Chapter 3 Methodology
3.7 Research Challenges and Limitations
This wider project emphasised the growing scholarly interest in QOED, creativity and dance education in China, underpinning the significance of my PhD study. It also helped me recognise the importance of developing a much deeper historical theorisation of creativity and difference in dance education in China.
This research encountered several challenges and limitations that warrant consideration.
Firstly, language presents a significant challenge for me as a non-native English speaker and a Chinese researcher. In reading, I acknowledged that it required understanding both the concept and the context. My own learning and teaching experiences are mostly in China, not Western contexts. To be able to understand the concept and context in articles published in English presented significant challenges for me. This inevitably influenced my writing in relation to the literature review. In order to face this challenge, I read each article several times, and tried to write my own understanding of it by drafting paragraphs. I presented my writing to my English-speaking friends and my supervisors for feedbacks and comments.
Through the process, I gradually understood these articles in a more in-depth way. In addition, I also often chatted with my English-speaking friends to understand some
unfamiliar concepts and clarify my own understanding. Apart from this, I had opportunities to teach in tertiary education classes in an English-speaking context, which helped me to situated myself in the specific cultural context and better understand the articles and theories.
I also became actively involved in other masters and doctoral student’s research projects to understand the concept of creativity from broader perspectives. These efforts helped me to overcome the challenges that language presented in carrying out this research.
The second challenge may relate to the research topic: teaching collaboration and creativity. I am not a teacher who has taught collaboration and creativity for many years, so
understanding collaboration and creativity deeply was a challenge for me. Acknowledging this challenge, in 2018, I attended the SALAM (Socialised, Animated Learning to Associate and Motivate) workshop run by Professor Nicholas Rowe (also my main supervisor).
Through the workshop I gained an in-depth understanding of SALAM theory in relation to teaching collaboration and creativity. In the same year, I also had the chance to observe the Agile project (which used collaboration) organised by PwC, New Zealand. In 2019, I participated teaching collaboration in dance classes for the St John’s ambulance youth programme as a volunteer in New Zealand, which involved facilitating collaborative and creative tasks. Ever since I started my research, I have been actively participating in and observing dance classes to explore the connection between dance and teaching collaboration.
Additionally, I have begun imparting lessons on collaboration and fostering creativity within my own dance group. Furthermore, I extend these teachings to high schools in Auckland, and I also incorporate them into my instruction for Course 200 G at the University of Auckland.
These personal experiences all contributed to my investigation in this research.
Apart from the above experiences, I was selected to participate in the Doctoral
Entrepreneurial Leadership Programme 2022, offered by the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Auckland. This programme enabled me to engage with fellow doctoral students from diverse faculties within the university, fostering valuable discussions and collaborations. I was also awarded a NZ$1,000 prize from the University of Auckland’s Velocity Innovation Challenge 2022 (Social category), for the collaborative project MICAS, which proposed using creative arts to address mental health for migrants (May 2022). Following this achievement, I had the opportunity to participate in the 100k Challenge alongside my colleagues Yin-Chi Lee and Jung-Hsu Wan. This experience provided me with a deeper understanding of creativity and innovation as well as an
entrepreneurial mindset within a specific context. Collaborating with my team enhanced my knowledge and skills in the realm of collaborative creation.
Another challenge I recognised was conducting interviews in Chinese, which included comprehending concepts in English and applying them within the Chinese context. As identified in the literature review chapter, the concept of collaboration and creativity is complicated and requires a clear understanding before interviewees can respond. At the same time, I needed to identify the key issues challenging interviewees so as to ask specific
questions associated with the research topic and the issues. However, these two languages brought distinct nuances and interpretations to my role as a researcher. While communication and writing style in English offers clarity, Chinese language often encapsulates complex concepts within a single sentence, making it more abstract and challenging to navigate.
One difficulty I encountered was ensuring that my interviewees stayed focused on a single concept when answering questions. Their responses often meandered in multiple directions, requiring me to identify specific angles to prompt detailed reflections on their experiences. I observed that Chinese, as a language, has a conversational style that differs significantly from English. It is characterised by abstract and nonlinear expressions, making it challenging to adhere to a linear logical progression when explaining a concept. In order to overcome the difficulty, I did several practice interviews with Chinese teachers and asked for feedback from my supervisors. I also actively reflected the questions I asked during the interviews and presented more clear questions in the next interviews.
Despite these challenges, I made a concerted effort to overcome the language barrier and facilitate meaningful discussions with the interviewees. By carefully selecting specific lines
of inquiry and encouraging elaboration, I aimed to gain a comprehensive understanding of their experiences within the research context. To ensure a deep understanding of the interviewees’ perspectives within the research theme, I grappled with the challenge of deciphering broad concepts mentioned by the interviewees. These concepts were often associated with the research topic but required deconstruction to ask more specific questions.
In response to this challenge, I focused on identifying key words and phrases that would allow me to seek clarification and prompt the interviewees to elaborate further. For example, if the interviewee mentioned the word “personality”, I would ask for an explanation, seeking to understand their intended meaning. While these language-related challenges influenced the research process, I made diligent efforts to navigate them and ensure the accuracy and depth of the study.
As mentioned above regarding the differences between Chinese and English, I had
recognised the formidable task of accurately translating Chinese into English. However, my previous encounters with the English language and involvement in the translation process equipped me to tackle this challenge. I successfully translated a book called "Creative Dances for All Ages" (in press) from English to Chinese, and I assisted several scholars in translating their lectures from Chinese to English at diverse symposiums. Furthermore, I completed a master's degree at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, writing a 30,000-word thesis in English. These cumulative experiences greatly contributed to my expertise in translation.
The research location was considered to be a limitation in this study. Since the research was conducted in China, some of the findings might be relevant to other cultural contexts, and some may not. The findings about teaching collaboration may be suitable for contexts with similar dance education situations to the Chinese context.