice-based
research and what implications do those research contexts carry for the
development of best practices? Why has there been relatively little progress
with PAR in media studies, versus performance studies? What about the
role of the RAE, academic grant-funding
bodies such as the AHRB and professional
funding bodies such as the Arts
Council of England? Rapporteur: Graham
Ley, Exeter University We also had 5 different
concerns. 1) There is a need for the adequate provision for practice as
research to feed into teaching and a need for guidelines for the involvement
of undergraduates in practice as research, both in connection with funding
and also in connection with student assessment. 2) There is the problem
of reinterpretation for postgraduate. We would like to wrestle with the
wording laid down rather than accept the status quo and also look at guidelines
for examiners in this area. 3) We are also concerned about excluded practices,
those which aren’t framed as research and aren’t addressing
current academic trends and fashion. What about practices that are dealing
with cultures not represented within the academy? 4) We would also seek
to clarify assessment methods in order to encourage appropriate evaluation.
This needs to relate to process but emphasize the responsibility of the
practitioner to make methods clear and in so doing make the examiner adopt
appropriate evaluation methods. 5) We also identified the need to debate
the criteria presented to us by funding bodies and the criteria presented
by such authorities as SCUDD,
PARIP, SCODHE, etc. Alison
Oddey: I would like to note that Graham was a very effective chair
in trying to ensure that points were written on the paper during the discussion.
And he made regular comments about the time. It was decided that a member
of the group would write comments down through the process of discussion,
but that person wrote nothing. What happened was that a number of people
got down to write. There’s a variety of handwriting on sheet… Comments Martin
White: At various points during the weekend we have all felt the need
to distinguish between advanced research and postgraduate research. There
does seem the need for greater discussion, though I’m not sure it’s
PARIP’s role. SCUDD, SCODHE,
PALATINE, etc do need to
do this, in collaboration with PARIP, the UK
Council for Graduate Education and the AHRB.
There needs to be joint discussion, possibly involving students, to draw
together to talk about what’s going on and what the shared issues
are. Is this area something that we should take forward through these
groupings? Kate
Newey: The PALATINE
practice as research workshops are precisely about these pedagogy issues.
PALATINE is a HEFCE-funded
subject center, a learning and teaching support network covering dance,
drama, and music to develop best practice in those areas. Baz
Kershaw: Some of the work complements PARIP’s focus. Martin
White: I suspect that SCUDD will want to pursue this, too. Christopher
Bannerman: As will SCODHE. Liz
Hare: I would be very pleased to see postgraduate students at the
Edge Hill College of Higher Education SCUDD conference
to discuss this (22-24 March 2002). Unidentified speaker:
As this is about performing arts, where are the musicians? Baz
Kershaw: The brief of PARIP was pretty wide already — we had
to draw the line somewhere. Unidentified speaker:
But musicians are performing artists and dancers work so closely with
musicians. Baz
Kershaw: That’s not saying other people can’t join the mailing
list. Angela
Piccini: I want to take it back to Group 3’s question: what are
PARIP’s outcomes? This recording — audio and photographic —
will be put on to PARIP website. And that will include amended and updated
practitioner-researcher directories, which will become part of the PARIP
database. So we do envision that the project will be a hub to which the
community can come for information. Caroline
Rye: There was also an underlying need for models and examples that
people can take back to their institutions in order to fight corners around
rubric. That is already written in to our remit. PARIP will provide a
central database of examples of best practice. The proceedings of this
conference and some of the documentation work we’ve been doing is
the start of that. Baz
Kershaw: Are there any final points? Unidentified speaker:
What about the role of the professional arts community? How do we extend
the discussion to that constituency? Baz
Kershaw: PARIP has written in to its scheme that in Year 3 we will
try to do a survey of innovative performance companies whose work might
be contiguous to that in the academy. As there is lots of overlap of people
— going from professional environments to the academy, etc. —
it is an important issue. I started by saying that PAIRP should be facilitative of the various research communities you represent. The various outcomes of the project will be available to you. The website is continually updated. The e-mail network will grow; it currently stands at over 170 practitioner-researchers. Please encourage people to sign up to the list to generate stronger networks. Also, we met yesterday with the regional group coordinators to initiate that network. But if others want to be involved in a regional group, please get in touch with us. PARIP will be developing case studies and we hope that the regional groups will do the same so that we can explore the different kinds of case studies that can be built up around projects. We will be running a series of projects here in Bristol, plus one at Middlesex, particularly looking at processes of documentation, not just video. This is partly with the intention of creating a documentation framework that will be available to institutions working in this area. This framework will include some types of equipment — practical developments which will benefit you and your colleagues. There will also be two more public events: a national conference and an international conference; this in not just to encourage the research but also to modify and change the field. The earlier point about drama’s historiography is pertinent as it seems that what you represent is another shift. It is important that we establish this on the international agenda, so that policy makers begin to acknowledge its importance. So thanks to everyone for participating in this symposium.
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