Co-creating world leading standards of judgement from educational practitioner-research in contributing to the generation of a world of educational quality.

 

Jack Whitehead's posting to the BERA Practitioner-Researcher SIG 2006-7 e-seminar on the 21 December 2006.

 

 

In making this contribution to the e-seminar thread on judging educational influences with world leading standards of judgment I feel the excitement of wanting to share ideas that might contribute to the generation of a world of educational quality. I am in no hurry for your responses, while at the same time looking forward to sharing your ideas, as the archives enable you to access and respond to the posting when you feel like it.

 

Taking the earlier points to heart about the importance of the language we use in our communications I shall focus on the expression of meanings that are communicated through our bodies, thought and language in some visual records of actual events. In particular I want to focus on the educational qualities being expressed in the following video-clips. Each thumbnail picture is connected to a live url and if you click on the image it should open a video-clip that should stream and play in your browser. 

 

Because we are exploring together the students of judgment for educational practitioner-research I want to emphasise that I see myself in what follows as researching my educational practices as an educational researcher. I know that I am offering my interpretations of the lives of others in claiming that they are expressing world leading standards of judgment. I hope that everyone will feel that I am offering my insights into the gifts and talents of others in a way that feels invitational and inspiring rather than imposing.  In my interpretation of  each of the video-clips I offer one  thought on a world leading standard of practice and judgment that I think the individuals are expressing through their relationships with others.

 

Moira Laidlaw's non-verbal communications in her teaching in China

 

Here is Moira with her students at Guyuan Teachers College (Now Ningxia Teachers University) flowing past her at the end of a lesson. As I watch Moira's non-verbal communications I believe she is giving her students a gift of recognition. I mean this in Fukuyama's sense of recognition:

 

Human beings seek recognition of their own worth, or of the people, things, or principles that they invest with worth. The desire for recognition, and the accompanying emotions of anger, shame and pride, are parts of the human personality critical to political life. According to Hegel, they are what drives the whole historical process. (Fukuyama, 1992, p. xvii)

Fukuyama, F. (1992) The End of History and the Last Man, London; Penguin.

 

I think Moira expresses a world leading standard of judgment through her talent for recognising and communicating the value of the other. I think Moira loves what she does in education and is expressing this love in her recognition of the value of her students as they flow past her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alan Rayner on Inclusionality, Boundaries and Space

 

When Alan first expressed his understandings of inclusionality some four years ago in my office at the University of Bath, with Yaakub, I felt my perceptions change as I understood what Alan had written about inclusionality being a relationally dynamic awareness of space and boundaries that is connective, reflexive and co-creative. I think this insight of Alan's into the nature of inclusionality forms a world leading standard of judgment for educational practitioner-researchers.

 

I think Marian Naidoo, Madeline Church, Margaret Farren, Bernie Sullivan, Mairin Glenn, Eleanor Lohr, and Mary Hartog have legitimated their own understandings of inclusionality in their doctorates at http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/living.shtml in a way that shows their contributions to the creation of a world of educational quality.

 

 

Pete Mellett celebrating on Jacqueline Delong's graduation

 

On Monday evenings in the Department of Education of the University of Bath I have managed to keep a creative space open for research students and colleagues to share ideas in educational conversations. Sometimes we gather together to celebrate one another's work. In the clip below, Pete is leading a celebration to mark Jackie's graduation day for her doctoral thesis which stresses the importance of generating and sustaining a culture of inquiry (http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/delong.shtml ).  In previous postings to the e-seminar Moira has shared her understandings of conviviality drawing on the Michael Bassey's BERA Presidential Address. I experience the lived expression of conviviality being co-created by the participants in the celebration and feel that this quality of expression of conviviality is a world leading standard of judgment for educational practitioner-research.

 

 

 

 

Jack responding to Yaakub's enquiry into Progressive Islam

 

On the 16th November Yaakub posted a most affirming response to his experience of my educational practice (http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind0611&L=bera-practitioner-researcher&T=0&O=A&P=19794 ). I have re-read his posting with the flow of pleasure when I feel recognised and affirmed in my work as an educator. As an educational researcher I want to focus on what I think is a world leading standard of judgment being co-created and expressed between Yaakub and me as our love of learning. I think you will feel the quality of attention we are giving to the meanings of the text on Progressive Islam. For me, loving what I do in education is often accompanied by a flow of life-affirming energy expressed through laughter.  What I am hoping you will experience as you watch the video-clip, is two people in a creative space, enjoying their love of learning.

 

 

 

I have explained in a previous posting why I think an African way of being in Ubuntu could form a world leading standard of judgment. Yaakub expresses this quality of being in we~i relationships with the recognition of 'I am because we are'.  I tend to use i~we in the recognition that I have not yet moved to a relationship in which I feel my 'I' has flowed into 'We' in a way that justifies my use of the language of 'we~i' relationships.  In this clip, made at the University of the Free State in February 2006, I am expressing my beliefs about Ubuntu and drawing on a chapter on Ubuntu written by colleagues from Stellenbosch University:

 

Beets, P. and van Louw, T. (2005) Education Transformation, Assessment and Ubuntu in South Africa, in Waghid, Y., van Wyk, B., Adams, F. and November, I. (Eds) (2005) African(a) Philosophy of Education: Reconstructions and Deconstructions. Published by the Department of Education Policy Studies, Stellenbosch University.

 

If you wish to see a more detailed answer to the questsion, How do I express and communicate embodied values of Ubuntu in an explanation of their educational influence in my own learning and in the learning of others?, you can access this at:

 http://www.jackwhitehead.com/jwubuntupapc.htm

 

Jack Whitehead on Ubuntu

 

What I think I am expressing is my love of learning from the ideas of others in a way that acknowledges their influence in the growth of my educational knowledge. Jean McNiff and Joan Whitehead were co-presenting the workshop and commented on the passion, enthusiasm and clarity of my communication. I am not offering this clip with the egotistical intention of saying that I am world leading in what I am doing. I am offering the clip to show the expression of a recognition and communication of the value of ideas of others that carries a world leading standard of judgment for educational practitioner-researchers.

 

 

Nigel Harrisson contributing at BERA 2006

 

On Saturday 9th September 2006 Eleanor stimulated a conversation on Love at Work, drawing on her doctoral thesis at http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/lohr.shtml .  In the clip, Nigel Harrisson, Inclusion Manager for Bath and North East Somerset, responds to Eleanor by acknowledging the importance of love in his work. Of all the living standards flowing with life-affirming energy through my educational research I feel that love and understanding are two of the most significant for creating a world of educational quality.  In communicating an embodied expression of love, with thought and language, I am suggesting that enhancing the flow of love and accounting for one's educational influence with love is contributing to a world leading standard of judgment. Eleanor has answered the question:

 

Establishing the validity and legitimacy of love as a living standard of judgment through researching the relation of being and doing in the inquiry, 'How can love improve my practice?'  in her presentation to the 2006 BERA Conference at: 

http://www.jackwhitehead.com/bera06/elBERA06.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jack Whitehead on Data at the Ontario College of Teachers

 

In relation to understanding as a world leading standard of judgment I am focusing on what I am saying to the participants in the Ontario College of Teachers' Institute on Living The Standards, on the 21 November 2006 in Toronto. I am focusing on the importance of gathering data that will enable a practitioner-researcher to judge their educational influence in the learning of others.

 

I am suggesting that the quality of the questions we ask should be a standard of judgment we use in our educational practitioner-research. As an educator and educational researcher I am fascinated by my educational influences in my own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of social formations. I am wondering if exploring the implications of asking questions about our educational influences in our own learning, in the learning of others and in the social formations in which we live and work, is a characteristic of world leading standards of judgment for educational practitioner research?

 

In pausing to ask for your responses I want to conclude with the video-clip of Eden and Alan as Eden responds to Alan's anxiety and preparation for a radio interview on inclusionality  for Virato ( you can access the interview with Alan at http://880therevolution.com/cc-common/podcast/single_podcast.html?podcast=ViratoLive.xml )

 

Eden Charles and Alan Rayner with Ubuntu and Inclusionality

 

What I experience as I watch the clip and knowing Eden's research that includes an African Cosmology with Ubuntu and Alan's research into Inclusionalty I feel connected with both Eden and Alon through their ways of being in ubuntu and inclusionality. To emphasise the significance of the meanings that can be communicated through embodied expression with thought and language, when compared with a transcript of what is said in a text I have produced a brief visual narrative at http://www.jackwhitehead.com/jack/jwecarpaper.htm on Distinguishing World Leading Educational Standards of Judgement Through Living Inclusionality With Ubuntu.

 

 

 

 

 

Would you like to work together to develop our relationally dynamic awareness of space through which our world leading standards of judgment are flowing with and through our boundaries that are connective, reflexive and co-creative?  In ending in with this question I just want to show you something that happened as I was preparing this paper and started to include the above thumbnail images into the text in preparation for my contextualisation and commentary.  As I dragged and dropped the thumbnails from my desktop into my file, they all moved together into the collage below. Having viewed each clip separately, I was struck by the dynamic connections, represented in the still images, I felt between the embodied values, thoughts and language being expressed through the different video-clips.  The contexts of England, China, South Africa and Canada, seemed to be brought together in the collage of clips, without any imposition of a linear form of time.  As I look at the video-clips and the still images I know that many of the participants in the e-seminar are not included in the images. What I am hoping is that you will not feel excluded but feel attracted by an invitation to respond by extending the world leading standards of judgment from your own educational practitioner-research and by questioning and/or affirming my interpretations. Clicking on the images below will also play the clips. Pip – looking forward to sharing our ideas. I know Maggie feels a strong resonance with the values you expressed in your latest postings.

 

 

 

Good to know that you are all in the world and contributing to its educational quality.

 

Love Jack