How can i~we create living educational theories from research into professional learning?

Jack Whitehead, Department of Education, University of Bath, UK.

e-mail, edsajw@bath.ac.uk

Presentation at the 2008 American Educational Research Association Annual Conference in New York on 24 March 08.

Abstract

This evidence-based account shows how living educational theories are being created from research into professional learning that includes questions of the kind, 'How do I improve what I am doing?' It is a response to Schön's (1995) call to develop a new epistemology. Drawing evidence from some 30 doctoral theses from practitioner-researchers working in a variety of professional, national and sociocultural contexts the paper explains how a logic of inclusionality for a new epistemology for educational knowledge has been legitimated in the Academy. The research contexts include enquiries into professional learning in the US, UK, Canada, India, China, South Africa, Ireland and Japan. 

Introduction

My research programme into the nature of educational theory had its genesis in the recognition of a mistake in the dominant view of educational theory in the UK in the 1960s. Through my academic studies of education for the Academic Diploma in the philosophy and psychology of education and then in an MA in Education at the Institute of Education of London University between 1968-1972, I received a good grounding in the disciplines approach to educational theory. In this approach educational theory was held to be constituted by the philosophy, psychology, sociology, and history of education. The explanatory principles I used to explain my educational influences in my own learning and in the learning of my pupils were viewed, in this disciplines approach, 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 (Hirst, 1983, p. 18).

The idea of replacing the practical principles I used to explain my educational influences in learning with principles from abstract disciplines of education seemed to me to be a mistake. Having studied the assumptions in the disciplines of education I could not understand how, taken individually or from within any combination, they could generate a valid explanation of my educational influences. My rejection of the disciplines approach to educational theory did not include a rejection of insights from the disciplines of education in explaining my own educational influence. I continue to value insights from the abstract disciplines of education as I generate my own living educational theory. What I mean by a living educational theory is that it is an individual's explanation of their educational influence in their own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of the social formations in which we live and work. I moved from being a Head of a Science Department in a Secondary School to the University of Bath as a Lecturer in Education, in 1973, with a sense of vocation to contribute to the reconstruction of educational theory.

In the 34 years of my research programme I have been privileged to work with many creative individuals and benefited from their insights. They have helped to both add to my existing knowledge and to transform my understanding of educational knowledge. The transformations have focused on the nature of the logics of educational theories that can explain educational influences in learning. What I mean by logic is that it is a mode of thought that is appropriate for comprehending the real as rational Marcuse, 1964, p. 105).

In answering my question, How can i~we create living educational theories from research into professional learning? I want to focus on the transformations in my understandings of the logics of educational knowledge. The transformations involve a change in my thinking about the nature of educational knowledge from the propositional logic of positivism into the dialectical logic of contradiction and into the inclusional logic of inclusionality.

Logics of educational knowledge in the generation of living educational theories. 

I believe that all educational researchers are familiar with the propositional logic that dominates publications about educational theory in academic journals. I am thinking of the logic of Aristotle with its laws of contradiction and excluded middle. At the heart of this logic is the idea that contradictions, in the sense of two mutually opposite statements must be eliminated from valid theories. In this logic everything is either A or not-A.

Contradiction is at the heart of dialectical logic. In one of his dialogues on poetic inspiration, Phaedrus, Plato presents a dialogue between Phraedus and Socrates in which Socrates describes two way of coming to know. He says that we can break things down into separate particulars and hold things together under a general idea. He says that holding the One and the Many together distinguishes the art of the dialectician. The idea of something being one thing and many things contains the idea of contradiction.

The 2,500 year old conflict between propositional and dialectical logicians can be seen in the work of Popper (1963) and Marcuse (1964). Using two Artistotelean Laws of Logic, Popper rejects dialectical rationality, in theories, as based on nothing better than a loose and woolly way of speaking and entirely useless as theory. Marcuse on the other hand explains how propositional thinkers mask the dialectical nature of reality with its grounding in contradiction. In his work on Dialectical Logic, Ilyenkov sets out the problem of expressing the meanings of living contradictions within statements.

If an object exists as a living contradiction what must the thought be (statement about the object) that expresses it (Ilyenkov, 1977, p. 312).

The conflict between propositional and dialectical logicians has been so serious that the adherents to propositional logic, such as Popper, have rejected the rationality of dialecticians as useless if expressed in theory.

In the growth of my educational knowledge (Whitehead, 1993) I have valued greatly insights from both propositional and dialectical theories. I now want to introduce the idea of inclusionality as a way of understanding how to generate living educational theories from professional learning with insights from both propositional and dialectical theories and without rejecting their rationality.

Inclusionality with its living logic of educational theorising

Alan Rayner introduced me to my present understanding of inclusionality in 2003 in a conversation involving a demonstration we later called the 'paper dance' - a name I think you will appreciate if you watch the video-clip of the demonstration at:

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

The introduction of video-data into my explanations of educational influence has had a major influence in transforming my logics of educational knowledge. I first used video-date in 1971/2 in viewing my classroom practice. It was seeing myself existing as a living contradiction that highlighted for me the importance of recognizing the 'I', as such a contradiction, in enquiries of the kind, 'How do I improve what I am doing?' By 'I' as a living contradiction I mean that I could see and experience myself as holding together my belief that I had established enquiry learning with my pupils, with the evidence on the video that I had not.

An exploration of the educational significance of asking, researching and answering questions of the kind, 'How do I improve what I am doing?' occupied some 23 years of my research programme. My dialectical approach to the educational theorizing of a living contradiction formed my doctoral thesis (Whitehead, 1999). This consisted of an analysis of the growth of my educational knowledge through 23 years of my publications. The analysis included both the form and contents of individual publications and, most significantly, the form and contents of the transformations in thinking and learning between the publications. The dialectical logic that helped to form the thesis emerged from the experience of my 'I' as a living contradiction in my practice and through my engagement with the propositional theories of others.

I am delighted to acknowledge that the transformation from the above dialectical rationality into inclusionality (Whitehead, 2007a) included many educational conversations with Alan Rayner. I experienced his educational influence through the above demonstration, his patient explanations in conversations over several months and his writings. The transformation in my thinking came with my appreciation and new understanding of inclusionality as a relationally dynamic awareness of space and boundaries as connective, reflective and co-creative. I also like the way Lumley expresses inclusionality in his fluid-dynamical world view as:

"...an inspiring pooling-of-consciousness that seems to include and connect all within all in unifying dynamical communion.... The concreteness of 'local object being'... allows us to understand the dynamics of the common living-space in which we are all ineluctably included participants." (Lumley, 2008, p.3)

In my latest exploration of the implications of this inclusional perspective I have placed the generation of my living educational theories in the boundaries of cultures in resistance (Whitehead, 2008a). What I mean by this is that I recognize that cultural influences make a major contribution to the learning of individuals and in the reproduction and transformation of social formations. One way in which I make sense of these influences is to see myself generating my living educational theories in the boundaries of cultures in resistance. This idea of cultures in resistance was first presented to me in 2007 with a call for papers for a conference on 'Cultures in Resistance'. As I thought about the idea I felt its significance in exploring both the influences of living educational theories in the cultural boundaries and the influences of cultural boundaries in generating living educational theories.

I may be mistaken in believing that everyone will recognize the experience of believing something and experiencing contradictions to the belief in practice. I may be mistaken in believing that everyone will recognize the experience of conflicting pressures in the boundaries of cultures in resistance in supporting and opposing different values, beliefs and practices. However, until I am shown to be mistaken I shall assume these beliefs to be true. Hence my feeling about the universalizing educational possibilities of exploring the generation of living educational theories within the boundaries of cultures in resistance from a perspective of inclusionality.

Having suggested that a relationally dynamic awareness of space and boundaries is a necessary condition for generating living educational theories from research into professional learning from a perspective of inclusionality, I want to draw your attention to where new, relationally dynamic standards of judgment have already been legitimated in the Academy in living theory doctoral theses.

You can access these theses at: http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/living.shtml They include living theory doctoral and other research programmes carried out into professional learning in the US, UK, Canada, India, South Africa, Ireland and Japan. A living theory approach to action research with Chinese characteristics is being developed at Ningxia Teachers University in China ( see http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/moira.shtml )

Through researching his practice as a healing nurse educator at Fukuoka University JeKan Adler-Collins has produced an explanation of his professional learning in terms of energy-flowing living standards of inclusionality. In the abstract to his thesis on:

Developing an inclusional pedagogy of the unique: How do I clarify, live and explain my educational influences in my learning as I pedagogise my healing nurse curriculum in a Japanese University?

Adler-Collins states:

The social context of this thesis is embedded in the processes and reflections experienced during the development, implementation and evaluation of a healing nurse curriculum, using action research enquiry on my teaching practice, in a Japanese rural university in the years 2003-2007. These processes include the evolution of my ontology and the creation of an inclusional pedagogy of the unique with transitional certainty as a living epistemological standard of judgment. An energy-flowing, living standard of inclusionality as a space creator for engaged listening and informed learning is offered as an original contribution to knowledge. (Adler-Collins, 2007, Abstract - http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/jekan.shtml )

Part of the originality in Adler-Collins' thesis is in the presentation of an energy-flowing, living standard of inclusionality. I don't want to underemphasize the significance of gaining academic legitimacy for an energy-flowing standard of judgment. The motivating power of the expression of a life-affirming energy with values such as freedom, justice, love and courage is an important explanatory principle in the generation of living educational theories from professional learning.

Such relationally dynamic standards of judgment are emerging from educational relationships in which professional educators are seeking to enhance their educational influence in their own learning, in the learning of students and in the learning of the social formations in which they live and work. The living standards are clarified and developed in the course of their emergence in enquiries that are focused on improving practice with an educational responsibility (see Wood et.al, 2007). Biesta (2006) has focused on the importance of educational responsibility is making a case that we should go beyond a language of learning in our educational research and through the expression of educational responsibility, develop a language of education. Drawing on the work of Levinas, Biesta appears to accept Levinas' idea of accepting a responsibility for the other. I feel a resistance to taking a responsibility for the other as this might appear to be denying the responsibility of the other for themselves. I prefer to exercise a responsibility towards the other in educational relationships that emphasise the educational responsibility of the other for themselves. 

In the creation of living educational theories I include the idea of civic responsibility with the assumption that Habermas (2002) is correct in holding to a proceduralist concept of law in his work on the inclusion of the other when he says that the private autonomy of equally entitled citizens can only be secured insofar as citizens actively exercise their civic autonomy. (p. 264). I am suggesting that one way we can exercise our civic responsibility is to generate and share our living educational theories in boundaries of cultures in resistance in schools, neighbourhoods and communities. I am thinking of the kind of civic responsibility developed by Charles (2007) in his analysis of the need for societal re-identification in developing societies with diverse racial groups. I am thinking of the civic responsibility shown by McNiff (2007) in her story of her living theory of professional learning in South Africa as she engages with cultural diversity.

I am also thinking of the quality of civic responsibility shown in five doctoral research programmes legitimated at the University of Limerick with the supervision of Jean McNiff:

Mairin Glenn (2006) Working with collaborative projects: my living theory of a holistic educational practice . PhD thesis, University of Limerick, retrieved 2 February 2008 from http://www.jeanmcniff.com/glennabstract.html

Caitriona McDonagh (2007)  My Living Theory Of  Learning To Teach For Social Justice: How Do I Enable Primary School Children With Specific Learning Disability (Dyslexia) And Myself As Their Teacher To Realise Our Learning Potentials?  PhD thesis, University of Limerick, retrieved 2 February 2007 from http://www.jeanmcniff.com/mcdonaghabstract.html

Mary Roche (2007) Towards A Living Theory Of Caring Pedagogy: Interrogating My Practice To Nurture A Critical, Emancipatory And Just Community Of Enquiry . PhD thesis, University of Limerick, retrieved 2 February 2008 from http://www.jeanmcniff.com/MaryRoche/index.html

Bernie Sullivan (2006) A Living Theory of a Practice of Social Justice: Realising the Right of Traveller Children to Educational Equality . PhD thesis, University of Limerick, retrieved 2 February 2008 from http://www.jeanmcniff.com/bernieabstract.html

Margaret Cahill (2007) My Living Educational Theory Of Inclusional Practice . PhD thesis, University of Limerick, retrieved 2 February 2008 from http://www.jeanmcniff.com/margaretcahill/index.html

Other living theory theses that show the exercise of the values of civic responsibility have been legitimated in the Universities of Kingston (Evans, 1995; Loftus, 1999) Plymouth (Follows, 2007), Warwick (Rawal, 2006) and Newcastle (Hymer, 2007).

Conclusion

The implications of generating and communicating living educational theories with logics of inclusionality could be far-reaching. I am hopeful that this presentation to the symposium has contributed to an enhanced recognition of our capacity to develop our living educational theories as explanations for our educational influences in our own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of the social formations in which we live and work. I am thinking of explanations in which our life-affirming, energy flowing values are explanatory principles in our educational responses to living within the boundaries of cultures in resistance from a perspective of inclusionality.

By placing our validated accounts in the public domain, we can add to the existing knowledge base of education (Snow 2001). By combining our voices in generating our living educational theories (Whitehead, 2008b) we can enhance our educational influences as we continue to contribute to the generation of a world of educational quality (Whitehead, 2007b). One of the educational benefits of belonging to AERA and to attending and presenting at the Annual Conferences is in the learning that comes from focusing on the implications for a research programme of engaging with the themes of the conferences. The 2007 theme of creating a world of educational quality, continues to influence my educational action research and I want to end by thanking you for the privilege of sharing these ideas with you.

References

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http://people.bath.ac.uk/bssadmr/inclusionality/HisDarkMaterials.htm

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