Are we co-creating
world leading standards of judgement in our enquiries as educational
practitioner-researchers as we work at contributing to the generation of a
world of educational quality?
RE-DRAFT from Jack
Whitehead's posting to the BERA Practitioner-Researcher SIG 2006-7 e-seminar on
the 21 December 2006.
I want to begin by showing you something that happened
unexpectedly as I was preparing this paper. It happened as I started to include
the thumbnail images below 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 previously viewed each
clip separately, I was struck by the dynamic connections I felt on seeing the
images move together. As the images moved together I felt a flow of the
embodied values, thoughts and language
being expressed through the different video-clips, moving between the
boundaries of the clips in a flow-form of meanings. 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 you
look at the video-clips and the still images I know that in one sense you may
not see yourself. However I am wondering if in another sense you can see
yourself in terms of the Zulu greeting of 'Sawubona'. Tsepo Majake introduced
me to the idea of Sawubona in a paper for his masters programme with Jean in
the township of Khyaletisha. A literal translation means, 'I see me in
you'. As you look at the clips I
am wondering if you recognise the expression of embodied values, skills and
understandings you are also working to bring more fully into the world?
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. They should all open in your browser from the streaming YouTube
server with the exception of the penultimate clip with Maggie Farren and MA
students that should open in Real Player. I am curious to hear what you think
of the collage and narratives. Do you think that the visual narratives, as
a representational form, are appropriate for communicating the dynamic flow of
connections in living inclusional educational standards of judgement? Reading
from the top left hand clip we have Alan on inclusionality and boundaries; Jack
at the Ontario College of Teaachers Institute on Living The Standards; Pete
with open arms celebrating Jacqueline Delong's graduation; Moira's recognition
of her students as the flow past her following at class at Guyuan Teachers College
(now Ningxia Teachers University); Jack on Ubuntu at the University of the Free State in South Africa;
Yaakub and Jack engaged with a text on Progressive Islam in a Monday evening
educational conversation; Nigel and Eleanor at BERA 2006 in a session on Love
at Work; Chris and Marie at BERA 2006 on living values of inclusionality; Ram
reflecting on a proposed workshop in Mauritius; Jean at the
Practitioner-Researcher Conference at St Mary's College in July 2006; Je Kan
preparing for his doctoral transfer in a Monday evening educational
conversation in 2004 with difference conceptions of 'I'. Margaret in a
validation group with masters students at Dublin City University; Eden and Alan
in a Monday evening educational conversation with Alan preparing for a radio
interview on inclusionality; Jean exploring the action research of colleagues
at St Mary's College; Jean outlining her own action research in global
contexts.
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
these 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 streamed video-clip in your browser. When I think of qualities I am thinking of what it is that
makes something what it is. When I think of educational qualities I include
learning because I cannot think of education without learning. Yet not all learning
is educational because we can learn habits and ways of thinking that do not
sustain humanity. For me educational qualities are qualities of learning that
carry the values, skills and understandings of sustaining humanity. I believe
that such values, skills and understandings are being expressed in the
relationships shown on each clip.
Because we are exploring together the standards 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
some thoughts on world leading standards 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. Moira has already responded to the clip in the
BERA Practitioner-Researcher 2006-7 e-seminar with a posting on the 23rd
December 2006 at:
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 are 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 that Yaakub brought to a Monday evening conversation in the
Department of Education of the University of Bath. 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, while each understands that their
spiritual beliefs have a different expression.
In my experience, flows of life-affirming energy are often
intimately connected to spirituality. I often feel that I am being privileged
in understanding an individual's ontology when they share their spiritual
beliefs with me. In my case I would describe myself as a humanist who, like Ram
Punia, feels an identification with the cosmos. One of my favourite religious and spiritual sites is in Nusa
Dua in Bali where the following road sign indicates five churches and temples
side by side.
I would have liked to have seen a Synagogue alongside the
other places of worship but outside the Hindu Temple, Protestant Church,
Buddhist Temple, Roman Catholic Church and Mosque is a large courtyard that I
feel flows with my own spirituality.
I can recognise that everyone must pass through the courtyard and that
some, perhaps a majority, will at some time move out of the courtyard into
their own place of worship. Rather like the flow of energy and value that Moira
expresses with her students in the above clip, I feel my own love of life and
life affirming energy is expressed most fully in such a courtyard that can
affirm our common humanity.
Jack Whitehead on Ubuntu
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 the following 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
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.
My emphasis on the importance of presenting explanations of educational influences in learning
in the form of visual narratives is because of their appropriateness for communicating the meanings of the expression
of embodied values in the course of their emergence and clarification in practice. The clip shows the kind of data I
gather on my own educational practice as I encourage others to gather data that will enable them to make a judgment
on their educational influences in their own learning and in the learning of others. I see such judgments as world
leading in the sense that they are contributing to the creation of a world of educational quality.
Ram Punia reflecting on a proposed workshop in Mauritius
Ram Punia is an international educator who graduated with
his Ed.D. from the University of Bath in 2004. I do hope that you will browse
through his thesis and read his Chapter Ten on 'My Epistemology of Practice as
a Consultant and an Emergent Living Educational Theory' (see http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/punia/10.pdf
). Ram has worked in India, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Fiji, Samoa and Mauritius and in the
clip is reflecting in September 2006 on a proposed workshop on action research
in Mauritius which has now been run.
Ram's Ed.D.
Thesis is entitled, 'My CV is my Curriculum: The Making of an International
Educator with Spiritual Values' :
This
autobiographical self-study presents my living educational theory of lifelong
learning as an international educator with spiritual values including belief in
cosmic unity, continuous professional development for personal and social
development of life in general. The landscape of knowledge includes India, UK,
Singapore, Hong Kong, Fiji, Samoa and Mauritius in several roles including a
lecturer, teacher trainer, change agent in curriculum, staff, school
development, a training technologist in corporate learning and a student in the
University of Bath. (Punia, 2004, http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/punia.shtml
)
In thinking about the nature of world leading standards of
judgment for educational practitioner research that is contributing to a world
of educational quality, I am wondering if the video-clip communicates the
relational quality of Ram's spiritual values. I know that I feel a flow of an
expression of cosmic unity in Ram's presence. In Ram's presence I always feel a
flow of energy and the expression of values of humanity that I recognise as
carrying hope for sustaining humanity. Enhancing the flow of this energy and
these values would, in my view, contribute to making the world a better place
to be. As I am actively seeking to enhance this flow I would appreciate your
views on the validity of this belief.
Marie Huxtable and Christine Jones in a presentation at
the 2006 Annual Conference of the British Educational Research Association on 'How can we support educators to develop skills and
understandings inclusionally?'
Chris and Marie work for Bath and
North East Somerset Local Authority. Chris is currently the Inclusion Officer
leading on, amongst other things, the Inclusional Quality Mark. Marie is a
senior educational psychologist who co-ordinates the APEX (Able Pupils Extending
Opportunities) and, amongst other things, the Widening Learning and Thinking
Strategies.
Je Kan and Nigel are in the
audience and make responses to Chris and Marie's presentation during the clip.
Using Alan's idea of inclusionality as a relationally dynamic awareness of
space and boundaries that is connective, reflexive and co-creative, I can
understand the dynamic relationship between Chris and Marie and with their
audience as expressing their meanings of 'working inclusionally with each
other' and other colleagues:
"Through this paper we wish to
convey to you the ontological and embodied values which give meaning to our
lives; the passion we have for our work and the commitment we feel to working
inclusionally with each other, our colleagues in the authority, other
professionals and schools. We believe that as members of the Inclusion Support
Service our lived and living values of inclusionality are brought into all
aspects of our work; the way that we relate to each other, and with other
educators with whom we work, as well as forming the living standards of
judgement that we use to account to ourselves and others for our educational
influences in our own learning, the learning of others and in the learning of
social formations." (Jones and Huxtable
2006)
You can access the full paper at http://www.jackwhitehead.com/bera06/mhcjbera06.pdf
In seeking to generate, clarify and develop world leading
standards of judgment with educational practitioner-researchers I am suggesting
that the living expression of inclusionality, expressed in the dynamic
relationship between Chris, Marie and the audience, is such a standard of judgment.
Jean McNiff at a Practitioner-Researcher Conference at
St. Mary's College on 14 July 2006.
As we move into 2007 Jean's work includes her activities as
a Professor of Educational Research at St. Mary's College, Visiting Professor
at Ningxia Teachers University, supervising doctoral research programmes at
Limerick University, tutoring a masters programme with teachers in the South
African Township of Khayelitsha, working with staff as a Research Associate of
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University as well as her recent action research
workshops in Iceland and at the University of the Western Cape, Stellenbosch
University and the University of the Free State in South Africa. Jean's activities also include
presentations at the British and American Educational Research Associations,
the Educational Studies Association of Ireland and the Educational Association
of South Africa. Her web-site http://www.jeanmcniff.com
What I see in the clip is Jean doing what she does very well
and that is communicating ideas clearly, whether in speech or writing. Jean is
a great communicator. I believe that the influence of her ideas and her ability
to communicate clearly these ideas as well as the ideas of others is flowing
into and influencing a wide range of global contexts. When I think of the
living standards of judgment that are contributing to the creation of a world
of educational quality, I think of the values, skills and understandings that
Jean lives in her work in education.
For example, I believe that Bernie Sullivan and Mairin Glenn have
clarified the meanings of world leading standards of judgment in their doctoral
theses at Limerick University, through the exercise of their originalities of
mind and critical judgment. Both Bernie and Mairin acknowledge the educational
influence of Jean in supporting their enquiries as they make their own original
contributions to educational knowledge:
I
explain how I arrived at an understanding that a practice of inclusion is more
appropriate for a living theory of justice than one of assimilation, which
often seeks to deny difference, or integration, which frequently attempts to
eliminate difference. A practice of inclusion that is grounded in an
intercultural ethos may take account of individual differences and transcend
normative institutional hegemonic structures and discourses that are grounded
in a logic of domination. Through developing my living theory of social justice
as equality of respect for all, and as the recognition and acceptance of
diversity, I became aware of the possibility that a process of inclusion could
have a greater probability of success in achieving sustainable social evolution
if it originated from the marginalised space. (Sullivan, 2006
http://www.jeanmcniff.com/bernieabstract.html)
A
distinctive feature of my research account is my articulation of how my
ontological values of love and care have transformed into my living critical
epistemological standards of judgement, as I produce my multimedia
evidence-based living theory of a holistic educational practice. Through
working with collaborative multimedia projects, I explain how I have developed
an epistemology of practice that enables me to account for my educational
influence in learning. (Glenn, 2006 http://www.jeanmcniff.com/glennabstract.html )
In the clip
I hear Jean expressing her commitment to study her own practice with a
disciplined form of action research.
In relationship with Bernie and Mairin and through their own creativity
I think Jean has helped to legitimate the values of justice, love and care as
living standards of judgment for evaluating contributions to the creation of a
world of educational quality.
Je Kan Adler Collins in a Monday evening conversation
preparing for his transfer seminar from an M.Phil. to a Ph.D. research
programme, 2004.
Je Kan Adler Collins is an associate professor in the mental
health division of the Faculty of Nursing at Fukuoka University in Japan. He is
also a Buddhist priest. In July 2000 Je Kan graduated from the University of
Bath with his masters degree on a scholarship of enquiry:
My
story represents a journey of several inter-woven strands of my "I",
those of soldier, nurse, Buddhist priest, teacher and researcher. This journey
is held up to critical examination and reflection over a 5 year period of
completing a Masters Degree in Education.
I have
chosen the medium of story to make explicit my values to the reader and show
how traumatic life events can be transcended, re-examined and turned to the
positive through engaging with finding the values of my "I", in terms
of creating my living educational theory. (Adler-Collins, 2000 http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/jekan.shtml )
In his MA dissertation Je Kan describes the creation of a
safe healing space in his practice of complementary medicine, with the help of
Professor Andre Dolbec in validating his claims to knowledge. I am suggesting
that the creation of such safe healing spaces are much needed in the world
today and constitute world leading standards of judgment. Since moving to Fukuoka University in
2000, Je Kan has designed and researched the implementation of a curriculum for
the healing nurse. In his self-study research Je Kan has developed inclusional
standards of judgment that are connected with a transformation of his
understanding of 'I' as he engaged with cultural differences between the UK and
Japan. In the clip Je Kan is explaining part of this transformation. You can
find Je Kan's narratives on his Living Action Research website at http://www.living-action-research.org/
Margaret Farren within a web of betweenness and
expressing her pedagogy of the unique in Dublin City University with masters
students in a validation meeting.
A validation group is a group of peers convened to help to evaluate the validity
of an account of learning and to help with suggestions about how the enquiry might move forward. This video-clip
was taken at the end of the validation meeting. Chris asked for clarification on the action research cycles.
The presence of the other participants helped Chris to see how his learning could relate to the action research
cycles. The explosion of laughter, at the end of the meeting, reflected Chris' acceptance of belonging to an action
research community and the quality of empathy binding the group together. The video-clip shows the relational dynamic
of the different contributions to the validation discourse in the web of betweenness and the engaged and appreciative
responses of each individual to the others' contribution. The pedagogy of the unique is characterized in the recognition
that each individual has a particular and different constellation of values that motivate the enquiry and a different
context from within which the enquiry is developing. Through her 'pedagogy of the unique', Margaret shows how she provides
space within the learning environment so that each participant can create a narrative of his/her own learning.
These narratives have been accredited within Dublin City University at Master's degree level.
In her doctoral thesis, Margaret researched the
question, How can I create a
pedagogy of the unique through a web of betweenness? with the help of information and communications technology. It is in
the living expression of her meanings of a web of betweenness and a pedagogy of
the unique that I am suggesting that Margaret is living world leading standards
of judgment. In establishing a web of betweenness with others Margaret seeks to
express 'power with' rather than 'power over' in her educational relationships:
I
clarify the meaning of my embodied values in the course of their emergence in
my practice-based research. My values have been transformed into living
standards of judgement that include a 'web of betweenness' and a 'pedagogy of
the unique'. The 'web of betweenness' refers to how we learn in relation to one
another and also how ICT can enable us to get closer to communicating the
meanings of our embodied values. I see it as a way of expressing my
understanding of education as 'power with', rather than 'power over', others.
It is this 'power with' that I have tried to embrace as I attempt to create a
learning environment in which I, and practitioner-researchers, can grow
personally and professionally. A 'pedagogy of the unique' respects the unique
constellation of values and standards of judgement that each
practitioner-researcher contributes to a knowledge base of practice.
(Farren 2005, http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/farren.shtml
)
In a
multi-media presentation to the 5th International DIVERSE Conference, on
5th July 2005 at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA, on Educational
Influences in Learning with Visual Narratives, Margaret and I expressed our
intention to understand our educational influences in the education of social
formations:
In this
presentation, we intend to show, through the use of digital video, our
understanding of ontological values of a web of betweenness and pedagogy of the
unique (Farren, 2004) as they are lived in practice with students, in this
case, practitioner-researchers on award bearing programmes. We both work with a
sense of research-based professionalism in which we are seeking to improve our
educational practice with our students in action research enquiries 'how do I
improve what I am doing?' The
visual narratives, in the form of digital video clips, of our educational
practice, include our engagement with practitioner-researchers as we seek to
understand our educational influences in their learning so that we can
"influence the education of social formation" (Whitehead, 2004a &
b).
(Farren & Whitehead, 2005, http://www.jackwhitehead.com/jack/mfjwDIVERSEcomplete.pdf
)
I shall be suggesting below
that researching our influences in the education of social formations could
also lead to the clarification and sharing of world leading standards of
judgment. You can
download other accounts of how practitioner-researchers on an M.Sc eLearning
from Dublin City University from http://webpages.dcu.ie/~farrenm/dissertations.html. These accounts
demonstrate how practitioner-researchers are developing their own multimedia
and web based artefacts. The
accounts show how they are improving their own learning and how they are
bringing about improvement in student learning through use of multimedia and
web based technologies. The validity of these accounts have been established as
they have been accepted for the award of Masters degree.
In pausing now, 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
Here is a 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
)
What I experience as I watch the clip and knowing that
Eden's research includes an African Cosmology with Ubuntu and that Alan's
research is focused on Inclusionality I feel connected with both Eden and Alan
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.
Action Research with Jane Renowden, Julie Pearson, Mark
Cordery, Rita Moustakim, Dorothy D'Urban, Alex Sinclair and Jean Mc Niff at St.
Mary's College
As we enquire into the nature of world leading standards of judgment for evaluating the quality of the educational knowledge generated in our educational practitioner research I feel confident in the belief that we would all like to see the uniqueness of each individual respected in whatever form of representation is used. This belief is of course open to question. I also believe that any group of educational researchers who are evaluating the quality or validity of contributions to knowledge, need to have some shared standards of judgment. What I believe the video of colleagues at St Mary's college shows is a relationallydynamic awareness of each others' enquiries. In creating a new epistemology in educational practitioner-research, it might be possible for colleagues at St. Mary's to work out ways of publically sharing the living standards of judgment that are embodied in their action research. Doing this could help to fulfil Catherine Snow's call to develop standards for the systematization of our embodied knowledge as educators:
"The .... challenge is to enhance the value of personal knowledge and personal experience for practice. Good teachers possess a wealth of knowledge about teaching that cannot currently be drawn upon effectively in the preparation of novice teachers or in debates about practice. The challenge here is not to ignore or downplay this personal knowledge, but to elevate it. 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 (my emphasis). For one, such knowledge might help us avoid drawing far-reaching conclusions about instructional practices from experimental studies carried out in rarified settings. Such systematized knowledge would certainly enrich the research-based knowledge being increasingly introduced into teacher preparation programs. And having standards for the systematization of personal knowledge would provide a basis for rejecting personal anecdotes as a basis for either policy or practice." (Snow, 2001, p.9)
Snow, C. E. (2001) Knowing What We Know: Children, Teachers, Researchers. Presidential Address to AERA, 2001, in Seattle, in Educational Researcher, Vol. 30, No.7, pp.3-9.
Jean McNiff reporting to colleagues at St Mary's College
on action research initiatives in global contexts
The video clip I presented above where I am talking about Ubuntu at the University of
the Free State, was taken in a workshop on action research I was jointly
presenting with Jean. During another workshop on the visit to South African Universities I experienced Jean
transforming a workshop I felt was not going well, into a lively, enthusiastic
group of enquirers. I saw Jean doing this through her focus on the values of
the participants, her ability to encourage reflections on what really mattered
to participants and her ability to encourage the sharing of what really mattered.
Jean explained the form of action research cycle in
which participants work on a practical issue of concern to them, imagine what
to do and construct an action plan with details of the data that will need to
be collected to make a judgment on the effectiveness of the actions. Jean also
stressed the importance of constructing accounts of learning that can explain
the educational influences that individuals have in their own learning, in the
learning of others and in the social formations in which we live and work.
When a group of teacher-researchers from Ireland, that Jean had supervised for their masters degrees at the
University of the West of England, graduated, they invited me to join them in a
celebration. The affection for Jean and the explicit acknowledgement of the
significance of Jean's influence through her supervision, was most affirming.
As I see Jean reporting in the clip on the work she is doing in different
global contexts, I experience Jean expressing with great clarity the values and understandings she
embodies in her professional life. Jean can of course speak for herself in terms of the values,
skills and understandings she is offering to other practitioner-researchers
just as those of us who have been influenced by Jean, can share our
understandings of her educational influence, sustaining enthusiasm and life
affirming energy.
In pausing now, to ask for your responses, I want to
conclude with the suggestion that the quality of the questions we ask should be
a standard of judgment we use in our educational practitioner-research. In asking, researching and answering
good quality questions I think we can contribute to the creation of a world of
educational quality.
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?
I hope you receive this visual narrative in the spirit of a
gift in which I'm developing my own talent for communicating the living
standards of judgment that can help to move the world to a better place to be.
As we move into 2007 it is good to know that you are all in
the world and contributing to its educational quality. Love Jack