This document provides guidance for developing an inquiry proposal and addresses ethical considerations. It discusses choosing an inquiry topic and questions, progressing work with special interest groups, and forms related to ethics and employer support that are required. Students are advised to discuss their topic and progress with their tutor and peers, and consider political, cultural, and personal contexts of their proposed inquiry. The document also outlines what is required for the inquiry proposal submission, including discussing literature and ethics considerations, and choosing appropriate inquiry tools. Students are guided to draft necessary forms for feedback and submit their proposal by the indicated due date.

1. Progress on proposal
Ethical Considerations
Inquiry Proposal and Forms Tutor Paula Nottingham
There are bigger issues within your context that you might
need to consider to plan your inquiry – political, cultural and
social …
…and your own context –
personal and professional

2. Summing up Part 4 and leading into Part 5
Where are you now? Discuss this with your tutor and peers.
•Progress on you topic and then inquiry Questions
•Progress on working with Special Interest Groups (SIGs) – join
more than 1 with BAPP Arts and use your workplace SIG for
professional conversations you are not doing the ‘research’ now
but you can ask informal questions with professional colleagues to
help focus your inquiry – save the ‘research ‘ for Module 3
•Insider Research (Costley et al book for this module) and ethical
considerations
•Forms – Employer/Professional Support and Ethics Release Form
+ Award specialism title

3. Portfolio submission FROM HANDBOOK
Part 1: Professional Inquiry Proposal
You are asked to produce a proposal plan for a professional inquiry.
The indicated word count for this proposal is 3,000 words and uses Harvard
referencing.
Part 2: Critical Reflection
You are asked to produce a written summary entitled “Critical Reflection on
Professional Practitioner Inquiry”. The suggested length of the summary is
500 words that can be embedded with links that refer to your blog or have
appendices with evidence/illustrations from your learning journal.
Part 3: Professional Inquiry Forms
1. Ethics Release form - that summarises the ethics for your professional
inquiry
2. Employer/Professional Support form - this should be form your workplace
employer or professional peer dependent on your proposal
3. Award Specialism Title form – this is a negotiated element

4. Taking stock – writing your proposal
WHERE ARE YOU IN THIS PROCESS?
WHERE ARE THE OTHERS in our BAPP NETWORK?
The proposal incorporates
practitioner research but also
any outcomes you hope to
get out of doing the inquiry
Have you chosen a topic and
narrowed it down to
something more specific?
A special interest group (SIG) is
about finding a few people
within BAPP Arts or in your
workplace who can help you
think about and discuss your
topic and ethics.
If you have not already – ask
someone to join you in
discussion on the blogs, FB,
LinkedIn or face-to–face!
What are your inquiry
questions? What do you
want to find out?

5. You have been looking at sources - these can come from areas of practice and
books about how to research your area of practice.
LOOK at Summon and the Library Guides in the Library section on My UniHub –
there is also a study section on within the module up on MyLearning.
Don’t forget to use other practitioners and their arts research – these will also
inform the codes of practice’ you use for your inquiry… Look at the research
literature on the Reading List (on your module site).

6. Inquiry Proposal – indicated 3000 word count
An inquiry proposal is based on the activities you will
carry out in order to undertake your professional
inquiry, practitioner research and activities will have
implications and outcomes.
Each person will produce a unique proposal.
It should be written in the academic style.
It involves using ethical practice.

7. What is the
relationship
between personal
ethics and
professional
ethics ?
What about the
relationship of your
work and society?

8. (Blaxter, Hughes and Tight,
2001)
The proposal will also include
some practitioner research.
A research analogy – exploratory
practitioner research might relate
more to the 2nd
example?
What do you think
now that you have
thought about several
topics or questions?
What is your inquiry
going to be about?

9. A summary of basic research design (Mason, 2002)
You will probably recognise that we use a variation of this type of language
for the practitioner research aspects of your inquiry proposal – your
consideration of ethical values is embedded into the inquiry.
Research problem, question or hypothesis
Background of research (context) - theory, purpose
Methodology – e.g. constructivist… using approaches such as case studies
Methods - tools (observations, interviews, focus groups, surveys,
documents )
Sampling – who are the people you will be talking with?
Data handling and analysis – what you learn from talking with others
Pilot study - not just trying tools like Module 2 – this is after ethics
permission – this would be the first interview as an example for the rest
Ethics important bit to plan for your professional inquiry DRAFT FORMS
BEFORE SUBMISSION ARE ADVISED
Timetable – leave time in after feedback
Resources – computer, travel?, any thing else?

10. Outline of the Inquiry Plan – these are the headings you use to write
up your proposal – this outline is in the Module 2 Handbook
Title of the Professional Inquiry (a working title of your inquiry)
Context of the Inquiry (what is your professional practice and why is this inquiry
meaningful to you within your professional practice)
Rationale and Inquiry Question(s) (what are you trying to find out more about
and how will this improve your practice)
Aims / Objectives (Aims: what outcomes do you plan to achieve; Objectives:
what are you are actually going to do in the inquiry)
Literature, art work and Ideas (What are the existing ideas, discussions and
thoughts about the area or topic of your inquiry?)
Inquiry tools & Ethical consent/permissions (What data collecting tools will
you use and why? use your experience piloting inquiry tool to explain why you
think these are appropriate. Explanations should relate to the Ethic Release form
and Employer/Professional Support forms you will submit about your inquiry)
Approach to analysis (how will you think through the information you will collect
in the inquiry. That is how will you find a relationship or draw conclusions between
the existing ideas, your experience and data you collect)
Resources (What are the resources needed to carry out the inquiry)
Schedule of activities

11. What you will need to do for your submission (copied from the handbook)
Part 1: Professional Inquiry Proposal
•what the discussions are around this topic in published literature, your
professional field, and the ethical considerations these raise.
•what inquiry tools you are going to use to gather data and why those
tools are appropriate (including paperwork to support ethical conduct).
•The tools (research methods) are in Part 6…

12. 5a
Taking your place of work /
professional community which
is familiar to you, consider the
ethics which might apply
there.
What are the codes of
practice/regulations which
guide the setting?
Do this without reference to
any documents or discussion.
Rely on your own thoughts
wholly. Blog your thoughts.
5b
Find out what are the codes
of practice / regulations which
steer the ethical framework in
the place of work /
professional community.
These could come from
statutory sources e.g.
legislation or from
professional sources.
Blog how your findings differ
from your assumptions and
thoughts above.
Professional ethics or professional values

13. https://www.bsms.ac.uk/research/ethics-and-humanities/ethics-
in-performance/ethics-in-performance.aspx
http://www.istd.org/site-search/?
keywords=Code+of+Professional+Conduct+and+Practice+for+T
eachers+of+Dance
http://www.ethicsdance.co.uk

14. 5c
Consult the reader on
Professional Ethics especially
the requirements for carrying
out practitioner inquiry. How
does what you have learnt fit in
to the theoretical ethical
framework. How does what you
have discovered fit in with the
ethics of professional inquiry?
Blog what you have learned
about the ideas surrounding
ethics in a professional context
after reviewing Reader 5.
5d
Discuss with your SIG the
ethical dimensions of your
proposed inquiry and give
feedback to your class peers on
their blogs. Prepare drafts of
your Ethics Release Form and
the Employer/Professional
Support Form (a signature
needed on this form) from the
templates provided in order to
submit them in your plan by
the end of the study period.
Send these forms to your
tutor for feedback.
Practitioner research ethics

15. e.g. Case Study 3: The Dance Class
(pp. 19- 20)
Alicia is a student on the BA Professional Practice
course in Middlesex and she is doing her last project –
an inquiry into how warm ups are used during dance
classes. She is doing the inquiry in a number of dance
schools who run classes on a commercial basis.
Already she has carried out her inquiry in two schools
and found examples of good practice… READ THE
REST
Thinking point / discussion – using the
framework consider the ethical issue.
Are these teaching methods ethical?
Is there any way in which they are
ethical? Does moral relativism add
anything to the issues?
Use Reader 5 to help think through your inquiry… scan the Reader
– there is a lot there – but 2 pages to definitely look at are:
p. 20
Who are your participants?
(role, experience, age?)
How have you chosen these
participants?
Why were the participants
chosen (relate to Inquiry
question)
How will you contact them?
Will you need to talk to
Gatekeepers to do this?
How will you make sure that
your participants can leave
the inquiry if they desire to do
so?
Do the participants have your
contact details.
Are you storing the
participants data safely?

16. Practitioner research
Ethics
Professional ethics or
professional values
What would you write about
your inquiry?

17. 2. The ethics release form is about
explaining the practitioner research you
plan to do.
Who will you talk to ? Why?
The context? How can you insure that
you will not harm anyone?
Confidentiality? Anonymity?
Use the BLANK BAPP Arts informed
consent form
You can draft your ‘invitations to
participate’ and information sheets
(or emails) ready to send to your
participants…
Send in a draft pdf version to your tutor.
1. Your employer/professional support
form is about getting the ‘gatekeeper’
permission for carrying out the inquiry
in a workplace. It relates to
professional ethics.
Choose the form that relates to your
workplace – you may need more than
one form if you work in 2 places. f you
are freelance you can have a peer
professional colleague sign this.
Fill it out - print it – then get the
signature – then scan in a copy and
send in that digital copy to your tutor.
2 Forms explain and get permission for your inquiry proposal. They need to be
submitted – draft to your adviser before that! UP ON MyLearning

18. Give specifics on this form –
1 - Outline context and sector - where
do you work and what is your role?
2 - State your project aims-why are
you doing the practitioner research?
3. State your project methodology –
what tools or methods will you use?
be specific e.g. 4-6 dance professionals
or 2 teachers in my school and 1 Head –
using informed consent forms and the
signed Employer/Professional Support
form form the Head Teacher
4. Tick all the boxes and comment
We have 2 forms to choose from
1. for those working in schools and
at one particular workplace to make
clear that the permission is directly
related to the practitioner research
element you are doing 2. for
freelancers with no 1 workplace
Note* we are doing additional
templates for letters home for
those working in schools – if
required. Any research with under
16s years requires extra care.
MORE ADVICE on the Ethics Release From

19. http://seraclops.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/task-5c-part-1_23.html
An example of considering and discussing ethics…

20. Module 2 WBS3630
This study period submission for your Module 2 is 6th
January
2017. There will be more information up about this closer to the
submission date.
The proposal is assessed and the ethics go to the ethics board in
February – after that you will get feedback about your inquiry and the
practitioner research. After this permission from the university
(sometimes with conditions) you can carry out your research.
So to inform your planning – this would mean that you will
submit your final inquiry WBS3760 Module 3 in May 2017 unless
you need to self-defer.

21. Award Specialism Title form – this is a negotiated
element
This is the form up on My
Learning for choosing a
specialism to allow you to
have more specific arts
areas for your degree title:
discuss with your tutor as
this title will need to be
reviewed as a part of your
programme planning.

22. Action plan for the next steps?
Do an Action plan for developing your topic and thinking about your
ethical issues Part 5 TALK TO YOUR TUTOR
Looking at professional codes of practice and your university inquiry
research…
Starting to write up the proposal draft…
Sending drafts of the forms to your adviser….
Part 6 – looking at tools/methods – trying out with others in BAPP
Arts or close friends how to carry out the tools (but not on members
of the public – that is after ethical approval)
Completing the proposal draft for feedback – send this to your tutor
after your cover Part 6 – the tools. Start looking at the ethics form
now…