- Can you in a sentence describe ‘intentional’. And in a couple of sentences preamble, what is your ‘concern’ (in the language of AR).
Yes, done.
When I use ‘intention’ I mean it as ‘deliberate’ (Collins, 2022) and also to have a greater consciousness to and knowledge of the experience and activity of meeting.
In terms of purpose (Denscombe, 2002, p.26) I am specifically interested in:
- Criticising or evaluating
- Developing good practice
- Empowerment (White, 2009, p.49)
These combined considerations have led me to sub-questions of:
- Can I understand what goes on when we meet?
- Can I develop a position or values related to meeting?
- Can I change my meeting practice for the better?
I want this action research project to help me make sense of my life (McNiff, 2022) and in terms of experiential criteria, surface learning that other people can also relate to and learn from (McNiff, 2022).
- It would be useful to get a little granular, what are their disciplines, practices which gets to that question ‘how will you select them?’ What is the criteria for your ‘sample’? Getting to these issues early (in this ethics doc) in a one-liner really helps highlight possibilities and gaps.
Yes, done.
A cross-section of staff within the BA Illustration team – my team – and perhaps some other UAL staff that Illustration department interacts with. The sample is everyone that I have meetings with in a typical week. I am aiming for a representative sample of meetings and people.
- As the project is about engaging ‘in a more intentional way’ maybe ask them as to how they think intentionality can be materialised, actualised, ritualised?
This could be picked up and used in the ‘Changing Practice’ stage, when carrying out ongoing discussions within my department.
- Maybe this can also be teased out with them, maybe there are certain kinds of recording that feel more invasive than others?
I moved away from directly recording meetings in the data gathering week. But I feel like this comment is what I will need with the discussions that are part of the ‘Changing Practice’ stage. People would have the same type of reservations about what they might share.
- This is great Miriam, and maybe another opportunity to let them frame ‘intentionality’? ‘Intentionality’ is such an interesting word, in the western tradition of ‘phenomenology’ my understanding is that it is being ‘conscious’ of our acts. Which you are being here, so thorough. I wonder whether ‘risks’ include the unconscious, the affective, that can’t be represented. Which is kind of what you are doing with your method of recording. Just riffing here, but there is an interesting dynamic between the intentionality of the engagements, the protocols, and the less conventionally codified method of materialising your results (as far as I understand what it is you are doing) whose purpose is to challenge the conventionality intentionality of representation, in the social sciences, and how that intentionality is used and sometimes weaponised (the substitution of the measurable which directs and frames conversation, for the complex which opens it up),. Feel free to intentionally ignore this comment entirely, the extended thought bubble is partly because it connects with some of the research Catherine and myself are working on.
This is so interesting. It also led me to do more reading about knowing, unknowing and reverie connected to arts-based research methods because that felt connected.
- This is interesting too. Is intentionality retroactive? Is there are time dimension to intentionality?
This too. I hadn’t realise until doing this but it seems so?
And then within your own practice, does this change as you devote time and energy to an area? I’m thinking about the ‘ladder of competence’ I once read about, the movement through these stages:
(Top of Ladder)
Unconscious Competence
Conscious Competence
Conscious Incompetence
Unconscious Incompetence
(Bottom)
The Conscious Competence Ladder (Not listed) Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_96.htm (Accessed: 5th Jan 2022)