How do I explain
Inclusional Educational Influences in Learning with Love, Anger, Pleasure and
Life-Affirming Energy?
Jack Whitehead
Department of Education
University of Bath
Bath BA2 3AA
UK
DRAFT 11 August 2007
In
contributing to the four short stories of evolutionary and philosophical
transformation with Ted Lumley, Alan Rayner, Lere Shakunle I shall be
focusing on the transformations in my living educational theories. By living
theory I mean the explanations that individuals give for learning. By living
educational theory I mean the explanations that individuals give for their
educational influences in their own learning, in the learning of others and in
the learning of the social formations in which they live and work. I am
assuming that such theories have profound implications for the future of
humanity. Hence my sustained and sustaining focus on educational theory over my
40 years professional engagement in education (Whitehead, 2007).
I want to communicate some meanings of inclusionality that
resonate with the other three stories and the prelude. I am thinking of Ted's
emphasis on the significance for a human existence of every individual sensing
her or his own unique situational inclusion in the nonlocal dynamics of
hostspace. I am thinking of the influence of Alan's understanding of
inclusionality in the evolution and philosophical transformations in the
epistemologies of my living educational theory. Alan has influenced my
understanding of inclusionality as a relationally dynamic awareness of space
and boundaries as connective, reflexive and co-creative. The philosophical
transformations that are emerging from inclusionality include the living
standards of judgement in the
living logics and life-affirming energy, love, anger and pleasure in my explanations
of educational influences in learning.
I am also
thinking of Lere's work on the transfigural mathematics of loving influence.
In the evolution and philosophical transformations of my
living educational theories, as explanations of my educational influence in my
own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of social
formations, I feel Alan's, Ted's and Lere's influence as a flow-form of
life-affirming energy emerging from a receptive pool of love that resonates
with the shared humanity of our hostspace. This is not to deny the existence of
socio-historical and socio-cultural influences in the hostspace, some of which
can be felt in power relations that can undermine the safety of the hostspace
if defensive boundaries are too permeable to these power relations.
My writings are also informed by Karen Teeson's
understandings of flow-form networks:
In flow-form
networks however, one must remain aware that communication does not take the
form of discrete relationships, transactions or exchanges between nodes. Rather, communication is a flow that
may be directed, diverted, accelerated, impeded or allowed to escape. The structure of a flow-form network is
created by the flow itself, which is reciprocally coupled with a flow of contextual
space that recedes and re-forms itself as material substance flows
outwards. So to study a flow-form
network, one must study either the flow within, or the dynamic flows of the
space around it. Flow-form
networks might be created by fluids, collective actions or movements of
particles or actors (such as ants, people, cars in traffic etc.), or by
thoughts, language and so on.
Reciprocal flows of space that recedes around a network as it develops
are perhaps not so easy to identify, but they might be manifested in contextual
changes.
Evolutionary and philosophical transformations in the
generation of my living educational theories.
In focusing on the meanings of educational influences in
learning in the generation of living educational theories I find the following
idea of Said's useful in emphasising the significance of influence:
"As a poet indebted to and friendly with Mallarme, Valery was compelled to assess originality and derivation in a way that said something about a relationship between two poets that could not be reduced to a simple formula. As the actual circumstances were rich, so too had to be the attitude. Here is an example from the "Letter About Mallarme".
No word comes easier of oftener to the critic's pen than
the word influence, and no vaguer notion can be found among all the vague
notions that compose the phantom armory of aesthetics. Yet there is nothing in the critical
field that should be of greater philosophical interest or prove more rewarding
to analysis than the progressive modification of one mind by the work of
another." (Said, 1997, p. 15)
In the evolution of my inclusional way of being, enquiring
and knowing between 1967-2007 I can distinguish three philosophical
transformations that are focused on my logics and standards of judgment.
Through my first degree in physical science I came to the belief that I should
eliminate 'I' from my 'scientific' accounts on the grounds that scientific
knowledge was objective and required the elimination of the subjectivity of the
'I'. During my studies of the philosophy of education between 1968-70, I shared
the views of my tutors that matters of fact and matters of value formed
independent realms of discourse and that contradictions between statements
should be eliminated from correct thought. During this time my epistemology can
be characterised as 'positivism'.
In 1971 as I used a video to analyse my teaching, I
experienced myself as a living contradiction in the sense that I could see that
I was not doing what I believed I was doing. I thought that I had established
enquiry learning in my classrooms, where the pupils were forming their own
questions and that I was making a serious response to their questions. The
video showed that I was actually forming the questions and that the way I had
structured the learning resources was too rigid to be responsive to any
questions that the pupils might ask, other than the ones I had pre-defined.
Through the experience of myself as a living contradiction and the help of
Polanyi's (1958) insights into personal knowledge my understandings evolved. By
this I mean that I followed Polanyi's decision to understand the
world from my point of view, as a person claiming originality and exercising
his personal judgement responsibly with universal intent.
(p.327).
This experience of being a living contradiction moved me
into a study of dialectics with contradictions as the nucleus (Ilyenkov, 1977).
My epistemology became that of a dialectician. I did not reject the insights I
gained from the study of propositional theories with their formal logic, but I
was aware of the arguments between formal and dialectical logics in which each
rejected the rationality of the other's assumptions (Marcuse, 1964, Popper,
1963).
In 2002 my understandings evolved with the recognition of
Alan Rayner's meanings of inclusionality. I felt this transformation occurring
as Alan used the demonstration, of what has become known as 'The Paper Dance',
to explain the importance of understanding space and boundaries as dynamic relations.
The video-clip of 'The Paper
Dance' can be accessed below from the image of Alan below and it emphasises the severance from receptively
responsive relationships that occurs in propositional and dialectical thinking
and that are 'healed' in the relationally dynamic awareness of space and
boundaries of inclusionality.
What I now want to do briefly, is to share my understandings
of an educational enquiry into the significance of living inclusional logics
and standards of judgment for the generation of living educational theories.
Because the understandings I want to share are of an
inclusional way of being, enquiry and knowing, I want to begin with visual data
that show their embodied expressions of with space and boundaries that are
flowing with a loving, life-affirming energy. I am not expecting you to access
all the clips. Viewing one may be sufficient to communicate my meanings. I have
included them all because they serve to emphasise the significance of the
relational dynamic of space and boundaries between widely disparate, cultural,
geographical and social contexts of my professional practices. The collages of video-clips with
their atemporal relationship allows an atemporal aware inclusional feeling to
be experienced, acknowledged and communicated. So, that an educational
relationship in China can be placed alongside an educational relationship in
the UK or in South Africa in a relationally dynamic communication through the
boundaries of the video-clips.
The first three clips are of:
Moira Laidlaw non-verbal communications in teaching in China
Alan Rayner on Inclusionality, Boundaries and Space
Eden Charles and Alan Rayner with Ubuntu and Inclusionality
You can
access the clips from the streamed server by either clicking on the live url
above of the image below. As I look at them I am aware of the relational
dynamic presence of both my local self as photographer and the non-local
influences that are present within the space. For example:
Moira is
aware of the historical influence of the Chinese culture that has emphasized
conformity at the expense of individual questioning and creativity. At the end
of the clip Moira draws a student to her to congratulate her on showing the
courage to question something that Moira had done in the class and to emphasise
the importance of individual questioning and creativity;
Alan is showing
his awareness of the non-local influence of forms of thought embedded in the
culture that sustain a severance between mind/body/emotion and of the 'healing'
of this severance through inclusional ways of being, enquiring and knowing;
The third
clip shows Alan preparing for a radio interview for an American radio-show.
Eden is showing an awareness of both the local presence of Alan's anxiety over
the presentation and the non-local influence of the kinds of communication that
might be heard by an American audience.
In
contributing to the four stories in this publication I am aware of the
educational intent and sense of educational responsibility in what I do in my
professional practice. This writing is part of my professional practice as an
academic. It is part of my educational research into the nature of educational
theory. In this research I am seeking to evolve forms of understanding
representation that can explain educational influences in learning that can
contribute to enhancing the flow of loving energy and understanding in the
cosmos.
Through
placing this presentation in the flow of communication in web-space I believe
that I am enhancing the possibilities that the lives, understandings,
life-affirming energy, love, anger, pain and pleasure of those on the
video-clips can contribute to this flow of energy and understanding.
The ideas of Karen Teeson have also been significant in the evolution of my inclusional approach to the creation, testing and communication of living educational theories and explain my present passion for enhancing the flow of these theories through web-space.
The diagram that changed my awareness of communications through web-space was on a slide shown by Karen Teeson at a presentation of her doctoral research programme at the University of Bath. It was a slide showing the natural connection between tubular structures or anastomosis. Before seeing this diagram I had been working with a linear sense of communication between a transmitter and receiver. The following diagram transformed my perception of communications through web-space into my present understanding of interconnecting and branching channels of communication where boundaries can act as guidelinings for the flow of life-affirming energy, values and insights.
I have modified the original diagram to open up channels of communication in the encircling boundary.
I use this image as a metaphor for the development of an
inclusional approach to the creation, testing and communication of living
educational theories. For example, in the first clip below I am explaining my
understanding of the African notion of Ubunta, to a workshop at the University
of the Free State in South Africa in 2006. Eden Charles (2007) has recently
received his doctorate for his research into 'How Can I Bring Ubuntu As A Living Standard of
Judgement Into The Academy? Moving Beyond Decolonisation Through Societal
Reidentification And Guiltless Recognition' It is my belief that amplifying the
flow-form communication of qualities that distinguish an Ubuntu way of being,
enquiring and knowing, through the interconnecting and branching communication
channels of communication provided by web-space, is helping to bring more fully
into the world the values and understandings that are contributing to the
future of humanity. You could help to evaluate the validity of this belief by
watching the brief video-clip of Nelson Mandela talking about an Ubuntu way of
being at http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/06/01/the-meaning-of-ubuntu-explained-by-nelson-mandela/ . It is my belief that if we could find ways of enhancing
the flow of this Ubuntu way of being the world would be a better place to be.
The second clip is of Je Kan Adler Collins preparing for his
transfer seminar from an M.Phil. into a Ph.D. research programme. Je Kan
successfully transferred and is now in the process of submission. His research
is focused on an explanation of his educational influence in the development of
a curriculum for the healing nurse at Fukuoka University in Japan. It is
informed by his Buddhist faith and understandings and draws on a living theory
approach as he develops his inclusional pedagogy of the unique. I believe that
the visual data enables Je Kan's presence to be felt as a flow of loving,
life-affirming energy in his knowledge-creation.
The third clip is of Jean McNiff describing the global
contexts in which she is supporting a living theory approach to teachers'
professional development. These include her work in South Africa, Iceland, the
UK, Ireland and China (we are both visiting professors at Ningxia Teachers
University in China). Jean was present at the workshop in South African in the
first of the three clips below. From the relational dynamic of the work we have
done together many publications have emerged on action research and living
theory that are having an acknowledged educational influence around the world.
Je Kan Adler Collins preparing for transfer to Ph.D.
Jean McNiff's support for action research in global contexts
The next set of three clips are
unusual in that I did not take them. They were provided by Branko Bognar, a
Croatian educator, working with teachers and their pupils to develop an action
research approach to improving learning. I first watched these clips in 2005
with Moira Laidlaw and we were both surprised by the capacities of the 10 year
old pupils to demonstrate their understandings of an action research approach
to improving their learning.
Drawing the attention of teachers in the UK to these capacities
of 10 year old pupils in Croatia has encouraged them to support their pupils in
the evolution of their own action research. The influence of the
interconnecting and branching channels of communication opened through
web-space can be seen in Joy Mounter's account of her enquiry, Can
children carry out action research about learning, creating their own learning
theory? (see http://www.jackwhitehead.com/tuesdayma/joymounterull.htm
with the Appendix of the video-clips of the 6 year old pupils)
Branko
Bognar on action research with pupils in Croatia
Stimulating Creativity with 3rd and 4th Grade
10 year
old pupils in Croatia explaining action research
I have included the next set of
clips because the first two show the dynamic of a supervisory relationship for
a doctoral research programme in which there is both the expression of tension
when the Abstract needs improving and the therapeutic expression (in the sense
of a flow of life-affirming energy) in the humour of the second clip.
The third clip is included to
emphasise that the non-local influences of socio-historical and socio-cultural
boundaries sometimes constrain the expression of academic freedom and
inclusional ways of being, enquiring and knowing. The third clip is a
performance text in the sense of being a re-enactment of my appearance before a
Senate committee about a matter of academic freedom. I am responding to a draft
report by the committee in which there is no mention of the pressures I have
experienced that could have constrained my freedom. Following my response the
final report to Senate acknowledged that I had been subjected to pressures that
might have constrained a less determined individual. Love, pain, anger,
pleasure and life-affirming energy are in the title of this contribution. My
love for what I do in education, with a flow of life-affirming energy fromn the
cosmos, has sustained my vocational passion. In the last 40 years of my
professional life I know that I have experienced much anger at what I perceive
as injustice in the world. Part of my passion for education emerged with the
recognition of what I perceived as a lack of recognition in schools and
universities of the desire of individuals to accept an educational
responsibility for their own learning. In managing my anger I value most highly
the psychoanalytic insights I gained from reading Anna Freud's work in 1966,
especially her descriptions, in her writings on normality and pathology in
childhood, of some 13 defence mechanisms we can employ in responding to pain
and anger. Over the years I believe that I have used these to good effect in
combining a recognition of the legitimate expression of anger with the
development of an understanding that prevents the projection of inappropriate
responses onto others because of a pathologised response to anger and pain. Yaakub
Murray has recently understood how to prevent the projection of such
inappropriate responses through an awareness of the idea of narcissitic injury
and I shall reference this work as soon as it becomes available.
The following three clips, taken
together, share my understandings of a local influence in supporting the
generation of a living educational theory on the creation of a culture of
inquiry to support teacher-research (Delong, 2002). The space is not without
its creative tensions and flows with life-affirming energy and pleasure. The
atemporal alongsideness of the third clip enables the non-local influences of
power relations that needed facing and overcoming in the legitimation of living
theories in the Academy. These power relations and their constraining
influences have necessitated overcoming potentially pathologising responses to
anger, pain and humiliation.
Jacqueline Delong and Jack Whitehead with a Ph.D. Abstract
Jacqueline Delong and Jack Whitehead on Wisdom and Pleasure
Jack Whitehead Responding to
matters of power and academic freedom
The next three clips show the
non-verbal responses between Louise Cripps (a headteacher working for her
masters degree) and me. It was taken at the end of the Tuesday evening masters
unit on educational enquiry that I tutor in the University of Bath. We both
experience the clip as showing that our educational relationship is one of
mutually receptive responsiveness in which we communicating without any
violation of the integrity and identity of the other. I like this clip because
I feel a mutuality of inclusion with Louise in understanding what Buber means
by 'the special humility of the educator':
"If this educator should ever believe that for the sake of education he has to practise selection and arrangement, then he will be guided by another criterion than that of inclination, however legitimate this may be in its own sphere; he will be guided by the recognition of values which is in his glance as an educator. But even then his selection remains suspended, under constant correction by the special humility of the educator for whom the life and particular being of all his pupils is the decisive factor to which his 'hierarchical' recognition is subordinated." (Buber, p. 122, 1947)
The second clip shows a similar
quality of mutually receptive responsiveness between Yaakub-Paulus Murray and
me. Yaakub is sharing ideas from a text on Progressive Islam and, as with the
clip with Jacqueline Delong showing the pleasure in the expression of the
humour in the flow of life-affirming energy, I can see a similar expression of
pleasure and loving, life-affirming energy in the clip with Yaakub-Paulus
Murray. The qualities of educational relationship shown in this clip show two
educators, one who self-designates as a progressive muslim and the other who
characterises his spirituality in terms of a loving, life-affirming energy,
engaged in an educational enquiry with the other.
The third clip shows a similar
expression of life-affirming energy with pleasure and humour as Peter Mellett
leads the celebration on Jacqueline Delong's graduation day on the 18 December
2002 (the clip was taken by a camera set up by Sarah Fletcher, a colleague at
the time). It shows the relationally dynamic flows of receptive responsiveness
between the participants in the expression of affirmation for Jacqueline's
accomplishment. In explaining my educational influence in my own learning, in
the learning of others and the learning of social formations I feel that a flow
of life-affirming energy helps to sustain my productive life in education. As I
look at the shared communications and mutual affirmations in the video-clips
below I am feeling the quality of affirmation that I associate with the early
writings of Marx:
Suppose we had produced things as human beings: in his
production each of us would have twice affirmed himself and the other.
In my production I would have objectified my
individuality and its particularity, and in the course of the activity I would
have enjoyed an individual life, in viewing the object I would have experienced
the individual joy of knowing my personality as an objective, sensuously
perceptible, and indubitable power.
In your satisfaction and your use of my product I would
have had the direct and conscious satisfaction that my work satisfied a human
need, that it objectified human nature, and that it created an object
appropriate to the need of another human being.
I would have been the mediator between you and the
species and you would have experienced me as a redintegration of your own
nature and a necessary part of yourself; I would have been affirmed in your
thought as well as your love.
In my individual life I would have directly created your
life, in my individual activity I would have immediately confirmed and realized
my true human nature. (Bernstein, 1971, p.
48)
Louise&Jack270307 Non-verbal Communication
Jack responding to Yaakub's enquiry into Progressive Islam
Peter Mellett celebrating on
Jacqueline Delong's Graduation
The final collage of 6 clips below contains five clips of colleagues in the Bath and North East Somerset Authority who are working to enhance the quality of educational provision for all the children in B&NES. The first clip is of Nigel Harrisson, Manager of the inclusion support services in B&NES. He is at the 2006, British Educational Research Association (BERA) seminar convened by Eleanor Lohr to enquire into Love at Work (the title of Eleanor's doctoral thesis at: http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/lohr.shtml). Nigel is expressing his belief in the significance of love in his work. The second clip may seem unconnected to the other five. It is of Ram Punia, an international consultant on education who received his Ed.D. from the University of Bath for his thesis on, The Making Of An International Educator With Spiritual Values (you can access Ram's writings at http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/punia.shtml). I have included the video-clip of Ram talking about a proposed workshop in Mauritius, which he has now implemented, because web-space permits me to place the flow of Ram's spiritual values of inclusionality alongside the flow of values of Nigel, Christine, Marie and Kate. I believe that they can serve to amplify the values that carry hope for humanity and hence bring them more fully into the world.
The third clip is of Christine Jones at an Inclusion
Recognition Ceremony at the Guildhall in Bath, in June 2007. Christine is the
Inclusion Officer for B&NES and takes the lead in the award of the
Inclusion Quality Mark in schools. Christine works with Marie Huxtable and on
Wednesday mornings we have been meeting between 8.00-9.00 for conversations on
improving practice. The video-clips of Marie Huxtable and Kate Kemp were taken
in these conversations where both are explaining what really matters to them.
The clip of Marie and Christine at BERA 06 shows them living their values and
understandings of inclusionality as they explore the implications of their
research into inclusion with their audience. One of the benefits of this
multi-media narrative is that it can include video-clips that open quickly from
a streaming server. One disadvantage is that the clips cannot be seen to be
moving in the collage. This disadvantage can be overcome on a DVD where all the
clips can be shown playing. The advantage of having the clips playing
simultaneously is that they can communicate the relational dynamic of
communications through web-space with atemporal boundaries that the viewer can
relate to through their own receptive responsiveness.
Nigel Harrisson contributing at BERA 2006
Ram Punia reflecting on a proposed
workshop in Mauritius
Chris Jones at Inclusion Recognition
Ceremony 040707
Marie Huxtable and Christine Jones at
BERA 06.
Marie Huxtable - what really matters
Kate Kemp Expressing values to live by
In concluding this brief contribution to this text on
evolutionary and philosophical transformation I am drawn to the ideas of Gert
Biesta (2006), especially those concerning the development of a language of
education that includes coming into presence and the exercise of educational
responsibility:
"One
of the central ideas of the book is that we come into the world as unique
individuals through the ways in which we respond responsibly to what and who is
other. I argue that the responsibility of the educator not only lies in the
cultivation of "worldly spaces" in which the encounter with otherness and
difference is a real possibility, but that it extends to asking "difficult
questions": questions that summon us to respond responsively and responsibly to
otherness and difference in our own, unique ways." (Biesta, 2006, p. ix)
In seeking to explain my inclusional educational influences
in learning with love, anger, pleasure and life-affirming energy in
receptively-responsive educational enquiries, I am generating and sharing my
living educational theory. I believe that the relationally dynamic logics and
living standards of judgement of inclusionality are establishing the new
epistemology for educational knowledge which Schon (1995) called for but died
before he could develop. What I like about Alan Rayner's idea of feeding life
with death, rather than death with life, is that we can affirm the
life-affirming energy and understandings of others who have passed on, in the
expression of our own. Looking at the video-clips above I feel most fortunate
to feel the life-affirming energy, the love for what we are doing and the
pleasure of sharing our ways of being, enquiring and knowing, in the face of a
world that is becoming a better place to be as we learn to express these values
and understandings more fully within the cosmic hostspace we inhabit.
References Incomplete
Bernstein, R. (1971) Praxis and Action, London; Duckworth.
Biesta,
G. J. J. (2006) Beyond Learning; Democratic Education for a Human Future.
Boulder; Paradigm Publishers.
Buber, M. (1947) Between Man and Man. London; Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner
& Co. Ltd.
Marcuse, H. (1964) One Dimensional Man, London; Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Popper, K. (1963) Conjectures and Refutations, Oxford,
Oxford University Press.
Schon, D. (1995) The New
Scholarship Requires a New Epistemology. Change, Nov./Dec. 1995 27 (6) pp.
27-34.
Said, E. W. (1997) Beginnings: Intention and Method. p. 15.
London ; Granta
Teeson, K. (2004)