DO ACTION RESEARCHERSÕ EXPEDITIONS CARRY
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY? HOW DO WE KNOW?
An
enquiry into reconstructing educational theory and educating social
formations
Jack Whitehead, Department of Education,
University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK.
15 May 2004
ÒAction
research expeditions attempt to communicate the essence of action research;
planning, questioning, methodological skill development, the continual
rethinking of the journey, collaboration with colleagues and the realization of
outcomes, some of which we might expect but others which are results of the
natural processes of the journey itself.Ó
(AR Expeditions, 2004)
This
contribution is grounded in the hope, shared with the creators of AR
Expeditions, that action researchers can make a positive contribution to the
future of humanity as we hold ourselves individually and publicly accountable
in explanations of our own learning, to the values and understandings in our:
* personal
commitments and energy,
* collaborative
support and critique,
* determination
and effort,
* intellectual
and emotional commitments and
* achievement
and satisfaction. (AR Expeditions, 2004)
I set off on my AR Expedition in 1971 to help in the reconstruction of educational theory from the ground of the embodied values of educators and their learning as they explored the implications of asking, ÔHow do I improve my practice?Õ With this focus in mind I decided to move from teaching in a secondary school, to researching educational theory in a University and was fortunate to obtain a post as a Lecturer in Education of the University of Bath in 1973 where my AR Expedition has continued over these 31 years.
This account of my learning is focused on five contributions
to educational knowledge. They are offered in the hope that they will be of
some use to you in your own AR Expeditions. They are also offered in the spirit
of an educational enquiry that is open to learning from mistakes. You could
help me by sharing your thoughts on how I could improve my practice and by
sharing your criticisms where you think my ideas could be mistaken. In this account of my AR Expedition I do
not want to be understood as rejecting the contributions that traditional
disciplines of education can make to the educational theories created in the
course of AR Expeditions. Indeed, I intend to show how these disciplines can
make a contribution to a new disciplines approach to educational theory. What I
have rejected is the view that constitutes educational theory in terms of these
disciplines.
Part One of this
contribution to AR Expeditions is focused on the first three of the five
contributions. It outlines the growth in my own educational knowledge between
1973-1993 and offers the three contributions in terms of:
i)
the
inclusion of ÔIÕ as a living contradiction in educational enquiries of the
kind, ÔHow do I improve my practice?Õ
ii)
a
systematic form of action enquiry including ÔIÕ as a living contradiction.
iii)
the
creation and testing of living educational theories as explanations for
learning in educational enquiries of the kind, ÔHow do I improve my practice?Õ
Part Two
considers the growth of my educational knowledge between 1993-2004 as I
continue to create my own living educational theories in the company of others
who are sharing enquiries in their AR Expeditions. Two further contributions
are presented with the help of a visual narrative and hyperlinks to multi-media
accounts through the internet:
iv)
A process
for clarifying the meanings of embodied values in the course of their emergence
in practice and for transforming embodied values into living and communicable
standards of educational judgement.
v)
Ways of
influencing the education of social formations in AR Expeditions through the
creation and testing of living educational theories in a range of cultural and
social contexts using multi-media representations.
PART ONE: Ð THE GROWTH OF
EDUCATIONAL KNOWLEDGE I CREATING YOUR OWN LIVING EDUCATIONAL THEORIES 1973-1993
One of the great
benefits of AR Expeditions is that it is an e-Journal that permits live links
to be made to other writings and resources on the interent. This means that I
can connect to the chapters in my 1993 book on the growth of educational
knowledge and the creation of living educational theories. This live url http://www.actionresearch.net/bk93/geki.htm allows you to move between the contents
of the book and this contribution to AR Expeditions.
In my AR
Expedition into the Growth of Educational Knowledge I offered three original
ideas from the creation of my living educational theory:
ÒWhat
are the three original ideas?
The
first is the inclusion of our own ÔIÕs as
living contradictions in research questions of the kind, ÔHow do I
improve what I am doing?Õ Given the increasing acceptability of self-study in
academic research it may be difficult to appreciate the resistance of the
Academy to accept ÔIÕ questions as being legitimate questions of scholarly
research. Those who are still meeting resistance to these kinds of enquiry now
have a substantial body of knowledge to call upon which demonstrates the
acceptability of these enquiries in Universities with outstanding international
reputations.
The
second idea is related to the way in which we improve what we are doing.
If you do not recognise what I
said above about experiencing yourself as a living contradiction or recognise
what I am about to say about the way in which you have already improved your
practice, as you respond to your experience of living contradictions, then you
are in a position to question the validity of my claims to educational
knowledge. However, until you show that I am mistaken, I will continue to hold
my belief that you have already combined your capacities for action and
reflection in a systematic approach to problem solving in which you will have
wanted to improve something because you believe that your values could be lived more fully in your practice. I think you have already imagined ways forward, designed action plans, acted and gathered
evidence on your actions, evaluated your actions in terms of their quality and
effectiveness and modified your concerns, ideas and actions in the light of
your evaluations.
The
third idea concerns our descriptions and explanations of our learning and
educational development, in the stories we tell ourselves and others, as we
research our attempts to live our values more fully in our practice. I think
our explanations are our
living educational theories which, along with the theories of others, have
profound implications for the future of humanity. I hope to communicate the
value of this idea by showing you its potential in the living theory accounts
of other teachers, educators, leaders and managers in Part
Two. (http://www.actionresearch.net/living.shtml
)
If you chose at
this point to follow the route of my 1973-1993 AR Expedition at http://www.actionresearch.net/bk93/geki.htm
you will see a set of published papers with titles in italics that plot the
growth of my understandings from initially researching with teachers into
improving studentsÕ learning as well as my own. My enquiries then focus on
questions concerning the nature of educational knowledge and in particular on
the standards of judgement that can be used to evaluate claims to educational
knowledge. The 1985 paper, ÔAn
analysis of an individualÕs educational development - the basis for personally
orientated action research.Õ marks a synthesis of the three contributions.
The 1989 paper
on Creating a living educational theory from questions of the kind, ÔHow do
I improve my practice?Õ
is perhaps the most influential of my publications on living educational theory
. For the sake of completeness I have also included my 1988 Presidential
Address to the British Educational Research Association on How do we
improve research-based professionalism in education?-A question which includes
action research, educational theory and the politics of educational knowledge. This
was not included in the original text of the growth of educational knowledge and
the Appendix draws attention to the accredited programmes of action research
that marked the successful completion of other AR Expeditions.
As
the published papers move on into the contributions to the first and second
world congresses on action learning, action research and process management,
the growth in my understandings extends from my concerns about the nature of
educational knowledge into issues of social transformation and the education of
social formations. You can see the extension of this concern in the titles of
the papers. In 1990 - How do I improve my Professional Practice as
an Academic and Educational Manager? A dialectical analysis of an individualÕs
educational development and a basis for socially orientated action research. In
1992 - How can my philosophy of action research transform and improve my
professional practice and produce a good social order? A response to
Ortrun Zuber-Skerritt.
I imagine that
you are like me in that we have experienced some difficult and perhaps painful events
that have contributed significantly to our learning. In my earlier writings I
left out any mention of these experiences. By 1990 I realised that my responses
to some of the difficult experiences had contributed most significantly to my
learning in my AR Expeditions and that I should make sure to avoid producing a
Ôvictory narrativeÕ that omitted this recognition.
So the
narratives in bold, in the Growth of Educational Knowledge 1973-1993, link the
italicised published papers to the following experiences and responses to my
existence and learning as a living contradiction in my workplace, the
University of Bath.
In 1976, as I
was writing up my first account of my action research into improving learning
with students, my economic well-being was threatened by an attempt to terminate
my employment. If this attempt had succeeded I would not have made the
contributions in this AR Expedition from the University of Bath. So, the
efforts of those who mobilised sufficient power to counter the power of those seeking
the termination of my employment, were vital in the story of the growth of my
educational knowledge. Their commitment to prevent what they saw as an
injustice, continues to inspire me.
The AR
Expedition to transform what counts as educational knowledge and theory also
encountered barriers in 1980 and 1982
in my initial attempts to gain academic legitimacy for my ideas on
living educational theory. Two Ph.D. submissions were rejected and the rules of
governance of the University explicitly resulted in a letter from the
University Registrar forbidding me to question the competence of my examiners
under any circumstances. This regulation was changed in 1991 to allow questions
to be raised on the grounds of bias, prejudice and inadequate assessment. Those
readers who may still be working within forms of governance that are not open
to question, may draw some hope from the changes in the regulation of the
social order of the University of Bath.
The AR
Expedition was also subjected to attacks in 1987 as the disciplinary power of
the University was mobilised in a threat to my academic freedom. This was
expressed in a claim that my activities and writings were a threat to the
present and proper organisation of the University. My persistence in continuing
my AR Expedition, explicitly recognised by a Senate Working Party on a Matter
of Academic Freedom in 1991, was grounded in the continuing delight and
pleasure of the faith and belief that the creation and testing of living
educational theories are making a worth-while contribution to the future of
humanity.
I doubt if you
can undertake an AR Expedition that involves living the values that carry hope
for the future of humanity, without experiencing some painful (and creative)
tensions of encounters with other individuals and groups in a network of power
relations that act to deny these values. The story continues in Part Two:
Looking back to see where
one has come from and looking forward to where one may be going to, are both
parts of my present life. Producing this account for AR Expeditions has given
me the time to look back over my enquiries between 1993-2004 and to gather
together my understandings of my learning to share in this public forum.
I will begin The Growth of
Educational Knowledge II 1993-2004, with
iv and v of my contributions to educational knowledge:
A process for
clarifying the meanings of embodied values in the course of their emergence in
practice and for transforming embodied values into living and communicable
standards of educational judgement.
Ways of influencing the
education of social formations in AR Expeditions through the creation and
testing of living educational theories in a range of cultural and social
contexts using multi-media representations.
I
want to draw attention to the use of digital technology, visual narratives and
performance texts in communicating the meanings of the embodied values we use
to account to ourselves for the worthwhileness of our existence. I also want to
explain how the visual narratives can help to clarify the meanings of embodied
values as these are clarified in the course of their emergence in practice and
are transformed, in the process of this clarification, into living standards of
judgement that can be used to evaluate the validity of claims to knowledge from
within a living theory perspective.
Because
of the large files required to make the video-clips referred to in the paper
below available you may not be able to access them unless you have access to
the fast ethernet speeds of a University network. I do hope that you will be
able to view the clips from the links provided in the paper that answers my question:
"How
Valid Are Multi-Media Communications Of My Embodied Values In Living Theories
And Standards Of Educational Judgement And Practice?" http://www.actionresearch.net/multimedia/jimenomov/JIMEW98.html
My
answer to this question contains the fourth and fifth contributions to
educational knowledge in this AR Expedition.
The
fourth contribution is the dialogical and dialectical visual narrative in the
presentation above for clarifying the meanings of embodied values as these
emerge in educational enquiries. In the process of clarification the embodied
values are transformed into living and communicable standards of judgement. I
am thinking of the values and standards we use to account to ourselves for the
worthwhileness of our lives and to account for our lives to others in
explanations of what we are doing and learning.
Much
of my productive life in education is spent in the supervision of action
research programmes where I am seeking to support practitioner-researchers in
bringing their embodied knowledge into the public domain. I do this in the
belief that the processes of validating and legitimating this knowledge in the
Academy is likely to enhance its influence in the learning of others. The first
video-clips show the educational conversations in which I am seeking to support
Jackie Delong as she constructs her thesis about cultures of inquiry and I am
focusing on the clarity of expression of her originality of mind and critical
judgement. The educational conversations are contributing to the transformation
of the embodied values of originality of mind and critical judgement Ð two of
the criteria used to examine doctoral theses at the University of Bath Ð into
living and communicable standards of critical judgement.
The
fifth contribution is establishing a connection between the creating and
testing of living educational theories and the education of social formations.
I am thinking of this education in terms of living more fully the values and
understandings that carry hope for the future of humanity. In the visual
narrative of my performance text in the above paper I reconstruct my response
to a university working partyÕs draft report on a matter of academic freedom that
simply recognised that my academic freedom had not been breached. The final
report set before the Senate, recognised the fact that my academic freedom had
not been breached, was due, in some measure, to my persistence in the face of
pressure. This amendment occurred after my appearance before the working party.
I have reconstructed this appearance in my performance text. I think that is
shows the kind of controlled anger, described by Islamic friends as ÔhamasÕ,
moved by a moral commitment to live humanising values more fully. I am relating
the influence of living educational theories in the education of social
formations to the process of learning to live more fully the values that carry
hope for the future of humanity.
I will now explore some
tentative implications of the most recent events in my AR Expedition:
á
The AERA Symposium of the 16th April 2004 in San
Diego on ÔThe transformative potential of individuals' collaborative
self-studies for sustainable global educational networks of communicationÕ.
á
The
publication of the International Handbook of the Self-Study of Teaching and
Teacher Education Practices.
á
The academic
legitimation of living educational theory theses in the Academy
á
The design and
development of the web-site actionresearch.net in extending the educational
influence of the interconnecting and branching networks of communication
supported by the internet.
á
Exploring the
educational implications of inclusional ways of being.
á
á
The AERA Symposium of the 16th April 2004 in San
Diego on ÔThe transformative potential of individuals' collaborative
self-studies for sustainable global educational networks of communicationÕ.
The successful proposal
and the different contributions from Caitriona McDonagh, Bernie Sullivan, Jean,
McNiff, Jack Whitehead, Maggie Farren, Bernie Fitzgerald, Joan Whitehead,
Cheryl Black and Jackie Delong, can be accessed at:
http://www.actionresearch.net//multimedia/aera04sym.htm
The proposal explains
that:
ÒThis
session aims to demonstrate the transformative potential of individuals'
collaborative self-studies for the development of sustainable global
educational networks of communication. For this potential to be realised we see
certain practices as necessary. Here we explain some of these practices and how
we believe we are achieving and justifying them by making our evidence base and
the outcomes visible through multi media representations of our learning.
We are a
group of teachers, professional educators, and education administrators,
working across the levels of education systems. Each of us asks, ÔHow do I
improve what I am doing for personal and social good?Õ Each of us aims to
generate our personal educational theories to show how we are doing so through
our contributions to the education of social formations in our own settings.Ó
á
The
publication of the International Handbook of the Self-Study of Teaching and
Teacher Education Practices.
The 14th April
2004 marked the publisherÕs launch of the ÔInternational Handbook of Self-Study
of Teaching and Teacher Education PracticesÕ . The contents of the Handbook
were written by members of the AERA Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices
(S-|STEP) Special Interest Group. This group was established in 1993 and
through a kind invitation by Tom Russell I was enabled to contribute to its
formation. In my chapter for the handbook on ÔWhat counts as evidence in
self-studies of teacher education practices?Õ I evaluate the contributions of
self-study between 1993 to 2003 in relation to the questions I am asking of my
own contributions to educational knowledge for this issue of AR Expeditions:
Is
there evidence of the generation and testing of educational theories from my
embodied knowledge and the embodied knowledges of other action researchers?
Is
there evidence of the transformation of the embodied values of action
researchers into the living standards of judgement that can be used to test the
validity of action research accounts?
Is
there evidence of the emergence of educational research methodologies as
distinct from a social science methodology in action research expeditions?
Is
there evidence of a logic of educational enquiry emerging from action research
expeditions?
Is
there evidence from action research expeditions of educational influences in
educating oneself, in the education of others and in the education of social
formations.
A review of the Handbook
makes the point:
ÔThis
Handbook represents a major breakthrough in our understandings of the
importance and usefulness of self study in teaching and teacher education. With
this publication, self-study may be seen as a legitimate, commanding, and
worthwhile field in educational research. The chapters take self study well
beyond the simple bridging of research and practice. They demonstrate the power
of the field as an intellectual endeavour with its own set of research
criteria, conundrums, and elegant conceptualizations. But perhaps more
importantly, this book suggests the potential of self-study to truly reform
practice.' (Richardson,
2004 - http://www.wkap.nl/prod/b/1-4020-1812-6)
As our AR Expeditions move
forward and we strengthen our mutual support, through the sharing of our accounts,
we are doing more than suggest the potential of self-study to truly reform
practice. We are producing the evidence that demonstrates we are making the
possible probable (Whitehead, 2003 - http://www.actionresearch.net/evol/joanw_files/joanw.htm
)
á
The academic
legitimation of living educational theory theses in the Academy
Because I have committed
so much of my productive life to the creation, testing and academic
legitimation of living educational theories I do urge you to let me know if you
think any of my beliefs are mistaken Ð I have still some time left not to
persist with those errors I can recognise! If you access http://www.actionresearch.net/living.shtml
you will find the living theory theses of individuals whose AR Expeditions I
have shared. Each journey, from its beginning to a celebration at the time of
graduation, has taken a minimum of five years and the postdoctoral enquiries
are continuing. While you will see that there are too many to describe even
briefly here, I want to draw attention to the particular contributions I see in
the action research of Jean McNiff, Moira Laidlaw, Je Kan Adler-Collins, Maggie
Farren, Jackie Delong and Paulus Murray because of the significance of their
living educational theories in the education of social formations.
Jean McNiff has documented
our shared AR expedition over the past 23 years in her many publications. The
Ph.D. theses of Mary Gurney (1988) and Jean McNiff (1989) were the first living
theory doctorates to be accredited by the University of Bath some ten years
before my own, at my third attempt in 1999! They are missing from my web-site
because I donÕt have an electronic version to share with you. They reside in
the University of Bath Library. Without JeanÕs writings and her generous
acknowledgements to the value she has found in the idea of creating her own
living educational theory together with the support for her students in the
creation of their own (see http://www.jeanmcniff.com),
living educational theories would not be the influence for social good that
they are today. You can see what I mean by JeanÕs generosity of spirit in the
booklet on action research for professional development she has made freely
available to celebrate our 21 years of working together at http://www.jeanmcniff.com/booklet1.html
Jackie Delong has made original contributions to the creation and testing of living educational theories. In her AR Expedition for her doctoral thesis, How can I improve my practice as a superintendent of schools and create my own living educational theory? (http://www.actionresearch.net/delong.shtml ) Jackie contributes to the education of a social formation through the development of a culture of enquiry in the educational transformation of the ÔsystemÕs influenceÕ of a District School Board in Canada. Working with her colleague and friend Cheryl Black, in the creation and development of this culture of enquiry, they have responded to the voices and other teachers and administrators who are working to improve the quality of studentsÕ learning and made these public in three volumes of Passion in Professional Practice.
You can access Volune 2 at http://schools.gedsb.net/ar/passion/pppii/index.html
You can access Volune 3 at http://schools.gedsb.net/ar/passion/pppiii/index.html
They have also made public their own action research accounts and those of their colleagues that have been awarded higher degrees at http://schools.gedsb.net/ar/theses/index.html
Maggie Farren at Dublin
City University, Ireland, Paulus Murray at the Royal Agricultural College, UK
and Je Kan Adler-Collins at Fukuoka University are writing up their doctorates
and you can access their writings through their web-sites and appreciate the
shared influences in our interconnecting and branching networks of
communication. For example at MaggieÕs web-site at http://webpages.dcu.ie/~farrenm/
you will see the Educators section with the evidence that shows the living
theories of the learning of professional educators as they research their questions
of the kind, ÔHow do I improve what I am doing?Õ have been embodied in the social formation of Dublin
City University.
Je Kan Adler-Collins is
researching his own practice as he seeks to pedagogise (Bernstein, 2000, p. 78)
his own living theory of the healing nurse into the nursing curriculum of
Fukuoka University. The archives of the e-forum of Je KanÕs website Ôliving-action-researchÕ, show the
significance of holding open a Ôhealing spaceÕ for sharing action enquiries and
for nurturing our creativities as we share our AR journeys. You can join the
e-forum of living-action-research at:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa.exe?SUBED1=living-action-research&A=1
Paulus Murray is creating
his living postcolonial theory and writes:
When asked what kind of
theory is Postcolonial Theory?' I will not be satisfied as a humanistic scholar
until I can answer from the grounds of my own living postcolonial theory thesis
that, Postcolonial Theory is a theory that interlaces stark, difficult,
challenging critical deconstruction within a loving spirit of a hopeful future
for us all. (Murray, 2004)
I have referred above to
our joint presentation on White and Black with White Identities at AERA 2000,
and we intend to continue our shared journey in a presentation at the British
Educational Research Association 2004 Annual Conference. We also intend to make
this presentation available at:
http://www.royagcol.ac.uk/~paul_murray/Sub_Pages/FurtherInformation.htm
and at:
http://www.actionresearch.net/writing.shtml
Moira Laidlaw has also directed the flow of her
life-affirming energy into the growth of living educational theories that are
influencing the education of social formations. Her doctoral AR Expedition into
ÔHow can I create my
own living educational theory as I offer you an account of my educational
development?Õ (http://www.actionresearch.net/moira2.shtml)
established
the living nature of educational standards of judgement in action research. In
her Voluntary Service Overseas since 2000 at Guyuan Teachers College in China,
she has worked with Dean Tian Fengjun to create ChinaÕs Centre for Educational
Action Research in Foreign Languages Teaching. In helping to develop and
communicate Chinese approaches to action research into the global networks of
communication Moira is contributing her influence in the education of social
formations in a way that carries hope for the future of humanity (http://www.actionresearch.net/moira.shtml
)
My supervision of living
theory theses and my AR Expedition have also been influenced since 1993 by the
establishment of the Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice. In
the Department of Education I have had to resist pressure to move my timetabled
commitments into areas other than those that are focused on the creation and
testing of living educational theories. This pressure was understandable at
times when it appeared that there was not sufficient demand for the creation of
such theories for a full timetable. Teaching and supervising on the CARPP
programmes with students attracted to the Centre largely through the
reputations of Peter Reason and Judy Marshall has helped me to avoid the
dissipation of my productive activities away from the creation of living
educational theories.
I helped to found and
develop the Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice (CARPP) at the
University of Bath, with David Sims, Peter Reason and Judi Marshall. Peter is
the present Director of the Centre. David moved to Brunel University soon after
the establishment of the Centre. I am also fortunate to be working with Donna
Ladkin who joined our group of tutors in CARPP in 2002. Through the influence
of Judy Marshall and Peter Reason I have also been enabled to extend the range
of my action research supervisions into different professional contexts with
workers in the police, health service, industry and commerce. You can view the
work of CARPP at http://www.bath.ac.uk/carpp/
.
Some of of JudyÕs
publications can be accessed at:
http://www.bath.ac.uk/carpp/judimarshall/paperslist.htm
Some of PeterÕs
publications can be accessed at:
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~mnspwr/
Successfully submitted
living theory theses by Geoff Mead, Paul Roberts and Jacqui Scholes-Rhodes from
the CARPP programme can be accessed at:
http://www.actionresearch.net/living.shtml
á
The design and
development of the web-site actionresearch.net in extending the educational
influence of the interconnecting and branching networks of communication
supported by the internet.
The design and development
of the web-site http://www.actionresearch.net
by Jonathan Whitehead, my son, is enabling me to explore the potential of the
interconnecting and branching networks of communication offered by the web. In
particular I am seeking, through the internet, to spread and evaluate the
influence of living educational theories in the education of individuals and
social formations. Jonathan has been a most creative, skilful and caring
influence in designing and developing my web-site and in developing his
fatherÕs skills in being able to maintain actionresearch.net .
You can experience the
educational possibilities of JonathanÕs latest influence in the:
Other Homepages section http://www.actionresearch.net/otherpages.shtml
Values section http://www.actionresearch.net/values.shtml
Masters Programme section http://www.actionresearch.net/mastermod.shtml
Jack WhiteheadÕs Writings
section http://www.actionresearch.net/writing.shtml
From the other homepages section you can access Volumes I and II of Passion in Professional Practice. These emphasise the importance of supporting teacherÕs enquiries within the development of a culture of enquiry in the Grand Erie District School Board in Canada. Those interested in enhancing the professional development of global educators through the creation of cultures of enquiry may like to move alongside the AR Expedition of Jackie Delong and Cheryl Black as they research the processes of enhancing the professionalism of teachers and improving student learning through the creation of a culture of enquiry within a District School Board. As you connect with Passion in Professional Practice you could also move alongside the action research masters accounts accredited by the University of Bath in the Masters Programme section above. Ideas are being shared between these AR Expeditions in a way that is helping to energise and sustain the evolution of the AR Expeditions in the Grand Erie District School Board to create a culture of enquiry and the evolution of my AR Expedition into enhancing the quality of living educational theory accounts of professional learning.
The values section above emphasises the importance of
connecting with oneÕs embodied values, the values that give meaning and purpose
to life in sustaining a worthwhile existence and contributing to education and
educational knowledge. In the masters programme section you will find the
accounts of learning in educational enquiries of the kind, ÔHow am I improving
what I am doing?Õ in the context of seeking to help students to improve their
learning. In the Jack WhiteheadÕs writings section you will find the
publications in which I offer ideas on including ÔIÕ as a living contradiction
in action research enquiries and living educational theories that show how
embodied values are being transformed into living standards of judgement in
contributing to the growth of educational knowledge and how they are
contributing to the education of social formations (Laidlaw, 1996, http://www.actionresearch.net/moira2.shtml)
á
Exploring the
educational implications of inclusional ways of being
As
I look back on the continuing story of my learning in my educational enquiries
from 1993 to 2004, I can see that my understandings of educational knowledge
are also being transformed with the influence of my daughter RebeccaÕs lovingly
inclusional way of being with her father and others and with the influence of
Alan RaynerÕs ideas into inclusional ways of being and knowing in Ôco-creative
togethernessÕ:
ÒInclusionality
is an awareness that space, far from passively surrounding and isolating
discrete massy objects, is a vital, dynamic inclusion within, around and
permeating natural form across all scales of organization, allowing diverse
possibilities for movement and communication. Correspondingly, boundaries are
not fixed limits - smooth, space-excluding, Euclidean lines or planes - but
rather are pivotal places comprising complex, dynamic arrays of voids and
relief that both emerge from and pattern the co-creative togetherness of inner
and outer domains, as in the banks of a river.Ó (Rayner, 2004 http://www.bath.ac.uk/~bssadmr/inclusionality/)
Rebecca sustains
such an inclusional and loving way of relating that continues to call me back
from my tendency to severance and the pessimism of the intellect, to a
sustained and life-affirming optimism of the will that I hope continues to flow
through me until the end of my life-time. The extension of my cognitive range
and concerns continues in the growth of my educational knowledge through the
educational influence of others in my insights into ecological feminism
(Ladkin, 2004), post-colonial theory (Murray, 2004) and inclusional ways of
being (Rayner, 2004).
I
also think that the AERA Symposium at http://www.actionresearch.net//multimedia/aera04sym.htm
shows a quality of inclusionality that respects the living boundaries of the
identities of the individual researchers, while showing
the transformative potential of
inclusional self-studies for sustainable global educational networks of
communication.
In
my introduction to the Symposium I made several claims whose validities are
open to your questioning. In relation to my own life of educational enquiry I
explained my hope that readers would help me to test the validity of my beliefs
about the educational influences of my practice so that I could be helped not
to persist in error through understanding and overcoming them in practice. When
I write about an ontological commitment (http://www.actionresearch.net//multimedia/jwontoaera.htm
) I am meaning an embodied value that gives meaning and purpose to my life and
educational practices. At the heart of my ontology is the expression and
recognition of a flow of life-affirming energy and
pleasure. I know that many people connect their expression of a spiritual
energy to their submission, within a religion, to the will of a deity/God. My
own preference is to feel the creative power of such a spiritual energy in the
face of the certainty of my own death without experiencing the need to submit
to such religious tendencies.
In my paper on my ontological commitments in my AR Expedition you
will see that I acknowledge the influence of being certain of my death in living
a productive life, in contributing to the growth of educational knowledge and
in contributing to post-colonial practices in the inclusional spirit of Ubuntu.
As
you may have already seen in the first part of this contribution I insist on
including my learnings from the difficulties I encounter while on the AR
Expeditions.
In
the contribution to the AERA 2004 Symposium my learning moved forward as
questions emerged from my experiences of birth and death:
Can
I communicate the ontological power of an inclusional 'will to live' and 'will
to knowledge' through a Daughter's birth.
How
do I express the meaning of a loving warmth of humanity through a Father's
death, a Son's birth and a Colleague's death.
How
can my ontological commitment to living a productive life be expressed as an
epistemological standard of judgment?
What
is my ontological commitment to enquiry learning?
How
can I communicate an ontological commitment to an inclusional way of being in
my educational relationships with my students?
What
do I mean by an ontological commitment to post-colonial practice in the spirit
of Ubuntu?
My
embrace of the spirit of truth and reconciliation of Ubuntu is important to me
in recognising the contribution to humanity of an African cosmology. A central
value in Ubuntu is that a person is a person because of other people. I am
connecting this value with what I am learning with Simon Riding, a teacher and
doctoral researcher in ÔLiving myself through othersÕ (Riding, 2004 at http://www.actionresearch.net/module/srmadis.doc
).
I
can also see a growth in my understanding of post-colonial theory and practice,
race and identity as I enquire with Paulus Murray into our ÔWhite and Black with White Identities in Self-Studies of
Teacher Education PracticesÕ for our joint presentation at AERA 2000. http://www.actionresearch.net/A2/aerapj.htm
(See
also Paulus MurrayÕs homepage at http://www.royagcol.ac.uk/~paul_murray/Sub_Pages/FurtherInformation.htm
)
I am also
connecting the loving and inclusional spirit of Ubuntu with the embodied value
of alongsideness expressed and lived by Robyn Pound in the course of her AR
Doctoral Expedition How can I improve my health visiting support of parenting? The
creation of an alongside epistemology through action enquiry. (http://www.actionresearch.net/pound.shtml)
and I agree with
Eden CharlesÕs response to RobynÕs ideas in the e-Forum of Living-Action
Research:
ÒI celebrate
your questioning around the timing of alongsideness in a sequence (or, process/es)
of activity designed to lead to greater social justice. Social justice is of
key importance. I guess I am raising whether there are other discussions we
need to explore alongside the ones that you raise. I want to work alongside
others in creating new, fairer human relationships characterised by equity,
justice and love more than by uniformity. For me, this can only happen if the
emphasis is not only on including me within the existing order but includes
working alongside me in evolving another one. This would involve all of us
changing some.Ó (Charles, 9 May 2004 Archives of
Living-Action-Research)
My
reason for highlighting multi-media narratives of our learning as we seek to
live the values of our humanities more fully is because I believe that the
sharing of accounts of our learning and influence and our openness to listening
and responding to the creative and critical evaluations of others from within
the inclusive flow of our loving spirits, are probably the values that carry most
hope for the future of humanity. Yet, even as I write, I am surrounded by
images in the media from the war in Iraq that violate these values.
What
I have in mind here is a global response to the beheading of Nick Berg in Iraq
and an image from Abu Ghraib jail, showing a soldier serving in Iraq, holding
the leash of a naked Iraqi, lying on the floor, and the words:
ÒTake
a close look at the leather strap, the pain on the prisonerÕs face. No sadistic
movie could outdo the damage of this image.Ó (Robert Fisk, 2004)
The
grounds given for beheading Nick Berq were:
Ò So
we tell you that the dignity of the Muslim men and women in Abu Ghraib and
others is not redeemed except by blood and souls. You will not receive anything
from us but coffins after coffinsÉ. How can a free Muslim sleep well as he sees
Islam slaughtered and its dignity bleeding, and the pictures of shame and the
news of the devilish scorn of the people of Islam Ð men and women Ð in the
prison of Abu Ghraib?Õ (Buncombe & Huggler, 2004, p. 7)
I
want to focus on the hope in our responses to the image in our AR
expeditions and to the beheading of Nick Berg in Iraq.
Each
living educational theory that shows an influence in the education of social
formations in learning how to transform the living contradictions, experienced
in holding together our humanity and the lack of humanity evoked by the image,
into hope for the future of humanity as we respond together in the flow of our
loving spirits. I think this hope flows through our recognition of the loving
and life-affirming dignity in and to those who are suffering in a crime against
humanity and in our researching together in our AR Expeditions how we can bring
the values that carry this hope more fully into our world.
In
the Growth of Educational Knowledge Part I you will see that I use peopleÕs
real names. This is my ethical choice and I am accountable to you for this
choice. I hesitated above and choose to say that the image showed a soldier
serving in Iraq, rather than naming Lynddie England, the soldier in the
picture. Yet, I do name Lynddie England, not to demonise her but to stress that she is a human
being whose humanity is threatened by the culture of abuse around her. I know
my own tendency for hamoq, in the sense of the blood lust that motivated the
beheading of Nick Berq. A lesson
from my AR Expedition I continue to learn is that the interests of the future
of humanity are not served by its spontaneous release in violence. Yet I can
also recognise that it can be a life-saving response in particular
circumstances and hence protect the survival of my own humanity. I find one of the great challenges in
life is to enable the creative energy of a loving spirit to connect with and
transcend the spontaneity of the rage I personally experience when subjected to
colonising pressures and other threats to my well-being. I think you will only
have to watch the performance text of my encounter with the Working Party on a
Matter of Academic Freedom to detect the power of hamoq in me. This is one of the
great benefits of inclusional ways of being in that in living and working with
others it is possible that the humanising influence of a community in oneÕs AR
Expedition can help one to continue to live more fully the values that carry
hope for the future of humanity.
Because
of the generative power drawn on by AR ExpeditionsÕ interconnecting and
branching communications through the internet, I have been able for the first
time to present the 31 years growth of my educational knowledge through my AR Expeditions
and to present the visual narrative in the Growth of Educational Knowledge Part
11. I am hopeful that you will find useful the five contributions to
educational knowledge and that you will find the time to respond to the ideas
from within your own creative and critical spirits of educational enquiry.
As
my expedition continues I hope that you will see its influence in the education
of the social formation of my own workplace, the University of Bath, and I hope
to be able to report in 2009 that the distinctive identity of the University is
associated with the creating and testing of educational theories that carry
hope for the future of humanity:
"The
task before us is to ensure that by 2009..... the University of Bath will be
internationally recognised as a leading UK university with a distinctive
approach to teaching, research and knowledge transfer. The emphasis here is
upon distinctiveness. We must establish a strong understanding of our unique
identity." (University of Bath, 2004, p.1)
Additional
References
AR Expeditions
(2004) About AR Expeditions. Retrieved 1 May 2004 from http://www.arexpeditions.montana.edu/docs/about.htm
Bernstein, B. (2000) Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique. Lanham, Boulder, NewYork, Oxford; Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Buncombe, A. & Huggler, J. (2004) American beheaded as torture backlash grows. Independent Newspaper 12 May, 2004.
Fisk, R. (2004) The Destruction of Morality. Independent Newspaper, 7 May 2004, p. 1.
Hirst, P. (Ed.) (1983) Educational Theory and its Foundation Disciplines. London;RKP
Kilpatrick, W.
(1951) Crucial Issues in Current Educational Theory. Educational Theory 1 (1)
pp. 1-8.
Ladkin, D.
(2004) Native American
Spirituality. GreenSpirit. Retrieved 9 May 2004 from http://www.greenspirit.org.uk/resources/NatAmerSpirit.htm
Murray, P.
(2004) Welcome to my multiracial and inclusive Postcolonial Living Education
Theory - practice, research and becoming. Retrieved 9 May 2004 from http://www.royagcol.ac.uk/~paul_murray/Sub_Pages/FurtherInformation.htm
Rayner, A.
(2004) Essays and Talks on Inclusionality by Alan Rayner. Retrieved 9 May 2004
from http://www.bath.ac.uk/~bssadmr/inclusionality/
University of Bath
(2004) The Future Academic Shape of the University: The Next Steps. Bath; The
University of Bath.