Creating a World of Educational
Quality through Living Educational Theories
Jack Whitehead, Department of Education, University of
Bath.
Paper to be presented at AERA
2007 in Chicago as a contribution to the programme of the Self-Study of
Teacher Education Practices Special Interest Group in the session on Place, "Race," Culture, and Society: Creating a World of
Educational Quality on Friday, April 13 - 8:15am - 10:15am,
Building/Room: Hotel Inter-Continental Chicago / Exchange, Eleventh Floor.
Draft 4 March 2007
Abstract
The originality of this research lies in the expression
of a new epistemology for the educational knowledge and theories being
generated by practitioner-researchers. At the heart of this epistemology are
values-based living standards of judgement. These standards are distinguished
by their values. These values are life-affirming and energy-flowing. The living
educational theory approach for validating the living standards includes
digital multi-media explanations of educational influences in learning by
self-study researchers. The processes of legitimation include the living
standards of judgement of some 20 living theory doctorates flowing through
web-space from http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/living.shtml.
The epistemology and cultural significance of these living educational
theories, flowing through the interconnecting and branching channels of
communication of web-space, is considered through the lens of ecological
feminism. The significance is
analysed in terms of the living theory responses to colonising power relations
that go beyond a decolonising influence in the education of social formations.
Introduction
The importance of epistemology
in educational research and theorizing is that it is a theory of the knowledge
being generated. An understanding of epistemology clarifies the nature of the
logics, units of appraisal and standards of judgment in a claim to knowledge.
It enables us to understand the grounds for validating and legitimating a
knowledge-claim. Any new epistemology (If epistemology is the study of the nature, origin and scope of knowledge, then what is a new epistemology?) must face the task of developing publically communicable and acceptable
standards of judgment for evaluating the validity of a contribution to
educational knowledge.
This presentation is focused on
communicating the meanings of values in new living standards of judgement for
the new epistemology. The meanings
of the values in the standards are both life-affirming and energy-flowing. I
will clarify these meanings below. To avoid repeating both life-affirming and
energy-flowing I will assume these terms before my use of the words values and
standards.
The contributions to
educational knowledge I have in mind are the living educational theories
produced by practitioner-researchers as they explore the implications for their
educational influences in learning of asking, researching and answering
questions of the kind, 'How do I improve what I am doing?'. What I mean by a living educational
theory is an individual's explanation of educational influence in their own
learning, in the learning of others and/or in the learning of the social
formations in which they live and work.
I began to use this idea of living educational theory (Whitehead, 1989)
to distinguish these explanations of learning from the explanations derived
from propositional theories and applied to particular cases. I use this idea of
living educational theory because I could not find any propositional theory
taken individually or in any combination that could produce an adequate
explanation for my educational influences in my own learning or in the learning
of others or in the learning of social formations.
Conceptions involving energy are very current in psychology, but they have been very poorly worked out from the methodological standpoint. It is not clear to what extent these (p. 63) conceptions are merely models of our understanding and to what extent they can be given ontological status. Equally problematic are the conceptual links between energy and motivation, energy and meaning, energy and value, although it is obvious that in fact there are certain links: we know how 'energetically' a person can act when positively motivated, we know that the meaningfulness of a project lends additional strength to the people engaged in it, but we have very little idea of how to link up into one whole the physiological theory of activation, the psychology of motivation, and the ideas of energy which have been elaborated mainly in the field of physics. (Vasilyuk, pp. 63-64)
I like the headings that AERA
required participants to use in the submission of their proposals and this
presentation includes these headings of Educational Significance, Objectives,
Theoretical Frameworks, Methods, Data Sources and Conclusion.
1) Educational Significance
Evidence-based claims of
educational significance in generating a new epistemology for educational
knowledge in contributing to the creation of a world of educational quality.
Much of the
educational significance of the presentation (what presentation)? is in each living theory, flowing
through web-space as a cultural artefact, which accepts the point that:
The consideration of ontology,
of one's being in and toward the world, should be a central feature of any
discussion of the value of self-study research" (Bullough and Pinnegar, 2004)
Each unique living theory shows how the meanings of life-affirming, energy flowing ontological values, the values that give meaning and purpose to life, are contributing to the creation of a world of educational quality.
The following self-study researchers have engaged with professional, academic, cultural and political relationships in the creation of their unique living theories. They have sustained their enquiries over many years, including the legitimation of their knowledge-creation in doctoral theses of at least five years duration. They are continuing their post-doctoral enquiries in Chinese, Canadian, South African, Irish and UK contexts.
Each practitioner-researcher
(McNiff, 2006; Laidlaw, 1995; Whitehead, 1999 Delong, 2002; Farren, 2005;) has
used action and reflection cycles that are consistent with ideas of scientific
enquiry (Medawar, 1969; Popper, 1969) to clarify the meanings of the
ontological values as these emerge in the practice of their enquiries. The
educational significance of the use of this action research methodology is that
it can demonstrate how the life-affirming, energy-flowing, ontological values
of the self-study researcher can form, in the course of their emergence and
clarification in practice, the explanatory principles and living
epistemological standards of judgement for evaluating the validity of the
knowledge claims. The evidence-based claims of educational significance, in
generating a new epistemology for educational knowledge in contributing to the
creation of a world of educational quality, can be accessed in their flow
through web-space from the urls below. Each of the video-clips shows an
expression of the life-affirming, energy flowing values of the researcher that
characterise both our uniqueness and common humanity. The clips can be accessed
from a streamed server from the url immediately below each picture and the
doctoral thesis of each practitioner-researcher can be accessed from the given
location.
Jean McNiff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGyuQ1uTrzM
McNiff,
J. (1989) An explanation for an individual's educational development through
the dialectic of action research. Ph.D. thesis, University of Bath. This thesis is in the Library
of the University of Bath. You can access details of Jean's publications and other
work at http://www.jeanmcniff.com
In the video-clip, McNiff is explaining to colleagues
in St. Mary's College the contexts of her present research and her future
plans. Her outstanding contributions to the development and communication of a
new epistemology for educational knowledge as well as her global educational
influence is largely due to the responses to presentations such as that above
in different international contexts and to the clarity of her writings and
their capacity to captivate the imaginations of her readers about her
generative and transformation approach to self-study in action research.
Moira Laidlaw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1jEOhxDGno
Laidlaw,
M. (1996) How can I
create my own living educational theory as I offer you an account of my
educational development?
Ph.D. thesis, University of Bath. Retrieved 28 February 2007 from http://www.actionresearch.net/moira2.shmtl
This video-clip was taken at the end of a lesson with
students in Guyuan Teachers College (Now Ningxia Teachers University). I had
switched the camera off and then turned it on again as Laidlaw moved to the
door of the classroom. This is one of the most significant clips I have made in
showing the responsive receptiveness of an educator with students as she
communicates a recognition and valuing the other in expressing her own
life-affirming, energy flowing values in loving what she is doing.
The international excellence of Laidlaw's
practitioner-research can be appreciated in the action research accounts she
has been influential in stimulating in China's Experimental Centre for
Educational Action Research in Foreign Language Teaching. The centre is now
hosted by Ningxia Teachers University. Some of these accounts can be accessed
from
http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/moira.shtml
Jack Whitehead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBTLfyjkFh0
Whitehead,
J. (1999) How do I improve my practice? Creating a
discipline of education through educational enquiry. Ph.D. University of Bath.
Retrieved 28 February 2007 from http://www.actionresearch.net/jack.shtml
The above video-clip is from a performance text in which
I am reconstructing my response to a draft report of a Senate Working Party
that was established in 1990 to investigate a matter of academic freedom
following a Board of Studies decision that there was prima facie evidence of a
breach of my academic freedom. The draft report produced by the Working Party
claimed, rightly, that my academic freedom had not been breached. In the clip I
am expressing my values of academic freedom, justice and responsibility in
claiming that the Working Party would be shirking their responsibilities as
academics if they did not acknowledge the pressure to which I had been
subjected. The final report to Senate stated that while my academic freedom had
not been breached this was because of my persistence in the face of pressure. A
less determined individual might well have been discouraged and therefore
constrained. It is such
life-affirming - conveys anger , this is one of the life afferming energies , energy-flowing values that this presentation is claiming can
help to form into the living standards of judgment of a new epistemology for
educational knowledge.
Jacqueline
Delong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4R1ilkWB9Dc
Delong, J.
(2002) How Can I Improve My Practice As
A Superintendent of Schools and Create My Own Living Educational Theory? Ph.D. University of Bath. Retrieved 28
February 2007 from http://www.actionresearch.net/delong.shtml
In
this clip, Jacqueline Delong and I are discussing the Abstract for her thesis
and the importance of communicating Delong's system's influence as a living
standard of practice and judgment.
In the earlier clip above Delong is responding to a question about the
system's supports she has helped to create for teacher-researchers. Her flow of
pleasure as she describes the responses of the S.W.A.T. team is the quality of
energised and energising expression that I am claiming can form the new living
standards of judgment for the new epistemology of educational knowledge.
Margaret Farren
http://www.dcu.ie/~farrenm/chrisvalidatear.ra
Farren, M. (2005) How can I
create a pedagogy of the unique through a web of betweenness? Ph.D. University of Bath. Retrieved 28 February 2007 from http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/farren.shtml
Margaret Farren's practitioner-research is to my mind
world leading Doesn't read so well . This is because of the way it shows how an individual researcher
can produce her own educational knowledge in her living theory, while
demonstrating how the social formation of a university can be moved, in its
curriculum and assessment procedures to integrate support for the creation of
the living educational theories by other practitioner-researchers. In
expressing her pedagogy of the unique within a web of betweenness Margaret is
showing the values that constitute her explanatory principles in the
explanations of her educational influence in her own learning and the learning
of her students. In her living theory doctorate Margaret also explains her
educational influence in the curriculum and assessment procedures of a
university in a way that is consistent with her life-affirming, energy-flowing
values in a web of betweenness.
The creation of a world
of educational quality through living educational theories requires a global
approach to the development of cultures of enquiry (Delong, 2002). Living
educational theories involves both "victory narratives " and "stories of ruin"
(MacLure, 1996) so that one avoids the creation of an illusion of a smooth
story of self in our explanations of our educational influences in learning.
One of the
characteristics of human beings is that we are learners. I do like and agree
with Habermas' conjecture and I think it bears repeating:
It
is my conjecture that the fundamental mechanism for social evolution in general
is to be found in an automatic inability not to learn. Not learning, but not-learning
is the phenomenon that calls for explanation at the socio-cultural stage of
development. Therein lies, if you will, the rationality of man. Only against
this background does the over-powering irrationality of the history of the
species become visible. (Habermas, 1975, p. 15)
Human beings
learn many things, some of which are not educational in the sense that the learning does not carry hope for the
future of humanity. In creating a world of educational quality it is important
to ensure that the learning is educational. Self-study researchers can
contribute to a world of educational quality through living educational
theories that explain how values that give meaning and purpose to life are
being lived as fully as possible. The validation and legitimation of living
educational theories requires an engagement with the power relations in the
Academy that are resistant to recognising new living standards of judgement.
Schon (1995) recognised this resistance in his understanding that the new
epistemology would present a challenge to the epistemology of the modern
research university. My own
responses to this resistance have changed over the years.
My early
responses in the workplace to experiences of the denial of recognition of the
significance of the knowledge being generated through my research were
characterised by the expression of anger towards the individuals who continued
to support the truth of power in the face of the power of truth (Whitehead,
1993). While the expression of anger was therapeutic I had not learnt how to
re-channel the energy in the anger, into enhancing the extension of the
influence of living educational theories, through focusing on creative energy,
love and hope in their creation. I
hope that my present responses to such a lack of recognition are characterised
more by these qualities and the expression good humour and the pleasure of
receiving the evidence I need to show the workings of the power relations that
continue to support the truth of power. I think this good humour and pleasure
(as exemplified in the video-clips with Murray and Delong, as distinct from my
earlier responses (Whitehead, 1993), are partially due to a feeling of
well-being as I see the spread of ideas I value and have helped to generate. In
particular I think my capacity to re-channel the energy of emotions that could
be destructive, into productive responses is through my appreciation of the
generative and transformatory power
(McNiff, 1989) of flowing round obstacles in recognising and working with
the flow of relationships that are contribution to the creation of a world of
educational quality.
Rather than pointing to and naming those who exerted pressures that could have constrained my academic freedom, as I did in my earlier work, my choice today is to encourage those whose imaginations have yet developed to the point of recognising the significance of the new epistemology for educational knowledge. Time will tell is this is a failure of the imaginations of others in recognising such a contribution or a failure of my own in believing in the significance of this new epistemology! I say this with A. N. Whitehead's (1960) point of view in mind that a University should be concerned primarily with the imaginative acquisition of knowledge. For Whitehead, Universities are schools of education and schools of research. He believes that the justification for a university is that it preserves the connection between knowledge and the zest for life, by uniting the young and the old in the imaginative consideration of learning. This learning, according to Whitehead, enables human beings to construct an intelletual vision of a new world, and it preserves the zest for life by the suggestion of satisfying purposes (p. 139). For Whitehead the proper function of a university is the imaginative acquisition of knowledge. As he says, A university is imaginative or it is nothing – a least nothing useful. (p. 145)
In the expression of my own zest for life in education, I
recognise the vital significance of a flow of life affirming energy with the
values that give meaning and purpose to my life. I imagine that most educators
and educational researcher are like me in feeling the flow of this energy as an
explanatory principle in explaining why they do what they do and how they
sustain their commitment to what they are doing in education.
I am hoping that the expression
of this energy, connected as it is to my passion to share a new epistemology
for educational knowledge, will help to captivate your imaginations. I need to captivate your imaginations
because what I am going to say about an epistemology for educational knowledge
is very different to the epistemology of the modern research university. The
main difference is in the meanings of the values in new living standards of
judgement. In saying this I am bearing Schon's 1995 point in mind about how the
new epistemology will challenge the epistemology in the modern research
university.
If
we intend to pursue the "new forms of scholarship" that Ernest Boyer
presents in his Scholarship Reconsidered, we cannot avoid questions of
epistemology, since the new forms of scholarship he describes challenge the
epistemology built into the modern research university. (p. 27)
The evidence of
my contribution to the knowledge-base of living educational theories, generated
with the help of my own imagination, is in the Library of the University of
Bath and other Universities, like Kingston University, Limerick University and
the University of the West of England that have legitimated living theory
dissertations and theses. It is flowing through web-space through other
publications and work in other Universities from http://www.actionresearch.net . What I
am hopeful about, in continuing to contribute to a world of educational
quality, is that those educational qualities and relationships with others that
support me, with good humour and much pleasure, are flowing into my capacity
for living a loving and productive
life. I am thinking of a life that continues to flow with the life-affirming,
energy-flowing values that carry hope for the future of humanity.
I also wish to
say of those who do not recognise the significance of this contribution to
educational knowledge, that I recognise that their beliefs are likely to be
held with integrity. Hence I think that it is important to hold open forums in
a University for constrained disagreement. Where I am still puzzling away at an
appropriate response is where the disciplinary power relations of an
institution are used to protect from public questioning what should be academic
judgments. In saying this I am mindful of changes in my own universities
regulation from a position in 1980 where the judgments of examiners of research
degrees could not be questioned under any circumstances, to the position in
1991 when the regulations changes to allow questioning on the grounds of bias,
prejudice and inadequate assessment.
The University
of Bath has both provided a space for my creativity to flourish and provided
responses to the knowledge generated through my research that question its
significance. Hence it is continuing to provide a forum for constrained
disagreement in which I bear MacIntyre's point in mind:
The
rival claims to truth of contending traditions of enquiry depend for their
vindication upon the adequacy and explanatory power of the histories which the
resources of each of those traditions in conflict enable their adherents to
write. (MacIntyre, 1988, p. 403)
I now want to
leave you with some implications for the new epistemology of a response by
Moira Laidlaw to an earlier draft of this paper:
Jack, just had an idea and it may be off the wall, so ignore it if it
is. You write about the inclusionality of ideas and so on. I wonder though, whether
there isn't a profound living contradiction in the way you're expressing
yourself. The people you write about having influenced your ideas are not
people but ideas. Is this fully in keeping with your energy-flowing values? I
suspect at some profound level not. Because I don't believe that Alan Rayner,
or Yaakub or Jackie or Eden are simply ideas to you. I am NOT suggesting
there's anything wrong with the way in which you are conducting your ideas, but
if in your writing the people you clearly respect come over as containers of
ideas and not as human beings, then I think there's a balance of style gone
awry. This is not a personal criticism of your way of treating people in the
flesh, because you do that so bloody brilliantly, but it may be a criticism of
how their ideas seem to be include-alls for their humanity. Sorry if this
remark is off the wall. There are points in the paper, say the clips at the
beginning, and the clips after page ten, but sometimes, in the style of the way
you write about others, is a sense of their ideas being the only consideration
and I KNOW that isn't true of how your influence and their influence on you
works. Or am I missing the point here and being irredeemably female!!!? (e-mail
1 March 2007)
As I read Moira's 'irredeemably female!!!?' I recalled the educational influence in my thinking of a point she made in 1995 that I should stress the living nature of the standards of judgment. Moira's point above about being 'irredeemably female', moved me to connect my present writings to ecological feminist writings on relational understandings. With Thayer-Bacon I recognise the importance of the relational view in feminist (e)pisteology theory:
My project is one of analysis and critique, as well as redescription. What I offer is one pragmatist social feminist view, a relational perspective of knowing, embedded within a discussion of many other relational views. In Relational "(e)pistemologies," I seek to offer a feminist (e)pistemological theory that insists that knowers/subjects are fallible, that our criteria are corrigible (capable of being corrected), and that our standards are social constructed, and thus continually in need of critique and reconstruction. I offer a self-conscious and reflective (e)pistemological theory, one that attempts to be adjustable and adaptable as people gain further in understanding. This (e)pistemology must be inclusive and open to others, because of its assumption of fallible knowers. And this (e)pistemology must be capable of being corrected because of its assumption that our criteria and standards are of this world, ones we, as fallible knowers, socially construct. (Thayer-Bacon, 2003, p.7).
I am also aware of the significance of the 'loving eye' (and loving 'I') in sustaining connection:
"When one climbs a rock as a conqueror, one climbs
with an arrogant eye. When one climbs with a loving eye, one constantly 'must
look and listen and check and question.' One recognises the rock as something
very different, something perhaps totally indifferent to one's own presence,
and finds in that difference joyous occasion for celebration. One knows 'the
boundary of the self,' where the self - the 'I', the climber – leaves off
and the rock begins. There is no fusion of two into one, but a complement of
two entities, acknowledged as separate, different, independent, yet in
relationship; they are in relationship if only because
the loving eye is perceiving it, responding to it, noticing it, attending to it." ( Warren, 2001, p. 331)
In agreeing with Moira I want to leave you with a collage of video-clips that for me connects and sustains me through relational spaces and boundaries that flow with our unique life-affirming, energy-flowing values and our common humanity as well as our ideas. You can access the collage with its visual narrative at http://www.jackwhitehead.com/jack/jwyoutubeimages3.htm and stream the video-clips to your browser by clicking on any of the clips below.
As Margaret Farren (2005) stresses in her expression of a web of betweenness and Jacqueline Delong (2002) emphasises in the evolution of a culture of enquiry, a relational epistemology requires the expression of life-affirming, energy flowing values and a shared expression of connection that carries pleasure and hope for humanity.
2) Objectives
I have three main objectives.
The first
objective is to
present the meanings of the values that constitute the relationally dynamic
standards of judgement used by self-study researchers in enquiries of the kind,
'How do I improve what I am doing?' The presentation This presentation? is informed by an
expression of inclusionality.
Inclusionality is a relationally dynamic awareness of space and
boundaries as connective, reflexive and co-creative (Rayner, 2004).
As I am
contributing to a session on Place, "Race," Culture, and Society: Creating a World of
Educational Quality I particularly want to acknowledge the
influence of Yaakub Murray in bringing into my awareness an understanding of a
postcolonial critical consciousness. Yaakub also raised my awareness of the
importance of racialising my discourses with understandings from different
racial and ethnic groups and cultures. Because of Yaakub's educational
influence I want to focus your attention on a video-clip, made by Yaakub's wife
Asma, as we talk about Yaakub's doctoral research and express pleasure in being
together through our laughter. Yaakub is talking about some of my educational
influences. What I think the video-clip communicates is a flow of
life-affirming energy with our shared passion and love for what we are doing in
our educational enquiries.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3TjLxEiyPk
The main
point that I am making is that an explanation of my educational influence, in
my own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of social
formations, requires life-affirming energy-flowing values as explanatory
principles. I am also claiming that an individual's explanation for their
educational influences in learning in enquiries of the kind, 'How do I improve
what I am doing?', will also require life-affirming, energy-flowing values as
explanatory principles. For
example, in explaining Jacqueline Delong's educational influence in helping to
form and sustain a culture of inquiry in the Grand Erie District School Board
(Delong and Whitehead, 2007) we have drawn on the life-affirming energy-flowing
value of the pleasure and love in what Jacqueline is doing as she responds to a
question about the support provided for teacher researchers with her influence
as a Superintendent of Schools in the District School Board.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsECy86hzxA
We have also
used the following clip from a doctoral supervision session to communicate the
meanings of the expression of a life-affirming, energy-flowing value of
pleasure in what we are doing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2kdOfRKFYs
the fourth
illustration of life-affirming, energy flowing values is provided by Eden
Charles in his doctoral research where he is describing his responses to
working with a group of women in Sierra Leone who experienced great pain during
the civil war.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcfZE_z-C_w
In his
doctoral submission Eden explains his educational influences in his own
learning and in the learning of others in terms of an African Cosmology with
ubuntu and he develops the ideas of societal re-identification and guiltless
recognition in making his own contributions to the creation of a world of
educational quality. As I watch
the video of Eden I recall my experiences on the day in which I felt Eden's
receptive responsiveness to the humanity expressed by the women in Sierra Leone
in their life-affirming, energy-flowing humanising responses to their
experiences. I am wondering if I
have communicated the transformational potential of bringing life-affirming,
energy-flowing values in the living standards of judgment of a new epistemology
into the Academy - What Academy ?
The second
and third objectives below flow from the above, in responding to Snow's point
about the need to systematize the knowledge of practitioner-researchers in
education:
The knowledge resources of excellent teachers constitute
a rich resource, but one that is largely untapped because we have no procedures
for systematizing it. Systematizing would require procedures for accumulating
such knowledge and making it public, for connecting it to bodies of knowledge
established through other methods, and for vetting it for correctness and
consistency. If we had agreed-upon procedures for transforming knowledge based
on personal experiences of practice into 'public' knowledge, analogous to the
way a researcher's private knowledge is made public through peer-review and
publication, the advantages would be great.
(Snow, 2001, p.9)
The second
objective is to present a form and content of
educational theorizing that engages with workplace, life-long learning in a way
that recognises and resists colonizing methodologies while supporting an
emancipatory interest.
I am thinking of educational theorizing as something
that we do throughout our lives as we reflect on what we have been doing with
our lives, what we have learnt about ourselves and others and about the
cultural and other social influences in what we do. Reflection is necessary to
educational theorizing but not sufficient to distinguish it. It is the
explanations of our educational influences in learning that are necessary and
sufficient to distinguish educational theorizing. This theorizing is not
restricted to our workplaces, although much of our reflections on what we are
doing may be connected to what we see as our work. It is certainly not restricted
to schools, colleges and universities. For example, the living theories flowing
through web-space from http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/living.shtml
include the explanations of educational influences in learning of police,
health, management, teachers and other education workers.
What each living educational theory has in common is
the recognition and engagement with power relations that serve a colonizing
influence through the exertion of pressure that denies the validity of the
voice, values and understandings of the practitioner researcher. I am using
colonizing in the sense of seeking to replace indigenous
understandings with other forms of understanding without respecting the vital
part the indigenous understandings play in the identity of the other.
I first became aware of such a colonising tendency of propositional theories in my early studies of educational theory at the Institute of Education of the University of London (1968-1972). The dominant view of educational theory of the time was known as the 'disciplines' approach because it held that educational theory was constituted by the philosophy, psychology, sociology and history of education. The colonising tendency in this approach was its view that the explanations I generated from my practical experience were at best pragmatic maxims that 'should' be replaced by principles with more fundamental, theoretical justification. This mistake has been acknowledged and clearly expressed by Paul Hirst, one of the early proponents of the 'disciplines' approach when he said that much understanding of educational theory will be developed:
"... in the context of immediate practical experience
and will be co-terminous with everyday understanding. In particular, many of
its operational principles, both explicit and implicit, will be of their nature
generalisations from practical experience and have as their justification the
results of individual activities and practices.
In many characterisations of educational theory, my own included, principles justified in this way have until recently been regarded as at best pragmatic maxims having a first crude and superficial justification in practice that in any rationally developed theory would be replaced by principles with more fundamental, theoretical justification. That now seems to me to be a mistake. Rationally defensible practical principles, I suggest, must of their nature stand up to such practical tests and without that are necessarily inadequate." (Hirst, 1983, p. 18)
Kierkegaard
pointed to this damaging colonising tendency of replacing the understandings
generated from practical experience with conceptual frameworks from traditional
propositional theories when he warned of the danger of creating unities in our
imaginations that become detached from practical living.
Hence I want
to hold firmly to my focus on the creation of living educational theories in
supporting an emancipatory interest in enhancing the flow of values and
understandings that are contributing to the creation of a world of educational
quality. This is why I emphasise the importance of questions of the kind, 'How
do I improve what I am doing?', in retaining a connection with one's practical
life. This emancipatory interest
includes an understanding of critical theories. I am thinking here of critical
social theories that explain how economic and other interests work in
supporting power relations in social, historical and cultural formations, that
reproduce existing inequalities and violations of the values that carry hope
for the future of humanity (Fromm, 1960; Marcuse, 1964; Adorno, 1963; Shroyer,
1963; Habermas, 1975, 1976, 1987).
I own much
in the growth of my educational knowledge to these critical theorists. With Fromm in particular I first
understood a Marxist analysis of the influence of capitalist social formations
on the development of marketing personalities. I understood the importance of
the ethics in his humanistic psychology in sustaining a productive orientation
to human existence in the face of market pressures to succumb to the marketing
orientation. I following and agreed with his points about the need to retain
the art of loving in one's own existence, of the significance of hope and of
small face to face groups engaging in productive conversations for enhancing
well-being in social formations. Marcuse's idea of a one-dimensional existence
served to re-inforce Fromm's points about the importance of a productive
orientation, and I continue to use Marcuse's idea of logic as the mode of
thought that is appropriate for comprehending the real as rational. With Adorno
and Schroyer I focused on the critique of Heidegger that claim the 'I' in
Heidegger's thought remained formal while pretending to contain content in itself.
This insight continues to focus my attention on ensuring that the 'I' within my
writings is authentic and contains content in itself. The words of Martin Buber help me sustain a connection with
this 'I' while being aware of the importance of avoiding the domination of the
'I' of ego:
"How
much of a person a man is depends on how strong the I of the basic word I-You
is in the human duality of his I.
The
way he says I - what he means when he says I - decides where a man belongs and
where he goes. The word "I" is the true shibboleth of humanity.
Listen
to it!
How
dissonant the I of the ego sounds! When it issues from tragic lips, tense with
some self-contradiction that they try to hold back, it can move us to great
pity. When it issues from chaotic lips that savagely, heedlessly, unconsciously
represent contradiction, it can make us shudder. When the lips are vain and
smooth, it sounds embarrassing or disgusting.
Those
who pronounce the severed I, wallowing in the capital letter, uncover the shame
of the world spirit that has been debased to mere spirituality.
But
how beautiful and legitimate the vivid and emphatic I of Socrates sounds! It is
the I of infinite conversation, and the air of conversation is present on all
its ways, even before his judges, even in the final hour in prison. This I
lived in that relation to man which is embodied in conversation. It believed in
the actuality of men and went out toward them. Thus it stood together with them
in actuality and is never severed from it. Even solitude cannot spell
forsakenness, and when the human world falls silent for him, he hears his
daimonion say You.
How
beautiful and legitimate the full I of Goethe sounds! It is the I of pure
intercourse with nature. Nature yields to it and speaks ceaselessly with it;
she reveals here mysteries to it and yet does not betray her mystery. It
believes in her and says to the rose: "So it is You" - and at once
shares the same actuality with the rose. Hence, when it returns to itself, the
spirit of actuality stays with it; the vision of the sun clings to the blessed
eye that recalls its own likeness to the sun, and the friendship of the
elements accompanies man into the calm of dying and rebirth.
Thus
the "adequate, true, and pure" I-saying of the representatives of association,
the Socratic and the Goethean persons, resounds through the ages." (Buber, 1970, p.117)
With
Habermas I have kept my focus on learning with my own distinct emphasis on
explaining educational influences in learning. I also continue to use Habermas's
four criteria of social validity from his work on communication and the
evolution of society, to strengthen the validity of explanations of educational
influence in learning.
Ideas of
each of these theorists have helped me to understand the colonizing influences
of the social formations in which I live and work. They have served to keep my
enquiries grounded in serving the emancipatory interests that are enhancing the
flow of values, skills and understandings that carry hope for the future of
humanity.
The third
objective is to
focus attention on values of humanity grounded in the African cosmology of
Ubuntu - not sure about this statement being the focus. There are certain ideas which can be conveyed without referring to Ubuntu as I would imagine most of your audience are noe familiar with the term (Benghu, 1996) that emphasise the significance of the recognition of the
humanity of the others in educational relationships.
In focusing
attention on the values of humanity I value Gaita's (2002) insights into love,
truth and justice as values of common humanity, especially his focus on love:
To speak, as I do, of fully acknowledging another's humanity will, I know, sound like rhetoric to many people who would prefer to speak of recognising someone fully as a person, or even as a rational agent, at least when, in philosophical mode, they try to make perspicuous what really is the bearer of moral status. My endorsements of Weil's remark - that love sees what is invisible - will sound even worse to them. In this preface I can only plead that I mean both and soberly. Later I argue that improbable though it may seem at first, placing the weight that I do on our humanity and on love rather than on, say, the obligated acknowledgement of rights, is more hardheaded than the longing to make secure to reason what reason cannot secure, all the while whistling in the dark. "(pp. xx-xxi)
I am
identifying the creation of world of educational qualities with such values of
common humanity in living educational theories.
I have a
particular political and ethical intent in asking that we engage with Ubuntu
ways of being from South Africa in the language we use for stressing the
relational values of our humanity. The political and ethical intent that moves
me to do this is that I want to acknowledge a relational understanding of
humanity from South Africa that could contribute to the creation of a world of
educational quality. I understand
something of the violations of humanity under the Apartheid regime and the
embrace of Ubuntu in the South African constitution after 1994. Living near Bristol I am near a
significant place of the part played by British Colonial Interests in the Slave
Trade with its devastating consequences for several African countries as well
as for its dehumanising influence in the perpetrators. In supervising the
doctoral research programmes of Yaakub Murray and Eden Charles in particular,
with their foci on postcolonial critical consciousness and Ubuntu respectively,
I have developed my own understandings of Ubuntu ways of being that emphasise
the significance of recognising our own humanity in the humanity of others.
In my
learning through supervising Simon Riding's research programme, with his idea
of 'Living Myself Through Others' (Riding, 2003), I have also developed my
understandings of relational ways of being and knowing in the English
translation of Ubuntu of 'I am because we are?' I will be returning to the
significance of the relational ways of being and knowing, in the work of
ecological feminists in the conclusion, where I present a collage of
video-clips to illustrate a flow of connection between the life-affirming,
energy flowing values of practitioner-researchers.
Through
conversations and her multi-media doctoral research programme, Marian Naidoo
has shown me how such qualities of relationship can help in the emergence of a
living theory of inclusional and responsive practice:
I am because we are (a never ending story). The emergence
of a living theory of inclusional and responsive practice.
(Naidoo, 2005, Retrieved 28 February 2007 from http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/naidoo.shtml
)
I cannot overstate the significance of
Marian Naidoo's multi-media communication of the meanings of a passion for
compassion in her emerging living theory of inclusional and responsive
practice. The University of Bath amended its regulations in July 2004 to allow
the submission of e-media in research degrees. Naidoo's use of e-media shows
her relationally dynamic awareness of space and boundaries in generating living
standards of judgment for
a new epistemology of educational
knowledge..
Insights from the following
theoretical frameworks, amongst many others, can be used in the generation of
the living theories and in the explication of the meanings of the embodied
values and the living standards of judgement that constitute a world of educational
quality. What I have done below is to bring together some of the most
influential insights from a range of theories that are continuing to evolve my
unique living theory. I think it
is worth repeating that each individual will have their own unique
constellation of values and insights that are helping in the evolution of their
own living theory.
i)
Living Educational Theory
The idea of living educational theories as the
explanations that individuals produce for their educational influences in their
own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of social
formations.
The explanations use, as
explanatory principles, the life-affirming, energy-flowing values that
individuals generate to give meaning and purpose to their lives (Whitehead,
1989). The recognition of the
possibility that individuals could generate their own living theories emerged
with the idea that this personal knowledge required a decision to understand
the world from one's own point of view as an individual claiming originality
and exercising judgement, responsibly with universal intent (Polanyi, 1958). It
also emerged with Erich Fromm's idea from The Fear of Freedom, that if
individuals can face the truth without panic they will realise that there is no
purpose to life other than the one they give to their own lives through their
loving relationships and productive work. It emerged with Fromm's idea from Man
for Himself that as individuals we are faced with a choice in living and
working within capitalist social formations. We can develop marketing
personalities that conform to the pressures of becoming human capital defined
by the priorities of capitalist market places and of developing productive
personalities that unite with the world in the spontaneity of love and productive
work to realise more fully the ethical values of humanity. The
idea of life-affirming, energy-flowing values, emerged in relation to Paul
Tillich's expression of the state of being grasped by the power of being
itself, but without Tillich's theistic commitment.
ii)
Inclusionality
The idea of 'Inclusionality' as
expressed by Rayer (2005) as a relationally dynamic awareness of space and
boundaries as connective, reflexive and co-creative.
My present focus on communicating
meanings of life-affirming,
energy-flowing values as explanatory principles in explanations of educational
influences in learning, is informed by this perspective of inclusionality.
Inclusionality also informs the inclusion of energy-space in the relationally
dynamic standards of judgment for the new epistemology for educational
knowledge.
iii)
Communication and Learning
The idea that communication is
vital for social evolution and that in reaching understanding with each other
we are making four validity claims related to the comprehensibility, rightness,
truth and authenticity of what we are saying (Habermas, 1976). I continue to use these four criteria
of social validity to enhance the validity of living theories, by asking
validation groups of peers that read and respond to living theory accounts, to
use these criteria in responding to the explanation of educational influence.
The ideas of Habermas (1975) about the significance of legitimation in what
counts as valid educational knowledge continue to focus my attention on legitimating
life-affirming, energy flowing values in living standards of judgment in the
Academy. Habermas' ideas on learning (1975, 1987) also serve to reinforce the
focus of my attention on the importance of explaining educational influences in
learning.
'It
is my conjecture that the fundamental mechanism for social evolution in general
is to be found in an automatic inability not to learn. Not learning, but
not-learning is the phenomenon that calls for explanation at the socio-cultural
stage of development. Therein lies, if you will, the rationality of man. Only
against this background does the over-powering irrationality of the history of
the species become visible.' (Habermas, 1975, p. 15)
"..... I have attempted to free historical materialism from
its philosophical ballast. Two abstractions are required for this: I)
abstracting the development of the cognitive structures from the historical
dynamic of events, and ii) abstracting the evolution of society from the
historical concretion of forms of life. Both help in getting beyond the
confusion of basic categories to which the philosophy of history owes its
existence.
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 (My emphasis on learning) . It must refrain from
critically evaluating and normatively ordering totalities, forms of life and
cultures, and life-contexts and epochs as a whole. And yet it can take up some
of the intentions for which the interdisciplinary research program of earlier
critical theory remains instructive.
Coming at the end of a complicated study of the main
features of a theory of communicative action, this suggestion cannot count even
as a "promissory note." It is less a promise than a conjecture." (Habermas, 1987, p. 383)
iv)
Ubuntu and a Web of Betweenness
The African idea of Ubuntu
(Benghu, 1996) is translated into english as 'I am because we are' and that a
world of educational quality requires the recognition by individuals of the
humanity of the other.
In my thinking this idea of Ubuntu
is linked to the idea of the web of betweenness from celtic spirituality in
Farren's thesis on 'How can I create a pedagogy of the unique through a web of
betweeness?' (O' Donohue, 2003; Farren, 2005 – see http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/farren.shtml
). In Farren's thesis the 'web of betweenness' refers to how we learn in relation to one another and also
how e-media can enable us to get closer to communicating the meanings of our
embodied values (Farren, 2005). In Farren's thesis the
theoretical framework of a pedagogy of the unique is presented as a dialogic process that reflects a
growing openness to learning and relearning with others, in a democratic
process that gives adequate space to each participant to contribute to the
development of new knowledge, to develop their own voice, to make their own
insightful offerings and to engage in their own action, as well as to create
their own products, in an age of supercomplexity. (Barnett, 2000)
v)
Socio-cultural and socio-historical Theory
Ideas from socio-cultural theory (Said, 1993; Lantoff, 2000) are used to provide insights about the use of living theories as cultural artefacts flowing through web-space that can influence the creation of cultures of inquiry (Delong, 2002) in generating a world of educational quality. This influence is being expressed in a range of cultural contexts that are connected through the globalising interconnecting and branching channels of communication of web-space. This flow of living theories as cultural artefacts can be accessed from http://www.actionresearch.net .
I am using the word culture in the sense expressed by Said:
As I use the word, 'culture' means two things in particular. First of all it means all those practices, like the arts of description, communication, and representation, that have relative autonomy from the economic, social, and political realms and that often exist in aesthetic forms, one of whose principal aims is pleasure. Included, of course, are both the popular stock of lore about distant parts of the world and specialized knowledge available in such learned disciplines as ethnography, historiography, philology, sociology, and literary history..... Second, and almost imperceptible, culture is a concept that includes a refining and elevating element, each society's reservoir of the best that has been known and thought. (Said, pp. xii-xiv, 1993)
My emphasis on the significance of living educational theories for the
creation of a world of educational quality owes much to the idea of the power of
cultural influences in the education of individuals and social formations.
Said's analysis of novels as influential in the reproduction of imperial social
formations serves to focus my emancipatory interest in enhancing the flow of
living educational theories that serve this interest in helping to transform
the world into a world of educational quality. I have also found Foucault's
(1980) ideas on the role of the specific and universal intellectual and his
emphasis on the individual speaking on their own behalf in confronting the
truth of power with the power of truth, influential in the growth of my own
educational knowledge. The socio-historical theories of Fromm, Marcuse, Adorno
and Habermas serve to focus attention on the power of the interest groups that
are sustaining globalising capitalist formations and I do agree with Habermas'
(2002) insight about the importance of engaging with both individual and social
influences in enhancing civic rights and responsibilities:
"The dispute between the two received paradigms - whether the autonomy of legal persons is better secured through individual liberties for private competition or through publicly guaranteed entitlements for clients of welfare bureaucracies - is superseded by a proceduralist concept of law. According to this conception, the democratic process mush secure private and public autonomy at the same time: the individual rights that are meant to guarantee to women the autonomy to pursue their lives in the private sphere cannot even be adequately formulated unless the affected persons themselves first articulate and justify in public debate those aspects that are relevant to equal or unequal treatment in typical cases. The private autonomy of equally entitled citizens can only be secured only insofar as citizens actively exercise their civic autonomy." (Habermas, 2002, p.264)
In seeking to use insights from the most advanced social theories of the
day I have been drawn to Sen's economic theory of human capability and the
distinction he makes between this theory and an economic theory of human
capital.
vi)
An economic theory of human capability
Ideas from an economic theory of
human capability are used to connect the educational influences of economic
globalisation to the values that carry hope for the future of humanity and
hence to a world of educational quality (Sen, 1999).
" ... what, we may ask, is the connection between "human
capital" orientation and the emphasis on "human capability" with
which this study has been much concerned? Both seem to place humanity at the
center of attention, but do they have differences as well as some congruence?
At the risk of some oversimplification, it can be said that the literature
on human capital tends to concentrate on the agency of human beings in
augmenting production possibilities. The perspective of human capability
focuses, on the other hand, on the ability‑the substantive freedom‑of
people to lead the lives they have reason to value and to enhance the real
choices they have. The two perspectives cannot but be related, since both are
concerned with the role of human beings, and in particular with the actual
abilities that they achieve and acquire. But the yardstick of assessment
concentrates on different achievements.
Given her personal characteristics, social background, economic
circumstances and so on, a person has the ability to do (or be) certain things
that she has reason to value. The reason for valuation can be direct (the functioning
involved may directly enrich her life, such as being well‑nourished or
being healthy), or indirect (the functioning
involved may contribute to further production, or command a price in the
market). The human capital perspective can‑in principle‑be defined
very broadly to cover both types of valuation, but it is typically defined‑by
convention‑primarily in terms of indirect value: human qualities that can
be employed as "capital" in production (in the way physical
capital is). In this sense, the narrower view of the human capital approach
fits into the more inclusive perspective of human capability, which can cover
both direct and indirect consequences of human abilities." (Sen,
1999, p.293)
I find that economic theories of human capital have helped me to
understand the power relations of capitalist social formations that serve a
reproductive interest. The
economic theory of human capability, that stresses the importance of living
values such as freedom reinforces my commitment to enhance the flow of values,
skills and understandings, serve my transformatory interest of creating a world
of educational quality.
When conducting any form of
research, especially in relation to data gathering and theory generation and
testing, the appropriateness of the methods we use is highly significant. In
living theory educational research, the methods need to be appropriate for the
generation and evaluation of living theories of educational influence in
learning in enquiries of the kind, 'How do I improve what I am doing?'
4) Methods
i)
Multi-media explanations of educational influences in learning
Eisner's
(1993) Presidential Address to the American Educational Research Association
served to reinforce my belief in the value of multi-media explanations of
educational influences in learning.
Naidoo (2005), Farren
(2005) and Farren and Whitehead (2006) have demonstrated how digital, multi-media visual narratives can help
to clarify the meanings of the values of self-study researchers. They show how
the meanings of these embodied values can be formed and expressed in the living
standards of judgement that can characterize a world of educational
quality. Farren's (2005)
multi-media approach, using a Moodle environment for e-learning, demonstrates
how a pedagogy of the unique can emerge from a web of betweenness.
ii) An
action research approach to educational enquiry that includes methodological
inventiveness
An action
research approach to educational enquiry can demonstrate how the embodied
values can be transformed into living critical standards of judgement for
testing the validity of contributions to knowledge of self-study researchers.
As the practitioner-researcher expresses concern that the values that give
meaning and purpose to their lives are not being lived as fully as possible,
the imagination responds with possibilities that if realised in practice would
improve matters in terms of the the realisation of values. With the actions,
data gathering and evaluations, the individual, often with the help of others
in validation meetings, clarifies the meanings of their ontological values as
these emerge in practice. In this clarification the expressions of embodied
values are formed into communicable living standards of judgment that can be
used to evaluate the validity of the educational knowledge. The significance of
the use of the action reflection cycles is that the expression of embodied
ontological values can be formed into living epistemological standards of
judgment. This inclusion of ontological values into living epistemological
standards is of vital significance in the creation of a new epistemology for
educational knowledge and for a living theory approach to the creation of a
world of educational quality.
A process of
methodological inventiveness
(Dadds and Hart, 2001) can be used in explaining the self-study researcher's
responsiveness to the continuously evolving present of the educational enquiry:
" The importance of methodological inventiveness
Perhaps the most important new insight for both of us has been awareness that, for some practitioner researchers, creating their own unique way through their research may be as important as their self-chosen research focus. We had understood for many years that substantive choice was fundamental to the motivation and effectiveness of practitioner research (Dadds 1995); that what practitioners chose to research was important to their sense of engagement and purpose. But we had understood far less well that how practitioners chose to research, and their sense of control over this, could be equally important to their motivation, their sense of identity within the research and their research outcomes." (p. 166)
"If our aim is to create conditions that facilitate methodological inventiveness, we need to ensure as far as possible that our pedagogical approaches match the message that we seek to communicate. More important than adhering to any specific methodological approach, be it that of traditional social science or traditional action research. may be the willingness and courage or practitioners – and those who support them – to create enquiry approaches that enable new, valid understandings to develop; understandings that empower practitioners to improve their work for the beneficiaries in their care. Practitioner research methodologies are with us to serve professional practices. So what genuinely matters are the purposes of practice which the research seeks to serve, and the integrity with which the practitioner researcher makes methodological choices about ways of achieving those purposes. No methodology is, or should, cast in stone, if we accept that professional intention should be informing research processes, not pre-set ideas about methods of techniques..."(p. 169)
iii) Enhancing
Validity
The methods
used to enhance validity draw on Habermas' (1976) four criteria of social
validity of comprehensibility, truth, rightness and authenticity. In a research programme lasting several
years (the living theory doctorates have been created from at least five years
part-time study in a workplace) the validity of explanations of educational
influences in learning can be enhanced through a form of creative and critical
educational conversation in a validating meeting in which questions are focused
on the comprehensibility of the account; on the quality of the evidence
presented to justify assertions and claims to knowledge; on the awareness of
the normative assumptions that are being used to structure the report; on the
authenticity of the reseacher in the sense that over time, through interaction,
the reseaching is showing that they are truly committed to the values and
understandings they claim to espouse.
iv) Enhancing Rigour
The methods used to enhance the rigor of the enquiry draw on
Winters' (1989) six criteria of
rigor of reflexive critique, dialectical critique, risk, plural structure,
multiple resource and theory practice transformation. Peggy Leong (nee Kok) (1991) was the first living theory
action research to fully integrate this approach to enhancing rigour into her
explanation of educational influences in learning. I continue to find Winters'
six criteria helpful in enhancing rigour (See the Appendix of Whitehead 2006 - http://www.nipissingu.ca/oar/new_issue-V821E.htm
)
The following data sources are used below in the evidence-based claims
of educational significance. These claims include the validation and
legitimation of the living standards of judgement from self-study researchers
that can be used to distinguish a world of educational quality.
Accounts of educational influences in learning of higher education
educators. For an exemplar of this data see Hartog (2004). The data includes:
i)
Action research accounts with Chinese characteristics
generated by action researchers in China's Experimental Centre for Educational
Action Research in Foreign Languages Teaching at Ningxia Teachers University (http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/moira.shtml
)
ii)
Accounts of educational influences in learning of 20
self-study researchers from a range of professional contexts who have been
awarded their doctoral degrees. (Whitehead, 2007 - http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/living.shtml)
iii)
Accounts of educators learning from
their self study research with Delong (2001), Delong & Black (2002),
Delong, Black & Knill-Griesser (2003, 2004, 2005), Delong, Black & Wideman (2005). The
data includes an account of the significance of the flow of an educational
leader's passion for professional practice that is focused on democratic
processes of accountability (Delong, 2002) into the educational provision of a
District School Board. (http://www.actionresearch.ca/
)
iv)
Accounts
of educators learning from their self-study research with Farren (2005) at
Dublin City University. (http://webpages.dcu.ie/~farrenm/
)
v)
Accounts of
educators learning from their self-study research with McNiff (McNiff, 2006;
McNiff & Whitehead, 2006; Whitehead & McNiff, 2006) through her work as
Professor of Educational Research and as an International Consultant in
Education. (http://www.jeanmcniff.com/reports.html
)
The validity,
rigour and legitimacy of this data, in the masters and doctoral degrees have,
as well as being subjected to the processes described above for enhancing these
qualities, been subjected to the quality controls of the internal and external
examining procedures of the Universities that have accredited the work for the
higher degree. These are the data
used above in supporting the evidence-based claims of educational significance.
Conclusion and
Moving on
What I hope that this presentation has accomplished is to captivate your imagination in a way that resonates with your values and understandings of the need for a new epistemology for educational knowledge. There is much work to be done in legitimating this epistemology throughout the Academy. I am hopeful that we shall work together to contribute to the creation of a world of educational quality, through educating the social formations of universities and the wider society.
I am thinking here of the significance for each individual and for the future of humanity of generating our own living educational theories with the life-affirming and energy-flowing values that sustain a connection with, and carry hope for, humanity and our own. What counts as educational knowledge in universities around the world has both reproductive and transformatory influences in individual and social formations. Because of this I am advocating the academic legitimation of this new epistemology for educational knowledge with its grounding in the flow of life-affirming, energy-flowing values of humanity in our educational practices and knowledge-creating activities.
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