AN EDUCATIONAL EPISTEMOLOGY OF PRACTICE
Moira Laidlaw and Jack Whitehead
Action Research in Educational Theory Research Group
School of Education
University of Bath
Bath BA2 7AY
UK
30th March 1995
A paper to be shared with the Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices,
Special Interest Group, AERA, San Francisco, 18-21 April 1995.
SUMMARY
There are many different approaches to educational research. There
are educational researchers who see themselves as social scientists using
the methods of social science in educational contexts. There are philosophers,
sociologists, psychologists, historians and management theorists all contributing
to journals of educational research. There are others like ourselves who,
through researching their own educational practices as teachers and researchers,
hope to make contributions to educational knowledge and educational theory.
When educational researchers make a claim to know something about their
subject, education, they are making a claim to educational knowledge. Those
educational researchers who, like ourselves, still believe in the importance
of testing the validity of a claim to knowledge, do need to know the unit
of appraisal and the standards of judgement which can be used to test the
validity of such a claim.
In communicating an educational epistemology of practice we intend to show
a dialogical form of representation for an educational enquiry of the kind,
'How can I help you to improve your learning?, and a dialectical approach
to explicating and using educational standards of judgement for testing
a claim to educational knowledge.
INTRODUCTIONS
Moira will be introducing herself later in her educative relationships
with her pupils. I am Jack Whitehead, writing in my professional capacity
as a Lecturer in Education at the University of Bath, in England. I have
worked here since 1973 with education students. My research has been focused
on reconstructing educational theory so that it can produce valid descriptions
and explanations for the educational development of individual learners.
My interest in an educational epistemology of practice began in 1971 when
I rejected the view that educational theory was constituted by the philosophy,
psychology, sociology and history of education. My rejection was based on
the insight that as a teacher researcher, reflecting upon the nature of
my own educational relationships with my pupils, I needed a form of educational
theory which was grounded in educational practice and I needed an educational
epistemology which could clarify that standards of judgement to test the
validity of the explanations which formed the theory.
In revealing such an epistemology in this paper I need to show you a claim
to know my educational practice in an educational enquiry of the form, 'How
do I help you to improve your learning?'. What I have in mind is an educative
relationship in which I am tutoring Moira Laidlaw, a teacher researcher,
in her Ph.D. enquiry into the nature of her educative relationships with
her pupils. In this relationship I claim that Moira is influencing my educational
enquiry into the nature of an educational epistemology of practice and I
claim to be having an educative influence in Moira's enquiry into how she
can help her pupils to improve the quality of their learning.
Like all educational enquiries ours takes place through time. We begin below
with a conversation on the 9th March, 1995, and I move on to the here and
now of this writing on the 22nd March, 1995, before presenting Moira's account
of her educative relations with her pupils as they are revealed in the action
planning and interactive journals with her pupils of March 20th, 1995. There
are further conversations and reflections on March 23rd, 28th and 30th.
Moira's account contains no academic references other than to an action
reflection cycle from my own work, to Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' which
is the curriculum text, and to the standard assessment tests (SATS) which
the British Government has imposed in England and Wales. The lack of academic
references is not because she does not have the understanding of wide reading
(see Laidlaw, 1994, 1995). It is because they are not necessary to her educational
enquiry, 'How do I help you to improve your learning?', in the context of
her classroom. This point has significance in that a teacher researcher
is revealing a form of educational knowledge which is grounded in her educational
practice rather than grounded within any other form of theorising.
The academic references became necessary for my enquiry as Moira helped
me to understand the nature of an educational epistemology of her practice.
My understanding of epistemology has been influenced by a decision which
is a characteristic of personal knowledge (Polanyi, 1958). That is, to understand
the world from my own point of view, as an individual claiming originality
and exercising my judgement with universal intent. Moira has moved my learning
forward by showing me the significance of her woman's way of knowing in
her connected or relational knowing. She has helped me to extend the range
of my questions of the kind, 'How do I improve my practice?' to embrace
the other in questions of the kind, 'How do I help you to improve your learning?'.
Ben Cunningham (1994) has also been influential in this learning as I have
come to appreciate the significance of his question of the form, 'How do
I understand you?'.
I wish to make a distinction at this point between social science theory
and educational theory. Like Lomax (1994) I believe educational research
is a practical rather than a social science. I know many educational action
researchers characterise themselves as critical social theorists and draw
their assumptions from Habermas' theory of communicative action. I have
found his four principles of validity (Habermas, 1976) in relation to comprehensibility,
propositional claims, normative background and authenticity, useful in testing
the validity of my own claims to educational knowledge (Whitehead, 1993).
His awesome critique of functionalist reason however, did not provide me
with a base for my educational epistemology of practice. It provided me
with additional grounds for my focus on learning (Whitehead, 1976) when
he said, in relation to theory, that, in his abstracting the development
of cognitive structures from the historical dynamic of events and in his
abstracting the evolution of society from the historical concretion of forms
of life:
A theory developed in this way can no longer start by examining concrete
ideals immanent in traditional forms of life. It must orient itself to the
range of learning processes that is opened up at a given time by
a historically attained level of learning. It must refrain from critically
evaluating and normatively ordering totalities, forms of life and cultures,
and life-contexts and epochs as a whole. (Habermas 1989,
p.383).
Where I think the analysis offered by Moira below has a different, educational
base, to the critical social science base of Habermas, is because it is
grounded in her educative relationships with her pupils, and the question,
'How can I help you to improve your learning?'. We both believe that we
have revealed an educational epistemology of practice and urge you to contribute
to our educational development through your critical evaluation of our claim
to educational knowledge.
The knowledge we have in mind has a dialogical form in which individuals
are helping each other to take their enquiries forward. It is dialectical
in the sense of a 'coming to understand' through a process of question and
answer and the recognition that we exist as living contradictions (Ilyenkov,
1977) in questions of the kind, 'How do I improve my practice?'. By a 'living
contradiction' we mean that our 'I's, in questions of this form, embody
together both the values we are trying to realise in our practice, and our
experience of their lack, omission or negation.
Those interested in the rigour of our claim may wish to analyse it in relation
to Winter's (1989) six criteria of dialectical and reflexive critique, risk,
plural structure, multiple resource, and theory practice transformation.
In our concern to share an educational epistemology we wish to focus on
the unit of appraisal and the standards of judgement which can be used to
test the validity of our claim rather than on the concept of rigour. Our
unit of appraisal is the individual's claim to know their own educational
practice. Our standards of judgement are those values whose meanings are
clarified in the course of their emergence in practice and which both give
meaning and purpose to the enquirer's existence and constitute the enquiry
as 'educational'. Whilst we can begin to communicate the meanings of our
values in the form of the linguistic list below, we ask you to recognise
that this list does not carry the most significant meanings. We think that
the significant meanings are those which we reveal, through time, in our
practice as we answer questions of the kind, 'How do I improve my practice?',
and 'How can I help you to improve your learning?'. Jack will be offering
his interpretation of these values below and Moira will show the meaning
of her values in her practice.
The value-words which carry some of our meanings are;
i) Ontological authenticity - Can you see, through time
and practice that we are committed to living the values and understandings
we claim to hold?
ii) Spiritual quality - Can you identify the quality of
our I-You relationships (Buber, 1923) which are life affirming and which
embody an individual integrity which does not violate the integrity of the
other?
iii) Ethical commitment - can you feel the tension which
moves our enquiries forward as we experience ourselves not living our values
as fully as we believe it is possible to live them?
iv) Aesthetics of existence - do you experience our representations
of our attempts to give a form to our own lives in our productive work in
education as aesthetically pleasing in the sense that they are both appropriate
and beautiful?
v) Educative conversations - have we expressed our dialogical
capacities to help each other to learn something of significance about ourselves
and our worlds?
v) Educational epistemology of practice - have we shown
you an educational epistemology of practice in defining our unit of appraisal,
explicating our standards of judgement and showing the dialectical logic
of our educational enquiries?
vi) Educational theory - have we shown a way of reconstituting
educational theory in the descriptions and explanations which we, as individual
learners, are producing for our own educational development as we answer
questions of the kind, 'how do I improve my practice?' and 'How can I help
you to improve your learning?'.
vii) Educative relationships - have we shown a way of representing
a claim to know our our educative relationships in a way which includes
our students speaking for themselves and showing the values which constitute
their learning as 'educational'?
viii) Educational development - have we shown an extension
in our cognitive range and concern (Peters, 1966) in our learning how to
live our values more fully in our practice?
ix) Cultural renewal - have we related our living educational
theories to a process of cultural renewal in the sense that our theories
are making a contribution to an aesthetic form of description, explanation,
communication and representation which can add to our society's reservoir
of the best that has been known and thought (Said, 1993)?
x) A good social order - have we related our living educational
theories to a form of good social order within which we both recognise and
contribute to the influence of the economic well-being and security of ourselves
and others, within a democratic form of social organisation (Hutton, 1995)?
In inviting your responses to these questions we are expecting to be shown
that we have yet to reach perfection! We are sure that we are not living
some of our values as fully as we could do and that you can help us to a
fuller recognition of where we might make improvements in our educational
enquiries. We expect this recognition will contribute to a creative tension
in us as we experience ourselves as living contradictions and help us to
move our enquiries forward. We intend to hold ourselves accountable to your
responses at an International Conference of Teacher Researchers in England
in the Summer of 1996 organised by Tom Russell of Queens University, Kingston,
Ontario.
We are hoping that the paper will be seen by teachers and teacher educators
as a useful contribution to their enquiries of the form, 'How can I help
you to improve your learning?'. In particular we are hoping that the paper
carries forward the points made by Jack at AERA '94, as a discussant in
the Interactive Symposium on Teaching Action: Studies of Teaching and Academic
Experience in Schools of Education. In commenting on papers by Mary-Lynn
Hamilton (1994), Peg Placier (1994), Stefinnee Pinnegar (1994), Tom Russell
(1994), and Karen Guilfoyle (1994), Jack wondered whether their enquiries
could be moved forward by a concern to include some evidence that they had
influenced the learning and educational development of their students. We
hope that the focus in this present paper on an educational epistemology
of practice - which includes evidence from the learning of a teacher educator,
and a teacher and her pupils - will be useful to teacher researchers and
teacher educator researchers who wish to represent and understand their
educational practices in a way which includes their educative relationships
with their pupils and students. We are particularly concerned that this
paper should be seen to complement the work of five other researchers. The
first is Jean McNiff (1992, 1993) and her work into the generative capacities
of individuals as she extends action research programmes for teacher researchers
(McNiff & Collins, 1994) associated with the Marino Institute of Higher
Education in Dublin, Ireland. The second is Kevin Eames (1993) and his research
into dialectical forms of educational knowledge. The third is Pam Lomax
(1994) and her research into the forms of representation of educational
enquiries and the standards of judgement which can be used to test educational
action research accounts. The fourth is Moyra Evans (1995) and her action
research into her work as a school deputy headteacher with responsibility
for staff development and the fifth is Tony Ghaye (1993) and his research
into critical conversations. Here is part of our conversation of March 9th
1995.
March 9th. 1995
Jack. How can I help you to improve your learning?
What is your concern?
Moira. My concern is how I can improve the quality of learning
with my pupils - particularly the spiritual aspects of my teaching.
J. If we take this idea of the spiritual aspect of your teaching could you
say why you think this is significant?
M.I think spiritual qualities are what enable me to be life-affirming with
my pupils. I'm not just teaching English. The subtext for me is to enable
the girls to lead happier, more productive lives. Lives which are enriched
by the learning environment which I am able to provide for them. At the
centre of this enrichment are the spiritual qualities which enable me to
be life-affirming.
J.Could you help us to understand what you mean by spiritual development
by focusing on the living relationships you have been experiencing with
your pupils today? Could you focus on how you are actually trying to answer
the question how could we judge the quality of your pupils' spiritual development?
M. I am thinking of my Year Nine group. I am using several related processes
I have never combined in this way before. I have encouraged them to develop
detailed action plans in which they engage with a critical friend. They
are isolating their own concerns and developing their own ways of improving
their work. They are also becoming accountable to the group. They are producing
interactive journals and are writing freely about the literature they are
reading outside lessons. They are expressing something of their understanding
first of all what they are doing in English but also about who they are
and what they want. They are using the journals to ask questions of themselves,
me and the text. They are expressing their opinions and ideas which actually
go outside the English context. My intuition is that this process is improving
both their commitment to what we are doing in English, but also is making
them enjoy what they are doing a great deal more. Enjoyment for me is such
an important aspect of human existence ...
J. And how do you think you might share that in terms of a form of public
accountability where meanings would be able to be communicated? If you are
talking about spiritual qualities, values which are life affirming, how
do you think we might represent that or offer it in a way that could be
publicly tested?
M. Within the girls' action plans I have also done my own very detailed
action plan. I gave it to them yesterday as a way of expressing my own public
accountability. I have expressed (to them) particular concerns about how
I can enhance their enjoyment. One of the ways in which I wish to be judged
is whether they are voluntarily articulating enjoyment, whether they are
going away and reading books I neither suggested nor recommended and whether
they are coming back to me in their journals to discuss some of the things
they are thinking about. I am hoping to show by example that there are certain
things that are worth affirming. I also want to write a rigorous paper to
be judged by my peers. The feeling I am getting as I am teaching these girls
is that something very educational is happening. There is an expression
of enthusiasm coming from what I would call the spiritual and therefore
I would like to understand exactly what is going on in those areas so that
I can enhance my own practice.
March 22nd. 1995
Jack - Moira gave me the following paper this morning. I think
it is a claim to know something of her educational practices with her pupils
and reveals some of the standards of judgement which can be used to test
the validity of her claim to know her own educational practice. I am thinking
of those standards of judgement we drew your attention to in our value-words
above, whose meanings are not carried in a purely conceptual form but whose
meanings are clarified in the course of their emergence in practice. The
standards are values in the sense that they are those human goals which
Moira embodies and which both give her life meaning and purpose in her vocation
of education and constitute her enquiry as 'educational'. I think you will
also see my influence on her educational development as she integrates three
of my ideas on:
a) existing as a living contradiction in questions of the kind, 'How do
I improve my practice?'
b) using an action reflection cycle in a systematic form of educational
enquiry into questions of the kind, 'how can I help you to improve your
learning?'
c) constituting her living educational theory as a description and explanation
of her educational practice.
In my direct communication with Moira below I am exploring the possibility
that she might find a fourth idea of use, in her educational enquiry, as
I ask her to consider the possibility that by acknowledging the significance
of political and economic relationships in her practice, she will enhance
her understanding of her contribution to cultural renewal.
Through her text below, I feel Moira brings a quality of care into her relationships
within which, for me, the unity of humanity appears to be possible. For
those readers familiar with the quality of Martin Buber's I-You relation
you may relate, as I do, through her I-You relations to the ontological
authenticity in Moira's claim to know her educative relationships with her
pupils. However I think that Moira is omitting any reference to some significant
political and economic relationships which are important to her contribution
to cultural renewal. Let me now speak directly to Moira.
Dear Moira -
In communicating the nature of this spiritual relationship, within the linguistic
form below, I think you are expressing an aesthetic of your existence as
an educator. I am meaning this in the sense that you show in your teaching
of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet', a work of poetic inspiration, that
you value both your pupils' capacities to bring love, beauty and goodness
into the world and their capacities to learn how to do so. In your learning
and the learning of your pupils you show that you are engaged in a systematic
form of enquiry through your use of an action/reflection cycle. You also
demonstrate the logic of the art of a dialectician in holding both your
one and your pupils' many enquiries together.
Through your reflexive critique of your own practice in the account below,
I experience you explicating the standards of judgement which you use to
test the validity of your claim to know your own educational practice. You
present evidence to substantiate your claim and explicate the values you
embody in your practice which constitute it as 'educational'. Your readers
must judge for themselves whether they feel your ontological authenticity
in your claim to know your own educational practice. You know I value highly
your ontological authenticity in the integrity you show in living your values
in your practice.
It seems to me that the educational knowledge being generated in your reflective
practice has the potential to extend the knowledge-base of the Academy.
This does of course, as Lomax (1994) has argued, depend upon researchers
such as you and I enhancing our understanding of the politics of educational
knowledge in the sense of finding ways of legitimating such claims to knowledge
and their standards of judgement within the Academy.
I think there is something missing from your account which is related to
the political and economic context in which it is being produced. We both
know the tension you have experienced as government policy influences the
amount of money available to schools to spend on teachers and how easily
a decision could be made to terminate your contract and end your educative
relationships with these pupils. By not referring to these economic and
political relationships I feel you miss the opportunity to explain what
capacities you have drawn on to help you transcend these constraints and
make your contribution to the renewal of our culture through living your
values in your educative relationships with your pupils.
Best Wishes, Jack.
As a University Academic I want my work to contribute to the development
of educational research methodology and I think its contribution can be
located in relation to Denzin's and Lincoln's (1994) views on Qualitative
Research, where they define the present phase of such research in terms
of crises in representation and legitimation with action orientated enquiries
just on the horizon. In offering a dialectical approach to the explication
and use of values as standards of judgement in testing the validity of claims
to educational knowledge I am trying to make a contribution to such enquiries.
What I mean by a dialectical methodology concerns a view of 'immanence'
in which the meaning of values and understandings emerge over time through
practice. Consider for example the emergence of an understanding of the
significance of economic and political relationships in an educational enquiry.
In my account of my educational development (Whitehead, 1993) I show how
an understanding of these relationships has been integrated in my educational
development. This integration only occurred after several rather painful
experiences of standing firm in the face of pressures to terminate my employment,
to deny my originality and to prevent me questioning the truth of power
of those in authority. Moira has resisted the integration of such understandings
for several years. Two weeks ago she was informed by the School that it
was likely that because of financial cuts to school budgets her contract,
along with other part-time contracts, would be terminated next month. In
my direct communication with Moira above I continue to encourage her to
integrate some understanding of these political and economic relationships
into the story of her educational practice.
I also want my work to contribute to a process of cultural renewal in the
sense of supporting the creation of forms of educational knowledge which
have the aesthetic power to captivate your imaginations and act as educative
influences for good. I am meaning this in the sense of helping or encouraging
you to bring life-affirming values more fully into the world.
I think that there are many good teachers in our schools who embody the
educational knowledge which could revitalise our culture. However, this
knowledge is not being explicated in the aesthetic form necessary to captivate
the imaginations of many citizens and influence their practical actions
in contributing to improvements in our social order. For me there is nothing
more beautiful than to see a teacher enabling a pupil to give a form to
their life which they value and see as extending their understanding and
as contributing to the well-being of another. I believe such educative relationships
have the spiritual commitments of I-You relationships whilst requiring works
of poetic inspiration to communicate their meanings to others. I want to
see the educational knowledge embodied in such educative relationships legitimated
with as high a value as possible within the Academy and Society. Whilst
my present work falls short of such high ideals I think I might get closer
to their realisation through your committed response. Here is one such response.
Action planning and interactive journals
with a Year Nine English group
by Moira Laidlaw, Oldfield Girls' School,
Kelston Road, Bath, Avon.
20 March 1995
Prologue:
'I have spent the evening marking the Year Nine essays. What a joy! I'm
so lucky to be working with these girls. They inspire me. They
keep reminding me how worthwhile it all is - Life, the Universe and Everything..The
essays, some of them, made me cry with delight. The effort, the desire to
articulate well, the sense of empowerment, the sensitivity, the stirrings
of originality, the creativity and empathy. I found almost all of them in
most essays. In three I found all of them. The improvements are being revealed
not only in their Levels in the National Curriculum - as in my criteria
for success in my Action Plan, but also in their growing confidence, their
citing of other Literature, their cogent points of view, their greatly improved
spelling, punctuation and use of Language...' 17.3.95. (Private correspondence.)
Introduction:
In this article I would like to outline some of the work I have
been doing with a particular group of Year Nine girls (they are 13-14 years
old). This work consists of, in particular, an action planning process and
writing in interactive journals, which started at the beginning of February
and is continuing at the time of writing.
For the first ten years of my professional life I worked as a teacher of
English and German in a mixed comprehensive school in Shropshire. I loved
it. I was then redeployed due to falling rolls and decided to do an M.Ed.
here at Bath. After six years of working in teacher-education and nearly
completing a Ph.D., in September 1994, I went back into the classroom as
a teacher of English at a local girls' Grant Maintained Comprehensive School.
I am on my fourth fixed-term contract there, replacing a member of staff
who is absent due to illness. At the time of writing this I do not know
whether my contract will be renewed after Easter.
In my Ph.D. I have looked at ways of improving the quality of learning with
my education students and, more recently, my pupils at Oldfield. In order
to do this I have used the action planning process within the action research
cycle (Whitehead, 1985). In this process I pursue the following process:
a) I have a concern. In other words there is something I wish to improve
in my teaching;
b) I imagine a solution;
c) I act in ways suggested by the solution;
d) I observe the effects of what I'm doing;
e) I evaluate and then modify what I'm doing.
a) I have a concern
In returning to the classroom, there were many things to concern me: I had
never taught under the National Curriculum although I had taught about
it in my PGCE work at the University. This meant that I had never had to
make a decision about the level of a child's work. I had never taught for
the SATS, to whose introduction I had, like so many English teachers across
the country, been opposed. I had never taught anything but mixed ability
either. In addition I had never taught classes consisting entirely of girls.
Out of all these potential disadvantages I wanted to choose a concern which
would enable me to help the girls make the maximum number of improvements
possible in their learning about English.
When I was asked to take the 'fast' group in Year Nine after Christmas I
saw it as a challenge. Ideologically I am in favour of mixed ability teaching
in English. I'd done it for ten years and really enjoyed it: I had seen
pupils learning the values of co-operation and empathy with this system.
Admittedly, I had also worried about my abilities to differentiate in ways
which enhanced learning for all individuals. However, the English faculty
was trying out the idea of setting children according to ability at this
stage for the first time.
So this was the situation: a class of 32 girls, the text 'Romeo and Juliet'
and the darling SATS of May looming! I had to think fast about how I could
manage to enhance the learning of this setted group of girls in ways which
did not simply feed them into the system as if they were parts on a conveyor
belt. The work I had done in my previous school, and then the research nearly
completed for my Ph.D., convinced me that treating people as individuals
is a key way to enhance learning and self-esteem, two criteria by which
I judge the quality of the work I am doing as an educator.
I imagine a solution: my own action plan
Early in the Spring term I wrote an action plan which I would later show
the girls. The concern I had was this:
How can I help to improve the quality of learning in English with my Year
Nine group?
I highlighted the areas of spelling, punctuation, expression (written and
oral) confidence with difficult texts, enjoyment, commitment, wide reading.
I gave the reasons cited above (mostly to do with my lack of experience
in this context) as the justification for my concern. I then continued:
What can I do to enable these improvements?:
Praise good work always; inaugurate action plans ... to encourage accountability
for improvement and responsibility for own learning; mark carefully and
promptly towards educational purposes (above); encourage wide reading; monitor
and evaluate responses individually to variety of texts; use variety of
resources - books, video, tapes, role-play, recitation etc.; start interactive
journals about English lessons, their learning and my own teaching; develop
a systematic and enquiring approach to texts orally and in writing; encourage
constructively critical feedback, about their own performance from themselves,
critical friend and from me; encourage an ethos of pride in excellence:
highlight good educational processes and encourage high quality outcomes.
How will I know that I have been successful in these aims?
A.T. Levels will rise for individuals in written and oral work; pupils
will be voluntarily reading good quality literature; they will be showing
a commitment to learning in the subject; they will express enjoyment of
the subject; they will write about their ideas and perspectives in their
(voluntary) journals which they will want to share with me; they will ask
questions about how they can improve their performance in English; spellings
and punctuation will be freer from errors; I will continue to enjoy the
lessons with them.
c) I act & observe
For the purposes of this article I will take extracts principally from Cathy's
and Lucy's work, with substantiation from the action plans, essays and journal
entries from others too. I have chosen Cathy's and Lucy's work in particular
because they write extensively and because they were both happy for their
writing to be used for this article. Lucy even wrote in her journal:
'17.3.95. I am very pleased to be of assistance with your work. Please
do use any of my work, I am more than willing...Please could you show
me what work you are using and what it's needed for, how it is of help
and what your answer to it is...'
As an introduction to the Shakespeare text I decided to read the first scene
of 'King Lear' with them as it exemplifies many of Shakespeare's dramatic
techniques in his tragedies. It would also be the literary equivalent of
throwing them in at the deep end. I had seen enough in the first couple
of lessons to be confident that they would swim. After 'King Lear', 'Romeo
and Juliet' would seem more manageable. I stressed to them the importance
of wide quotation, care with spelling and punctuation, use of language (avoiding
slang), detailed characterisation, and the form and structure of an essay.
After two weeks of intense work I collected in essays (on 20.1.95.) with
the following title:
'What impression of Cordelia and Kent do you get in the opening scene,
and how does Shakespeare ensure that the audience is on their side?'
After a clear introduction in which Cathy tells the reader what to expect
in the essay (although she calls the plot 'the story') she continues with
this:
...It is not made clear what is going on - but I have found it is
not
unusual for Shakespeare to begin in the middle of a conversation
or action. For instance I noticed that the play, 'The Tempest' opens
on a boat in the middle of a storm with thunder and lightning.'
Against this comment I wrote 'excellent!'
At one point she writes:
'I think that Shakespeare choose to have two main characters with
so similar characteristics so that he could emphasise the good choice/
option.'
I corrected her spelling mistake and challenged the use of 'choice/option'.
She concludes her essay thus:
'Overal I think that Shakespeare made two of the main characters
have similar characteristics so that it was obvious to the audience
after a succession of events that they were standing-up against the
King for 'good' and that they should rebel against the King. I think
that I have proved this well in my essay.'
Cathy is already capable of justifying a point of view. There is,
however, awkwardness in her style: 'they were standing -up against
the King for 'good' and that they should rebel against the King', although
the point itself is sound. For this essay I awarded her a Level 7- as it
was full of insight, mostly well expressed, with only a few careless errors.
I was mentally comparing her essay to 16+ coursework which in my previous
school I would have awarded a grade C-/D+. I checked my marks and reasons
for them constantly with the second in the Faculty who is in charge of Keystage
Three.
Spelling and expression continued to be sources of mistakes for Cathy in
a context question set on 3.2.95. on the Prince's speech early in the play
'Romeo and Juliet'. Her opening is quite chaotic:
'Gregory and Sampson are the two Capulet servents. They are in quite
a low class in socity and all they can think about is women and sex. They
don't seem to care about the women's feelings at all. Then they start
and other characters are added into the story soon Benvolio a man
of higher class tries to split them up...'
This passage reveals Cathy's formal weaknesses more acutely. This
was written under time-pressure in class. It showed me more clearly which
weaknesses needed my attention. These included syntax and expression.
On 13.2.95. I talked to the Year Nine girls about action planning as a process
I had used myself and asked them to pose themselves three questions (see
next paragraph). I wanted them to isolate their own concerns as my previous
experience had taught me that enabling pupils to take responsibility for
their own learning is a useful way of improving the process. This does not
mean that I was unclear about my own agenda: the action planning process
would, I hoped, encourage a mature approach to the learning process as well
as helping the pupils with the content of the subject. I saw my responsibility
consisting of enabling them to articulate their own learning needs within
the contexts of the curriculum and the wider issues of expanding their sense
of purpose in English lessons.
These are the questions I asked them to pose themselves in their action
plans:
a) What do I want to improve?
b) How can I improve it?
c) Who/what can help me with it? (i.e. what resources do I need?)
d) How will I know when I have achieved my objectives?
Cathy produced these ideas for her action plan on 13.2.95. (In the quotations
for the Girls work, for authenticity) I have left the spellings as they
appeared in their texts)
Spelling
- reading through my work more carefully
- taking note of spellings and learning them.
Slang
- read good quality lititure.
- make a note of where I have made mistakes and avoid using them again.
Punctuation
- read through work more carefully
- make a note of any I don't know.
Write in more detail.
- reading more good quality lititure.
- taking note of what Miss Laidlaw says and trying to include some of her
'new' words.
Read more HARD
-Read good quality English lititure.
- take advice as to which books others have enjoyed
Quoations
By reading more will hopefully give me more inspiration for quoats.
How will I know when I have reached my objectives?
Spelling
- Finding less spelling mistakes in my work when it is returned after
marking.
- Not making the same mistake twice.
Slang.
- Having fewer slang mistakes in my work.
- Reading more. (Good quality lititure)
Punctuation
- To find less mistakes in my work.
- To have a list of mistakes that I find difficult.
Write in more detail.
- to get a higher mark for my work.
- To know myself that my latest piece of work was better than the one before.
Read more
- To note how much I have read.
- To see that I have applied the knowledge from the books to my work.
Quoations
- To see quoations in my work from other sources of lititure.
Clearly Cathy was seeing the solution to many of her perceived problems
in the kinds of reading she could do. In her journal, started on 3.3.95.
(the day after I gave them a copy of my action plan) she wrote the following:
'This term I think I have learned a lot. I think that my essay work
has
improved but I would like to improve further. The one thing I think is the
root to my improvement is my reading. I find it very hard to find the time
to read as I do many other things. I need a book that I really enjoy so
that I will get on and read it. Thankyou very much for suggesting 'Wives
and Daughters' by Mrs. Gaskell. If you find anything else you think would
be good for me to read, please could you tell me.'
Lucy expressed similar sentiments in her action plan. Under what
she could improve she wrote:
'My reading. I do not read enough books. When someone reccomends
me a book then I will read it...'
Under the heading, 'What can help me?' she wrote:
'I can improve my reading by reading books....There are books everywhere,
at school, at home, and in the library.'
And under who could help her Lucy has this to say:
'My mum has lots of books that are just like the ones on the list...
My English teacher has already helped me by giving me a reading
list and lending me 'The Mill on the Floss'. The main person who
can help me is me.'
I felt this showed good self-insight and sense of personal responsibility.
I was particularly impressed with the way her action plan continued in terms
of how she would know that her reading has improved:
'With reading I will know that I have achieved my objective when I
have read more books! This will also help my spelling...'
Cathy continued in her journal with this:
'I like the idea of writing down the words because it helps me to
widen
my vocabulary. (Even if we do have to force a cheer when you write it on
the board.) Sometimes when we are told to do an essay I seem to come up
with ideas or statements which nobody else has and I am not sure if
it is right. I don't want to put something in that isn't right but I don't
want to make a fool of myself either. Sometimes I feel a bit out of my
depth but otherwise I think I am doing O.K.'
I replied on the same day:
'I think you're doing MUCH better than O.K.! You have real insight
and talent, such a keen understanding of character and motive. I like
the way you analyse where you think you've got to. I wonder whether
being out of your depth sometimes is such a bad thing: after all it's how
we grow and change. Take risks, Cathy, with your work, your writing,
your oral contributions. It's how you'll learn. I think you're doing really
well.'
My response to her, quickly though it was written, was calculated.
In my school journal I had already written this about her on 7.2.95.:
'Cathy has real talent. There's something about the way she answers
questions in class, as if she can't believe her own insight, as if she's
both proud and scared.'
I felt her own comments did nothing to contradict my impressions
of her. I wanted to nurture her. I wanted to make her feel that her contributions
were significant to me, to the lessons and most importantly to her own educational
development. I wanted her to feel that she was in an environment from which
she was safe to launch into the unknown. I felt she was about to enter another
stage of development in terms of her ability to express her view of the
world and her place in it.
On 10.3.95. she wrote the following in her diary:
'Ever since I can remember during school my Mum and Dad would come
back from Parents Evening and say your maths is good and we are very
pleased with your science but you need to improve your spelling. This
was O.K. (you can't be good at everything) but nobody ever told me how
to improve...So I decided that even though we were not being set I was
really going to start to improve my spelling as it was the only thing
(I knew of really) that was stopping me being good at English. People had
said before that I had good ideas for writing. So when I found out that
I was in the top set English I was really pleased. I have just finished
my
second essay this term and I spent a long time checking the spellings so
I hope it is good enough. Cathy H.'
I was inspired by her comments. I found them deeply touching, particularly
in the level of trust she was showing me. I felt that here at last I could
challenge her to open up her view of English a little more. I wrote back
the next day:
'I found your journal entry very moving, Cathy. As I have said before
you are well placed in this group. Spelling is important (and you are improving)
but please don't mistake ability in the formal aspects of the subject as
the overriding ones. They have their place, and I insist that pupils pay
attention to them. However, they are only the form, not the
content. What we want to achieve, I hope, is a balance - a concentration
on the development of your (our) ability to communicate in ways which help
to clarify that communication. You really do have good ideas and sometimes
your insight is better than that - it is potentially outstanding. Your Action
Plan quite rightly, I think, suggests that you need to read good quality
LITERATURE (note spelling!). May I say, though, that reading is really not
just a means to a measurable end - at least I don't think so. I think that
reading good literature enables us to find out who we are. (I give an example
of the effect a book had on me at her age.)...I want you to read, Cathy,
because I want you to know yourself because in knowing yourself you can
find yourself a good life to lead. And if you write a few good essays along
the way that help you to structure and form your ideas while you're at school
(and maybe later if you decide to read English at University) then all well
and good, but reading great works of Literature, should, I think, help us
to lead better lives...'
Then after reading her first major essay on 'Romeo and Juliet' I appended
this:
12.3.95. I have just read your essay and marked it. What an achievement!
Please see me to talk about it.'
The entries so far from both Cathy and Lucy seem to me to bring some
evidence for fulfilling the criteria for success on my action plan, especially
when I wrote:
'pupils will voluntarily be reading 'good quality' literature; they
will
write about their perspectives in their journals which they will want
to share with me; they will ask me questions about how they can
improve their performance in English.'
Lucy's journal entries began on 28.2.95. She shows a strongly developed
ability to reflect on what she is doing and the purposes of it. She also
expresses enjoyment of what she is doing, another criterion by which I wish
the quality of my educational work with them to be judged:
'28.2.95. My lessons with Miss Laidlaw has broaded my horison in
English. I am really enjoying it. We have been doing a lot of Shakespeare
which is new to me as I haven't read much before. The work is harder
and more intense but the results are more pleasing and satisfying. When
we hand in a piece of work or essay they are always marked by our next
lesson...and this is really good.'
She continues in reflective vein:
'...Today we did a lesson plan. As far as I can see every aspect of
my
English can be improved but the main things I wrote down were
spelling and reading. I have begun to read 'Mill on the Floss'.
There then follows two pages of analytical criticism of Tom Tulliver's
character and her sense of outrage at his treatment of his sister. In my
reply to this long first diary entry I wrote this (also on 28.2.95.):
'Thanks for all your comments, Lucy. What a pleasure to read....I
am
glad that you feel your horizons are being broadened. I would say that
this was one of the main purposes of education. I agree that when you've
really put a lot into something then the results are worth more. I
certainly find that's the case with marking your work...It's important that
it's marked well, but I also want to show you that I respect the effort
you're making and that I respect you too...Now to 'Mill on the Floss'...'
e) I evaluate and modify
The issue of respect seems to me to be a fundamental one in my own enquiry
about how I can improve the quality of learning with the pupils. My research
(Laidlaw, 1994) has helped me to clarify the significance for learning and
for well-being of showing respect for people over time. The journals also
became a forum for pupils to express constructive criticism about my teaching
methods. I stressed to them the importance of taking responsibility for
their own learning and the necessity for them to tell me what they needed
in order to improve the quality of their learning. If they did not tell
me how to teach them more effectively from their point of view then I was
unlikely to learn how to improve the quality of my teaching. I received
the following from Lisa:
'6.3.95. I know that you have to push us as hard as you can as you
get
the best out of us and I think it's mostly helping, but you keep saying
that we are like ...'A' level students and I think at times you forget
that we are only in Year Nine and when you say don't make the same
mistakes as others you can't really expect us to become perfect.'
She continues:
'I think that the ideas of critical friends are good but on one particular
occasion you were helping C. do her essay and I needed to work on my
quotes as I was already behind but because C. did not understand it you
automatically thought that I would so you told me to stop my work and
help C. so I was behind on mine... '
I wrote back on 7.3.95.:
'Lisa, thanks for your comments. Let me take each point in turn. I
think
you're right about the 'A' Level bit. Of course you're Year Nine, and no
less for that. I think I was trying to express admiration for how well you're
doing academically, but I realise how my comments could
appear to be pressurising you. I won't do it again...As to your last point
you're right. I remember the incident. I am sorry that I overlooked
what you need and I'll try not to do that again. I do hope, Lisa, that you
feel you can talk to me about these sorts of issues. You're doing well...'
Lucy also took an opportunity to register her displeasure at my allowing
an extension to the 'Romeo and Juliet' essay at the last minute. I explained
to the class that different people found the new ways of working in English
perplexing and that the extra day was to enable people to improve the quality
of the work that had already been completed. Lucy wrote this:
'9.3.95. I think we should have to hand in our essay on the day that
was set. I spent a lot of my weekend writing the essay for Thursday
and I know other people did too...'
I wrote back:
'As to the deadline, I made a decision which in retrospect was not
the right one. Not altogether. We all have to learn to meet other people's
rules, and sometimes flexibility is a euphemism for indecisiveness.'
Lucy replied:
'10.3.95. I understand now why you gave an extra day for our essays
to be
in. I see now that not everyone works at the same speed as everyone
else and some people take longer to ajust to new things. I guess I acted
in the heat of the moment. I realize that it was a hard decision for
you to make and the decision has to meet the needs of everyone in the
class and not just some of them.'
Why I am delighted with both Lucy's and Lisa's comments is that they
show a trust that I will take their comments seriously - in other words
they feel safe to criticise when they see something unjust occuring. They
are also taking some responsibility for what is happening in their learning
by communicating to me what is hindering them. This is particularly so with
Lisa. As a result of Lucy's comments I ensured that the draft-work handed
in on time was marked by the next day (which gave them a weekend extra to
write it up in best in time for the deadline) and those who had handed it
in late had therefore less time to complete the re-drafting. In addition
when I had marked their final drafts I wrote a letter to them all which,
though praising them, did not, I hope, confer too much pressure on them.
I felt that this was an appropriate response to the issue raised by Lisa,
who clearly felt under pressure within the group.
In the letter I wanted to stress not only that they had improved in their
levels (of 32 girls, 29 showed better marks this time), but what that improvement
looked like. I wanted to start to help them to internalise the criteria
for success built upon the good practice they were already achieving, as
well as stretching their analytical skills. In other words I wanted to demonstrate
what I had already talked about in the lessons: 'aesthetic criteria' by
which they could begin to judge the quality of their own work. In the back
of her drafting book, Cathy has written:
'aesthetic - holistic, beauty/appropriateness'.
In her action plan she has added this:
'I will know when I have improved because...I should feel good about
my work.'
Here is the letter I wrote to them in full:
Penn House,
Friday, 17th March.
Red Nose Day!
Dear Year Nine,
I read your essays through last night and marked them. I am so delighted
with the improvements that all of you are showing in your written work that
I wanted to write to you (evidence you can bring with your critical friend
to substantiate claims that you are improving in the quality of your learning)
to congratulate you on the efforts you are all making.
I would like you to share this letter with your parents if you want, as
I am sure they will be interested to know how you're getting on. At the
Parents Meeting I said that I would be making a big effort to help you improve
on the formal as well as creative aspects of the subject. Your latest essays
show me that you have taken our lessons seriously and that you have started
to take responsibility for the ways in which you're learning best. At the
beginning of the time when I started to teach you all I made a big fuss
about spelling and punctuation, as well as the uses of language, expression
and vocabulary. In addition we started to look at ways of enhancing your
literary experience and many of you have read some difficult and challenging
literature.
In your essays this time, there were comments like this:
'I think the reason Shakespeare includes the themes of feuding and
hatred is to counterpoint it with the strong love of Romeo and
Juliet;'
Note in this extract the use of the word 'counterpoint' and how beautifully
it conveys the tension between the two opposing themes: love and hate. 'Counterpoint'
is a musical term, denoting growing complexity. It is particularly apposite
(appropriate) in terms of the ways in which Shakespeare is creating the
different threads of dramatic tension. He is like a composer, weaving themes
into each other, until it is difficult to tell which theme is which. Remember
the conversation we had yesterday when we talked about the ways in which
Romeo is both a person, a character in his own right, and also symbolic
of Shakespeare's purpose and representative of dramatic tension?
Then there's this from another writer:
'Goodness is not enough in the case of the Montagues and the
Capulets; so instead of the encounters representing goodness, they
represent fate';
This insight is a powerful point of view, expressed from a deep understanding
of the underlying meanings of the play. The writer conveys her grasp of
the tensions and the intentions of both the characters and Shakespeare himself.
The next quotation from another girl goes even further in giving a point
of view:
'The audience can all learn something from this play. It is not just
a play, but a guide of morals. It shows how morality and law clash,
and how their feud comes into it...The only way out of some situations
is death. It makes us realize our own faults...;
Here, there is a self-assuredness in the views being expressed. She has
drawn conclusions from the morality of the play and tried to reflect it
onto a generalised meaning. This is a high-order skill and shows genuine
insight and flair.
The next quotation happens to be a personal favourite. It is poetic (using
a simile). The strength of the imagery is deepened by its reflection in
the play itself. Shakespeare continuously reminds us of the light and dark
aspects in the play by referring to light and dark imagery. This writer's
insight is not only accurate but empathic.
'It appears to be an ominous situation, condemned to darkness with
no distant light. However, from these circumstances came a ray of hope
like a candle in the night.'
I am similarly impressed by the next writer's insight and manner of expressing
it:
'The encounters are like a glass of cold water on a hot Summer's day
because they are refreshing and a good side to the two families.'
I like the way the following writer has made her insights clear and the
way she has used quotations to back up her arguments:
'[Juliet] becomes quite worried about her actions being too quick and
too direct. You can gain a hint from this from: 'And therefore thou
mayst think my behaviour light.' Again Romeo and Juliet seem the core players
in their family and the main raw material for the hatred...'
Her imagery is stark and well in keeping with Shakespeare's intentions in
showing us the vulnerability of two young lovers caught in the cross-fire
between ignorance and blind hatred.
In the next writer's account we see how well she integrates the literature
of another writer in her development of an argument:
'[The nurse} had a good heart and we gain the impression that she would
be loyal to Juliet throughout. She reminds me of Nellie Dean in
'Wuthering Heights' because, like the nurse, she is torn between her
loyalties...'
The following writer shows a highly-developed use of language skills as
well as an understanding of the themes of the play:
'In the case of Romeo and Juliet, two lovestruck teenagers are caught
in an adult world of hatred and contentious views, which drive them
apart and condemn them to ... misery, causing them to take
their lives.'
And finally, a few words from another girl who is beginning to write succinctly
and clearly about her intentions in her work:
'The purpose of this essay is to find out why the 'starcrossed' lovers are
important to the play, their meetings, love and the honour to the families.
The essay will try to uncover the truth and the moral of 'Romeo and Juliet'.
I couldn't have said it better myself! I wanted to write to you because
I am so impressed with what you've managed. I have only quoted a few people's
comments. Believe me, I could have quoted a great many more. The insights
you are beginning to articulate are most impressive.
However, (isn't there always a 'but'?!) we need to keep the standard of
your work this high when you have less time to prepare for it. I also wanted
to write to you as well to offer some more tips about how you can maintain
such high achievement levels, as well as enjoying and hopefully seeing a
value in what you're doing.
I am aware that some of you are still not checking your work through carefully
enough. This is particularly annoying when I have corrected the mistakes
already in your rough versions. NAUGHTY!
Keep reading good quality literature and writing in your journals. Those
of you who are doing that on a regular basis seem to be gaining in confidence,
and the process enables you to have a quick written feedback on anything
concerning you.
Some of you expressed concern after the lesson, as well as during it, with
how you can best help yourselves in the run-up to the examinations in May.
In 'Hitch Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy' (not 'great' literature, but a laugh
a minute!) the motto is 'DON'T PANIC!'. Best advice I can give you.
Read the set parts of the play over and over (Act One, Scene 5 + Chorus,
and also Act Three, Scene Three). Ask me questions. Ask each other. Write
to me about them in your journals. Start analysing them in terms of the
use of language. How do you think they would be staged?
Let's keep the dialogue going. I want to hear from ALL OF YOU!
Cathy's comment was the one I denoted as my personal favourite
in an essay for which I had awarded a Level 8 +.:
'It appears to be an ominous situation, condemned to darkness with
no distant light. However, from these circumstances came a ray of hope like
a candle in the night...'
I find this simile particularly moving because at the beginning of
our working together I noted how awkwardly sometimes that Cathy expressed
herself in her writing. This image, as I noted in the letter, used Shakespeare's
own preoccupation with light and dark, and in an original and poetic way
gave an empathic response. I was also touched when she handed me this comment
in her journal at the end of the lesson (17.3.95.) after I had given her
the letter and a small illustrated book of Wordsworth's shorter poetry for
her to extend her reading:
'17.3.95. I was really pleased with my essay. At first I was quite
suprised
but I did notice on my final copy that there was not one spelling or
punctuation or slang mistake. The only place where I had a correction
was where I had written 'his' twice. Whoops. I was also pleased
that you
had printed an extract of my essay on the sheet you gave. I agree I did
like that part of my essay very much...' (my emphasis)
She went on to say:
'Thankyou for the book. I have had a quick flick and now I am going
to
read it. Cathy H.
At the end of the lesson she came up to me, her face wreathed in
smiles, and told me about somewhere she has stayed that looked like one
of the pictures in the poetry book.
March 23rd. 1995
I want to talk to you, Jack, and to the audience at AERA, about
what I feel I have done. I identify with the language you are using, because
in my own research (Laidlaw, 1995) I have perceived the value of identifying
a common language through which we can share meanings.
Let me tell you a little about what I feel I have achieved in my work with
the girls, and upon what I am basing my claim to be pleased with our progress.
I am delighted with the work that the girls and I have been doing because
it fulfils the criteria which I came into education to promote: I want to
show my pupils that I value them as individuals; I want them to be able
to master the formal aspects of English more thoroughly so that they enhance
their ability to communicate clearly; I want to show them that there is
a value in finding out about motive and characterisation in books and in
Life; I want them to delight in their own discoveries about the Literature
they are reading because in reacting to a text I believe that they learn
something about their own place in the world; I want them to be able to
take responsibility for the learning process and be empowered in recognising
their ability to achieve success.
March 28th. 1995
Why I am also pleased with my research into my educative relationships
is that I have revealed what I am learning about the process of improving
my ontological authenticity within my educative relationships. By that I
mean that I am true to myself as I try to bring beauty, truth and goodness
into the world with the girls because that is what I believe is educational.
I am also learning how to represent this process in a way which is appropriate
and beautiful.
As I learn how to achieve ontological authenticity in my educational relationships
I want to focus on how I think I have represented above an educational epistemology
of practice. I feel that through the systematic form in which I have both
facilitated and illustrated the process, i.e. the action planning process,
I have revealed the values which constitute my practice and my epistemology
as 'educational'.
It is also in relation to my accountability that I am contributing to an
educational epistemology of practice as I justify a claim to be living my
values more fully in my practice. What makes my accountability 'educational'
and how does this contribute to my 'educational epistemology'? Accounting
for my educational values forces me to interrogate them in such a way as
to facilitate an improving knowledge of them. It also helps to create an
enquiring environment from which I can better articulate my developing values
in my practice. This, in itself, is an educational endeavour. My commitment
to my own ontological authenticity has pushed me to greater efforts to live
my values as fully as I can with my pupils and, through my educational research,
to understand the educative process itself. In this process of accountability
I have offered above an account of my own educational practice, as a claim
to know what I am doing, The standards of judgement I use to test the validity
of my claim to know my own educational practice are the values I embody
and are those which constitute my practice as 'educational'.
March 30th. 1995
Moira - I am expressing this on the day on which my contract at
the school has been confirmed for another term. I have been resistant to
the integration of the significance of economic constraints into my educational
research because of a belief that if I were to concentrate on the economic
motivation for teaching, that I might dilute my vocational commitment: by
doing that I might confuse educational with financial issues. I do not want
McTaggart's (1993) view of 'de-moralisation' and 'de-valuation' to become
overriding considerations in terms of my educational epistemology of practice.
However, if my contract had indeed been terminated this term, then I would
not have been in a position to continue the work with the girls in ways
which I believe to be educational. It is time for me to recognise the dialectic
between economic forces and educational aspirations. I am now embracing
the realities of the economic forces which influence the professional lives
of all teachers in the country.
Jack - You mentioned earlier today that you had found it
'horrendously difficult to control your emotions' during the last couple
of weeks of not knowing whether you could be employed to continue teaching
your pupils. I've noticed your determination not to permit the forces of
economic rationalism to de-value or de-moralise your vocational commitment.
But you rarely show in your writing the nature of this struggle. Why is
this?
Moira - I've partly answered this above. I have a belief
that it is better to dwell on the positive. That education is an expression
of an optimistic ontology. I'm beginning to understand intellectually that
by denying the influence on my practice of social, economic and political
relations, the issue of authenticity is becoming problematic.
Jack - Why is it becoming problematic?
Moira - I am beginning to understand that I can no longer
leave it out of the picture if I am trying to account for how I bring my
values more fully into my practice as an educator. These relations have
influenced my interactions with my pupils and I can no longer ignore them.
I have had to very quickly assimilate the social, political and economic
reality into my classroom as I prepared them for my imminent departure.
Up to this point I have concentrated on the educational influence of my
love for them and my love of literature in their learning.
April 4th. 1995.
Moira - Last night I marked an essay I had set the class, which
was to analyse the fourteen lines of the Chorus at the end of Act One and
to show the relevance of the lines to the play as a whole. In Rhea's essay
I find an encapsulation of all the qualities I have tried to promote in
my teaching of 'Romeo and Juliet':
In the past I could never see the attraction people have for Shakespeare.
His works to me were like a strange and ancient language and indeed in some
ways it still is. I really was quite terrified at the thought that I would
one day have to study a Shakespeare play for an examination. All I can now
say is, how wrong I was! Not just Shakespeare's wonderful way with words,
his clever sonnets and tragic scenarios, but the way he gives you so many
clues as to what is going to happen later on in the play. There are so many
morals being shown through the characters and the melancholy atmosphere
of Verona, that it affects me greatly, and I am beginning to see what Miss
Laidlaw means when she says, in all her grace and wonder, that 'great Literature
should help us to lead better lives'.
Bibliography.
Buber, M., (1923), 'I and Thou', T & T Clarke; London.
Cunningham, B. (1994) Transfer paper from M.Phil to Ph.D.
School of Education University of Bath, December 1994.
Eames, K., (1993) 'A dialectical form of action research-based
educational knowledge: A teacher researcher's view', in The Role of Self
in Action Research, Ghaye, T. & Wakefield, P. (Eds). Hyde; Dorset.
Evans, M., (1995) 'Unpublished draft of Ph.D. submission',
Denbigh School, Milton Keynes, England.
Ghaye, T., (1993) 'Introducing the Editors', p. xiii inThe
Role of Self in Action Research, Ghaye, T. & Wakefield, P. (Eds), Hyde;
Dorset.
Guilfoyle, K., (1994), 'Finding Out More Than I Want to
Know: Using Teacher Research and Critical Pedagogy in Teacher Education',
AERA Conference presentation.
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