Using Visual Data In Creating A Living Educational Theory With Energy And Values

Jack Whitehead, Department of Education, University of Bath,

2^nd March 2009 DRAFT

I’ll start with a video-clip of a doctoral supervision session with Jacqueline Delong to introduce ideas on the use of visual data in creating a living educational theory with energy and values. 42 seconds into the 1:25 minute clip there is a spontaneous expression of a flow of life-affirming energy that I associate with a natural energy flow in the cosmos that is life-circulating and life-affirming.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2kdOfRKFYs

I have started with a visual record of what I do in my work as a tutor or research supervisor to assist an individual to bring her or his embodied knowledge as an educator into the Academy for legitimation as an original contribution to educational knowledge in a living educational theory. Both Jacqueline and I love what we are doing. Jacqueline, as a superintendent of Schools in the Grand Erie District School Board in Ontario and me as a supervisor of doctoral research programmes. We are also both learning and feeling a sustaining flow of life-affirming energy being expressed in our love of life.

A living educational theory is an explanation that an individual produces for their educational influences in their own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of social formations. I imagine that you are like me in wanting to live as loving and productive life as possible and that you might need valid explanations of your influences in learning to help to ensure that you can make valid judgments about your life with evidence that shows that your beliefs, about your influence in the world, are justified.

The reason I spend so much of my time in supporting the generation and communication of living educational theories is that I believe that they are contributing to enhancing the loving and productive lives of the individuals who are creating them. I also believe that they are contribution to the socio-cultural formations in which we live and work by enhancing the flow of values and understandings that carry hope for the future of humanity.

What I am seeking to do is to influence the culture in which we live and work by bringing new living standards of judgment and an understanding of inclusionality into what counts as educational knowledge in the Academy . By the Academy I am meaning all those institutions of higher education that legitimate doctoral degrees as original contributions to knowledge and that communicate what counts as educational knowledge, through their pedagogies, to their students.

In writing from a living theory perspective I am focusing on the explanatory principles that individuals use to explain their educational influences in learning. These principles flow with a life-circulating and a life-affirming energy and are values-laden. What I mean by this is that we can explain why we do what we do with the help to the values we use to give meaning and purpose to our lives. I am thinking of values such as freedom, respect, care, compassion and love. If my freedom is constrained and I wish to express myself freely I work towards living my value of freedom more fully. When asked to explain why I do what I am doing, I answer that I am seeking to live more fully my value if freedom.

What I learnt from Moira Laidlaw was to see the value’s-laden standards of judgment as living (Laidlaw, 1996).

In developing my understanding of living standards of judgment I have also been influenced by Joan Walton’s (2008) insights about the importance of a loving dynamic energy in making sense of one’s own life. I have also been influenced by Alan Rayner’s (2009) ideas of inclusionality that include loving 'self as neighbourhood' and 'neighbourhood as self'.

Hence the foci below on living and loving standards of judgment with inclusionality; life-circulating and life-affirming energy with living and loving values; values; representing energy and values in creating a living educational theory

Living and Loving Standards of Judgment with Inclusionality

My present focus is on learning more about how to express and communicate the values-laden explanatory principles we use to explain to ourselves and each other why we are doing what we are doing. I am particularly interested in the way we explain our educational influences in our own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of the socio-cultural formations in which we live and work. As I express and communicate the living and loving explanatory principles below, from their embodied expression in practices shown on the video-clip, I do so from an inclusional perspective.

The first 1:03 minute clip is of Moira Laidlaw (1996) who originated the idea of living standards of judgment. The second 5:07 clip is of Alan performing what has become known as ‘The paper dance of inclusionality’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1jEOhxDGno http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVa7FUIA3W8

In the first clip Moira sees herself expressing ‘a loving dynamic energy’ in her ‘gaze of recognition’ of her students, as they flow past her at the end of a lesson at Ningxia Teacher’s University in China. We have agreed this description of her expression and we use both ‘a loving dynamic energy’ and ‘gaze of recognition’ as living standards of judgment in an explanations of educational influence. Joan Walton (2008) included a loving dynamic energy (2008) in her original standard of judgment of ‘spiritual resilience gained through a connection with a loving dynamic energy’.

In the second clip Alan is expressing his understandings of boundaries in inclusionality with a life and vitality that has captivated the imaginations of many viewers. This is Alan’s original expression of inclusionality that helped to form my own understandings. In writing within an inclusional perspective I am aware of the importance of flows of energy in a values-laden educational practice. We cannot do anything without a flow of energy. I cannot distinguish something as educational without using the values I associate with hope for the future of humanity and my own. Here is my present thinking about life-circulating and life-affirming energy with living and loving values.

Life-circulating and Life-affirming Energy with Living and Loving Values

The closest I can get to communicating this life-circulating and life-affirming energy is through the images below with my commentary. The first image helps me to recall an experience at the age of 22, when relaxing in the sun in a park near the Department of Electrochemistry at the University of Newcastle, where I was doing some research. I felt the energy of the sun and the cosmos. I felt unified in this flow of energy whilst being aware of my unique and distinguishable identity.

In the image below Henry Lu, a colleague at the University of Bath is explaining his desire to enhance the flow of a life-circulating energy with colleagues in the University. Whilst I already knew about the idea of Qi, as energy, from visits to Moira Laidlaw in China, Henry Lu introduced me to the idea of Qi as a life-circulating energy. I use this idea of a life-circulating energy to emphasise the energy in a sociocultural formation with its capacity to influence how and what we learn and do. I distinguish this life-circulating energy flowing through a sociocultural formation from the experience of a flow of life-affirming energy in my educational relationships with the help of the words of the Christian Theologian Paul Tillich (1962, p. 168). Tillich writes about the state of being affirmed by the power of being itself and I often experience such a flow of life-affirming energy in my educational relationships. This is often evoked as I listen to the narratives of others about their lives and work in which they are explaining how they are seeking to live as fully as possible the values they use to give meaning and purpose to their lives. The flow of energy carries my feeling of well-being when the values resonate with those that I believe carry hope for the future of humanity and my own.

Here is the still image of Henry explaining his desire to enhance the flow of a life-circulating energy. You can access the 1:38 minute video by clicking on the url below this picture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0OmGR4v_6I&feature=channel_page

As Alan responds to Henry in the 5:19 minutes clip below on the importance of the language of inclusionality I think that you will be able to see and feel Alan’s expression of his own life-circulating and life-affirming energy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUByppayZF0

I like the way that Alan (2009) addresses the question as to ‘What is natural energy flow’ by emphasizing the importance of explaining both the distinctiveness of a natural form and the possibility for such a form to come into being:

“…at its simplest and deepest requires a very fundamental kind of enquiry into what kinds of presence are needed both to account for the distinctiveness of natural form and to provide the possibility for such form to come into being.”

In other words I see each of us having a unique and distinguishable form in both our educational practices and in our explanations of our educational influences. I believe that we contribute to the creation of who we are in terms of our unique constellations of values, understandings and contexts. I now what to focus on the values we might use as explanatory principles in the creation of our living educational theories.

Values

I am focusing on ontological values as these are the values that give meaning and purpose to life and form the practical explanatory principles we use to explain why we do what we do. I like the way Erich Fromm (1960, p.18) focuses on living a loving and productive life. I think that it is worth emphasizing the significance of Joan Walton’s (2008, p. 5) generation of a living theory which offers ‘spiritual resilience gained through connection with a loving dynamic energy’ as an original standard of judgment.

Claire Formby (2007) has explored some of these values in her master’s educational enquiry:

How do I sustain a loving, receptively responsive educational relationship with my pupils which will motivate them in their learning and encourage me in my teaching?

Because I felt that it had taken courage for Claire to ask, research and answer this question I asked her why she had felt able to form this question and explore its implications in terms of her ontological values. Claire answered that it was because her Headteacher used the word love both in relation to colleagues and pupils. I think that Claire’s educational enquiry shows that she is loving ‘self as neighbourhood’ and ‘neighbourhood as self’ (Rayner, 2009). I’ll check out the validity of my interpretation with Claire.

In his 1993 Presidential Address to the American Educational Research Association, Eisner (1993) pointed to the importance of extending the forms of representation we used in communicating our meanings in educational research. I now want to explore the implications of extending our visual forms of representation with video and images.

Representing energy and values in creating a living educational theory.

One of my living contradictions is holding together the experience of a loving dynamic energy with the experience of social contexts and individual actions that negate this energy.

I see that the sociocultural formation in which we live and work holds such contradictions. I have worked at developing inclusional responses to such living contradictions by seeking to enhance the flow of values and understandings that carry hope for the future of humanity. I see many other individuals I live and work with doing something similar. For example, Sonia Hutchinson, a manager with Young Carers in Bath and North East Somerset, has allowed me to use the following three images from her teenage diaries to communicate her responses to these kinds of experience. Andrew Henon, an artist who works with the organization NESA (North East Somerset Arts), has allowed me to share some of the images he created at the end of a failed attempt to give up smoking – an activity he engages in knowing that it is cancerous and life shortening whilst at the same time wanting to enhance the flow of life-circulating and life-affirming energy.

In the first two images Sonia is expressing experiences of ontological despair in the sense of feeling that life is losing its meaning and purpose. In the third image four people are conversing with a pooled flow of co-created meaning and life-affirming energy. Life is being expressed with meaning and purpose. I particularly like the third image because it helps me to show my meaning of a pooling of energy that can be experienced as we individuals trust each other sufficiently to share our life-stories of critical incidents that have been significant in making us the unique individuals that we are. I’m wondering if the integration of video and visual data can help us to produce more valid explanations of our influence? I do think that Andy Henon makes a most significant point in an e-mail below about the use of images to communicate the energies of heightened emotional expression, anger, frustration, repetition, energy flows.

Here are the three images from Sonia:

On 16 Feb 2009, at 13:08, Andrew Henon wrote:

Dear Jack

On seeing the attached images you sent, please find the attached. There appears to be some resonance, receptive and responsive dialogue, perhaps some shared meanings or communications through the visual text embedded shared meanings. Images are from MA produced during Quit smoking and cessation, it may be the energies of heightened emotional expression, anger, frustration, repetition, energy flows. Please feel free to share with the discussion group as you wish.

Love Andy

On 26 Feb 2009, at 09:56, Andrew Henon wrote:

Dear Jack

You may like to insert a link to www.nesacreativechange.org.uk which may provide a contextual background to the socially engaged practice.

I have attached scanned images from my sketchbook that I showed you at our discussion group. I think these images produced in my sketchbook also communicate the energies of heightened emotional expression, anger, frustration, repetition and energy flows. It was work like this that formed the underlying preliminary reference work for the later three images. I use the sketchbook in this way to express the intense and deep emotions experienced during the smoking cessation attempt. Both Sonia and my self were unaware of each other’s sketchbook work until you showed me the images Sonia had sent you. There are a number of similar contexts both of us are expressing our dislike of drugs and the addictive circumstances in our lives for me the intrinsic attempt to quit smoking for Sonia the extrinsic circumstances in her life. There are shared issues and I think shared expressions and representational forms through the images.

I hope these will be of value Jack and am very interested by your perspective I think these images show an even clearer comparison.

Love Andy

Here is one of the images Andy attached with the first e-mail above.

Here are the two images Andy attached with his second e-mail. I think you will feel some resonance with Sonia’s images above.

Andy is now engaged in a new attempt to quit smoking and will be sharing his journey in the Monday evening educational conversation in the Senior Common Room of the University of Bath.

References

Eisner, E. (1993) Forms of Understanding and the Future of Educational Research. Educational Researcher, Vol. 22, No. 7, 5-11.

Formby, C. (2007) How do I sustain a loving, receptively responsive educational relationship with my pupils which will motivate them in their learning and encourage me in my teaching? Master’s Educational Enquiry Unit, University of Bath. Retrieved 25 February 2007 from http://www.jackwhitehead.com/tuesdayma/formbyEE300907.htm

Fromm, E. (1960) The Fear of Freedom, p. 18, London; Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Rayner, R. (2009) Living, Loving, Learning and the Evolutionary Creativity and Sustainability of Natural Energy Flow. Retrieved 25 February 2009 from file:///Users/jackwhitehead/Documents/raynerLLLandcreativity.htm

Tillich, P. (1962) The Courage to be. London; Fontana.

Walton, J. (2008) Ways of Knowing: Can I find a way of knowing that satisfies my search for meaning? Ph.D. Thesis, University of Bath. Retrieved 25 February 2009 from http://www.actionresearch.net/walton.shtml