Educational
Influences in Learning
with Visual
Narratives
Margaret Farren, Department
of Education Studies, Dublin City University
Jack Whitehead,
Department of Education, University of Bath.
A
multi-media presentation to the 5th International DIVERSE Conference on 5th
July 2005 at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA.
To
be published in Childs, M, Cuttle, M, & Riley, K. (2006) DIVERSE
Developing Innovative Video Resources For Students Everywhere. DIVERSE
Proceedings: 2005 & 2006 5th International DIVERSE Conference 5th to 7th
July 2005 Vanderbilt Universit yNashville , USA 6th International DIVERSE
Conference 5th to 7th July 2006 Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK
Abstract
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). This relates to
the idea of social formations as defined by Bourdieu (1990) and points to the
way people organise their interactions according to a set of regulatory values
that can take the form of rules. In studying our own education practice, with
the help of digital video, we hope to influence the education of social
formations so that others will begin to question their underlying values,
assumptions and epistemologies that inform their practice. The purpose of this
paper is to communicate to a wider audience and network with other higher education
educators through visual narratives of our work in higher education. There is a
lack of research in how educators in higher education are influencing the
education of their students. This area of research is one which we develop
through this paper.
Introduction
In this
paper, we intend to show, through use of digital video, our understanding of
spiritual and ontological values of a web of betweenness and pedagogy of the
unique (Farren, 2004), as they are lived in practice with students. Pedagogy of
the unique refers to the unique contribution that each participant makes to a
knowledge base of practice. The
web of betweenness refers to our belief that we learn in relation to one
another and how Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can bring us
closer to the meanings of our educational values as they are lived in
practice. The web of betweenness
and pedagogy of the unique both complement each other in that they connect the
individual and social dimensions of learning. The first two video clips show Margaret with a group of her
Masters students in a validation group meeting, the third video clip shows Jack
in a supervision with a PhD student.
A
validation group is a group of peers convened to help strengthen the validity
of an account of learning and to help with suggestions about how an enquiry
might move forward. Through digital video clips of validation meetings,
Margaret hopes to show how a web of betweenness, in the validation meeting, is
characterised by a process of democratic evaluation where the unforced force of
reasonable response holds sway in the conversation. The pedagogy of the unique
is characterised 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. The video clips show 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.
Format
of paper/presentation
We
start by showing you what we do in our educational relationships and by showing
that we share our understandings of a spiritual and ontological value of a web
of betweenness and a pedagogy of the unique (Farren, 2004) through our
collaborative ostensive definitions of our meanings with the help of
video-clips with Margaret and her students, with Jack in a doctoral supervision
with Jackie Delong, with Peter Mellett and a group of practitioner-researchers
celebrating Jackie Delong’s doctoral graduation, with Moira Laidlaw and her
students. Moira is another teacher in higher education, who is a full-time
voluntary service overseas advisor to China’s Experimental Centre for
Educational Action Research in Foreign Languages Teaching at Guyuan Teacher’s
College (Laidlaw, 2004). We recognise that beginning with images and
video-clips requires the use of the very technology our paper is addressing and
that this limits the communication of our meanings to those with access to the
technology. As we are claiming that the use of this technology can transform
understandings of the nature of educational standards of judgement, this is
unavoidable! You will need Real Player to view the clip of the validation group
with Marian and Quicktime to view the other clips. (.rm at the end of the ulr
shows that you need RealPlayer; .mov shows that you need Quicktime).
The first two video-clips shows the validation group
meeting with Margaret and participants on a masters programme at Dublin City
University.
http://webpages.dcu.ie/~farrenm/chrisvalidatear.rm
http://webpages.dcu.,ie/~farrenm/chrisjack.rm
The purpose
of the validation group meetings is to provide practitioner-researchers with
the opportunity to present his/her research to others in the group in order to
strengthen the validity of the accounts and to benefit from the ideas of others
on ways to move learning forward.
The
second video-clip shows Jack at work in a doctoral supervision with Jackie
Delong, a Superintendent of Schools in the Grand Erie District School Board in
Ontario.
The
purpose of showing this clip is to emphasise the importance, in the web of
betweenness of educational relationships, in the expression of life-affirming
energy through laughter.
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/multimedia//jimenomov/ajwjdwis.mov
The
third video-clip shows Peter Mellett talking with a group of
practitioner-researchers who have been invited to celebrate Jackie Delong’s
graduation for her Doctorate at the University of Bath on the 18th
December 2002.
http://www.jackwhitehead.com/pm181204colsor.mov
Peter
is seeking to communicate the importance of music in the communication of
achievement between Stephane Grapelli and Django Reinhardt in their
improvisation ‘Minor Swing’. We believe that Peter is expressing a flow of love
and understanding consistent with his Father’s influence (see below for further
details of this influence). The ‘eruption’ of humour towards the end of the
clip shows the flow of life-affirming energy through the boundaries of the
relationships into a community celebration that is focused on Jackie Delong’s
achievement. The purpose of this clip is to emphasise the importance of
expressing pleasure, through laughter, in both our webs of betweenness and
pedagogies of the unique in our communities of practice.
The
fourth video-clip shows Moira Laidlaw at the end of a Year 3 English
Methodology Class at Guyuan Teachers College expressing a loving flow of
life-affirming energy through the boundaries of her relationships with her
students as they move past her out of the room.
This
interpretation of Moira’s expression of her ontological values has been agreed
with her.
http://www.jackwhitehead.com/mlendSorenson.mov
If you haven't the technology to play the clip you may be
able to view some of the still images taken from the video during and at the
end of the class:
http://www.jackwhitehead.com/moira151004/moira151004.html
We will
be saying more about how we are seeing the living boundaries of her educational
relationships, and our own, as connective, reflexive and co-creative as we draw
insights from Alan Rayner’s (2004) ideas on inclusionality.
We
also wish to emphasise how much we agree with Colin Smith’s ideas on the
significance of sharing living educational theories when he writes:
“A
practitioner’s living theory can make valid contributions to educational
knowledge (Whitehead, 1989). However, in Whitehead's original conception living
theories are largely individual products.
A contribution is made to the debate on facilitating teaching-research partnerships
by suggesting that the staff and pupils in a school can share a living theory
as a form of learning and teaching policy. How a school staff came to develop
such a policy is described. The policy is compared with features of living
theories to substantiate this claim. The testing of the shared living theory
takes place through the normal development processes of the school. A model is
also presented showing how this may facilitate closer, two-way relations
between academic theory and practitioner theory. Using this model facilitates
cooperation between teachers and researchers in working together to support
teacher and school development while also sharing the task of increasing
educational knowledge.” (Smith,
2003, p. 157)
We will
be drawing on the living educational theories of individuals as they account
for their enquiry learning. We will also be emphasizing the importance of
sharing living educational theories in the education of social formations and
each other in our webs of betweenness and pedagogies of the unique. We value
both our unique identities and our sense of being connected with others.
In our
pedagogies of the unique we connect with the distinct qualities (but not
discrete) that characterize each individual as unique. In our webs of
betweenness we feel the flow of values and energy that characterize both our
shared humanity and our unique constellations of values and beliefs.
Defining
webs of betweenness and pedagogies of the unique
We
recognise differences in the expression of the spiritual energy that
characterises our contributions to our webs of betweenness. Margaret is
influenced by a Celtic spirituality of the quality described by the Irish
theologian John O’ Donohue as a web of betweenness.
“The
‘web of betweenness’ is still there but in order to become a presence again, it
needs to be invoked. As in the
rainforest, a dazzling diversity of life-forms complement and sustain each
other; there is secret oxygen with which we unknowingly sustain one another. True community is not
produced. It is invoked and awakened. True community is an ideal where the full
identities of awakened and realized individuals challenge and complement each
other. In this sense individuality and originality enrich self and others” (O’ Donohue, 2003, p.133).
In her research-based practice, Margaret seeks
to suggest that the communications rich characteristics of ICT can re-create in
new forms the powerfully interactive traditional world whose passing O’Donohue
laments and justify applying O’Donohue’s term. She demonstrates how ICT and
emerging media technologies can support a dialogic-collaborative approach to
learning and bring us closer to the meaning of our educational values as they
emerge in the course of our practice (Farren, 2005)
Jack’s
feels the flow of a life-affirming energy that he experiences as flowing from
the cosmos. He is also influenced in his contribution to our web of betweenness
by his recognition of a desire in himself and others to live values that carry
a loving hope for each others’ humanity. He associates this loving hope of
relationship with Martin Buber’s poetic communication of the meaning of ‘I-You’
relationship. Jack understands Martin Buber’s monotheistic connection of
‘I-You’ relationships with the relationship with God in ‘I-Thou’ relationships,
but being resistant to the submission implicit in theistic relationships, mono
or poly, Jack values the humanistic qualities in the flow of loving hope in
‘I-You’ relations in our web of betweenness:
“Those
who pronounce the severed I, wallowing in the capital letter, uncover the shame
of the world spirit that has been debased to mere spirituality. But how
beautiful and legitimate the vivid and emphatic I of Socrates sounds! It is the
I of infinite conversation, and the air of conversation is present on all its
ways, even before his judges, even in the final hour in prison. This I lived in
that relation to man which is embodied in conversation. It believed in the
actuality of men and went out toward them. Thus it stood together with them in
actuality and is never severed from it. Even solitude cannot spell
forsakenness, and when the human world falls silent for him, he hears his
daimonion say You. How beautiful and legitimate the full I of Goethe sounds!
It is the I of pure intercourse with nature. Nature yields to it and speaks
ceaselessly with it; she reveals here mysteries to it and yet does not betray
her mystery. It believes in her and says to the rose: "So it is You"
- and at once shares the same actuality with the rose. Hence, when it returns
to itself, the spirit of actuality stays with it; the vision of the sun clings
to the blessed eye that recalls its own likeness to the sun, and the friendship
of the elements accompanies man into the calm of dying and rebirth.”
Thus
the "adequate, true, and pure" I-saying of the representatives of
association, the Socratic and the Goethean persons, resounds through the ages. “ (Buber, p. 117, 1970)
Through
the influence of Paulus Murray’s insights into the ‘we-i’ relationships of the
African Cosmology of Ubuntu, Jack sees Margaret’s relationships, more so than
his own, as expressing the qualities of ‘we-i’ relationships in our web of
betweenness:
“In
my educational enquiries I am seeking to support the enhancement of the flow of
the values of Ubuntu from the ground of living my postcolonial spiritual values
in my educational relationships. However, I do understand Paulus Murray’s point
about my ‘I’ feeling very Western and European while to get closer to the
values of Ubuntu I will need to understand a sense of self that is closer to
African and Arab cultural expressions of ‘i in we’:
“I
live within an extended Arab/Omani/British family where 'we' is used only when
'I' see's the other in Ubuntu, in extended family connection, in a solidary
space where we feel at one in terms of identity and integrity. This feels so
very different to your formulary above. For this 'we' to happen there has
to be an eastern/southern "solidary logic" at work which is
fundamentally communicative, rather than a Western/northern "atomistic
logic" at work that is fundamentally ex-communicative.’”(Murray, 23/08/04, e-mail).
For
Murray the practical spirit of Ubuntu flows from a sense of ethno-community
where 'we' comes into existence when my 'I' alongside lots of other 'I''s is
subordinated to 'we-i'. The moment 'we' happens is when my 'i' fully
understands (and values, appreciates and accepts) the responsibilities for how
my identity and integrity is embraced within the 'we' of the extended family,
and this is the first step in an ethno-community held in Ubuntu or similar
cosmology. Murray believes that the 'i' in eastern and southern cultures is an
'i' that is 'we-i'. He says that the Western and European 'I' has to learn how
to let go of 'I' as a procedure to be satisfied before making the move to 'we',
which usually entails agonising over one's space, one's autonomy, one's sense
of identity. In eastern/southern indigenous cultures the movement in 'we-i'
space is seamless.
I am
sure that I will have to address the problem that the values in a Western ‘I’ do
not migrate easily across cultural borders, east and south, and that the values
of Ubuntu or similar cosmologies that hold the values of ‘i in we’ do not
migrate easily across cultural borders, north and west. My belief in the
educational possibility of the generativity of bringing these values
alongside (Pound, 2003) each other in speaking 'cross-culturally' is
grounded in the evidence provided in the doctoral thesis of Ram Punia (2004)
and in Marian Naidoo’s (2004) writings from her doctoral enquiry ‘I am because
we are. How can I improve my practice? The emergence of a living theory of
responsive practice’. My belief in the generativity of bringing these values
alongside each other is also grounded in the scholarship of educational enquiry
of Peggy Leong, the Manager of the Academy of Best Learning in Education (ABLE)
in Singapore. Leong’s dissertation on The Art of an Educational Enquirer
(Leong, 1991) remains one of the most inspiring texts I have read from a
practitioner-researcher who understands and can live values of inclusionality
while engaging with tensions and conflicts between different cultural
contexts.” (Whitehead, 2004)
We now
want to focus on our shared meanings of a pedagogy of the unique, that have
emerged from Margaret’s doctoral enquiries.
A
pedagogy of the unique
Margaret
has focussed on the development of her meanings of a pedagogy of the unique in
her doctoral research programmes and writes about this in the Abstract to her
doctoral thesis:
“My
thesis explores the growth of my educational knowledge, as higher education
educator, over six years of self-study. I develop my ‘pedagogy of the unique’
by using a living educational action research approach, that allows me to
create and test my own living educational theory. I explain my educational
influence in my own learning, the learning of others and in the learning and
education of social formations. The context of my research is in collaboration
with practitioners on an award bearing MSc in Computer Applications for Education
and MSc in ICT in Education and
Training Management.
I
have clarified the meaning of my values in the course of their emergence in my
practice-based research. The embodied values that have emerged in the course of
my practice have been transformed into living
standards of judgement as they have emerged in practice. My living
standards of judgement include a ‘pedagogy of the unique’ and a web of betweenness. The web of betweenness respects the
unique contribution of each person, how we learn in relation to one another and
how ICT enables us to get closer to communicating the
meanings of embodied values. This reflects my belief that education is
dialogic in nature. It also
reflects 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. The web
of betweenness has been sustained and upheld by a shared intent on asking,
researching and answering the question; how do I improve my practice?
As a
researcher, I have supported practitioners in bringing their embodied values
and expertise into the public domain as they design, develop and evaluate
multimedia and web based artefacts for use in their own practice contexts. This
has also involved the supervision of Master degree action research enquiries.
This is a professional journey that has involved risks, courage and challenge,
but I have learned that in creating my pedagogy of the unique, I learn and
grow, recognising the contribution I myself make as an individual, and also
recognising the contribution dialogue and collaboration with others achieves”
(Farren, 2005).
In
defining pedagogy, we use Basil Bernstein’s language:
Pedagogy
is a sustained process whereby
somebody(s) acquires new forms or develops existing forms of conduct,
knowledge, practice and criteria from somebody(s) or something deemed to be an
appropriate provider and evaluator - appropriate either from the point of view
of the acquirer or by some other body(s) or both (Bernstein, 2000, p.78).
We also
use his distinction between explicit, implicit and tacit pedagogic relations:
When
I talk about pedagogy, I am referring to pedagogic relations that shape
pedagogic communications and their relevant contexts. Three basic forms of
pedagogic relation may be distinguished, explicit, implicit and tacit. Explicit
and implicit refer to a progressive in time pedagogic relation where there is a
purposeful intention to initiate, modify, develop or change knowledge, conduct
or practice by someone or something which already possesses, or has access to,
the necessary resources and the means of evaluating the acquisition. The
acquirer may or may not define the relation as legitimate, or accept as
otherwise, what is to be acquired. Explicit or implicit refers to the
visibility of the transmitter's intention as to what is to be acquired from the
point of view of the acquirer. In the case of explicit pedagogy the intention
is highly visible, whereas in the case of implicit pedagogy the intention from
the point of view of the acquirer is invisible. The tacit is a pegagogic relation where initiation,
modification, development of change of knowledge, conduct or practice occurs,
where neither of the members may be aware of it. Here the meanings are
non-linguistic, condensed and context dependent; a pure restricted code relay. An example would be modelling,
perhaps the basic pedagogic mode; primary in the sense of time and primary in
the sense of durability. The primary modelling where both transmitter and
acquirer are unaware of a pedagogic relation must be distinguished from
secondary modelling which is a deliberate and purpose relation only for the
acquirer. (Bernstein, 2000, p. 200)
Creating
and sharing our living educational theories through our webs of betweenness and
pedagogies of the unique
The
‘our’ in ‘our living educational theories’ is more extensive that the living
educational theories of Margaret and Jack. It includes the living educational
theories of those whose research we have supervised and whose living theories
have been legitimated in the Academy. We have provided access to these theories
through the internet (Farren, 2004; Whitehead, 2004b)
Participants on the M.Sc E-Learning produce
multimedia accounts learning in developing their own 'living educational
theory'. In her abstract, Yvonne Crotty (2005) shows how she made use of
multimedia accounts of learning to express and communicate her living standards
of judgement.
“The
focus of my research is the development of a video artefact that represents the
non-national students in my school.
A recent survey carried out in the school reported traces of racism
among the staff and students. My rationale for developing the video was to
provide the opportunity for non-national students to communicate and share
their culture to a wider audience. The unique features of video gave the
student the opportunity to reflect and improve on her own performances. In my enquiry, I trace the
developments in my own learning as I plan, produce and edit the visual
narrative 'A Picture Paints a Thousand Words', in collaboration with the
students. Through being a participant myself in the process of learning, I was
able to encourage and support student learning. My research consists of two
action research cycles. In cycle one, I demonstrate how I guide and encourage
each student to present herself, through the use of video. In cycle two, I
provide evidence to show how the video has influenced the learning of a wider
audience. My educational values of creating a safe environment where students
feel valued, appreciating the different forms of intelligences and using music
as a way of breaking down barriers have been lived out through the production
of this visual narrative” (Crotty,Y.
2005).
The
accounts of learning that constitute the living educational theories all refer
to the use and development of an action research methodology in which
individuals express their concerns when their values are not being lived as
fully as they desire. A possible way forward is imagined in an action plan,
data is gathered in the action and evaluations made of the effectiveness of the
actions in living the values more fully. Concerns, plans and actions are
modified in the light of the evaluations. An account of the learning is
produced that is submitted to a validation group in order to strengthen the
validity of the account and to benefit from the ideas of others on ways in
which the enquiry could move forward.
This
use of action reflection cycles and validation groups is part of a process of
clarifying the meanings of the embodied values that form explanatory principles
in the account of learning. In the process of clarifying the values in the course
of their emergence in practice, they are transformed into living
epistemological standards of judgement that can be used to evaluate the
validity of the account of the learning. Understanding these transformations,
from the experience and clarification of the ontological values, that give
meaning and purpose to one’s productive life, into living and communicable
standards of educational judgement, is fundamental to the creation of a new
epistemology of educational knowledge.
The multi-media accounts of educational practice enable visual
narratives to create new meanings of living educational standards of judgement
through the action research processes outlined above.
Perhaps
one of the most convincing pieces of evidence we have seen to support this view
is Eleanor Lohr’s (2004) prologue to her draft Ph.D. ‘Love at Work’.
http://www.jackwhitehead.com/elFront%202.htm
In her
visual narrative of her relationship and discourse with her husband Paul,
Eleanor communicates what she is meaning by her expression of love at work. The
visual record of the verbal and non-verbal communications is necessary to the
communication of her meanings. Without the visual record, significant meanings
cannot be communicated through text alone.
Extending
our webs of betweenness, pedagogies of the unique and living educational
theories through the flow of our communications in the labyrinthine channels of
communication of the internet
In
placing this presentation in our web-spaces we are aware that our meanings can
flow through the multiple channels of communications offered by the labyrinth
of the internet. They can connect with your own meanings, just as yours can do
with ours and through the mediation of our originalities of mind and critical
judgments they can influence our learning. Our understandings of these multiple
channels of communication has been influenced by the biological concept of
anastomosis in the sense of the natural connection between two tubular
structures. Karen Teeson a doctoral researcher at the University of Bath,
introduced this idea in a presentation on her research. We are working with an
image of the second diagram below which shows the transformation from
connecting tubular structures into interconnecting and branching channels of
communication through which our ideas can flow through the internet.
We are
seeing the labyrinthine channels of communication offered by the internet as an
unprecedented opportunity to share our values, hopes and ideas and to learn
from each other.
In our
webs of betweenness we are working with a commitment to inclusionality. By this
we mean, following Alan Rayner (2004a), that we are working with a relational
dynamic awareness of space and boundaries that are connective, reflexive and
co-creative. We see the boundaries of our webs of betweenness as carrying a
flow of communications that can evoke and resonate with your own loving hope
and life affirming energy as we express our own with their flow through space.
We are also working with Rayner’s (2004b) idea of a complex self in the sense
of a fully contextualized understanding of ‘self-identity’, based on the
reciprocally coupling of our
distinct but not discrete inner and outer spatial aspects through our ‘dynamic
self boundaries’. We are aware that a metaphor such as web of betweenness may
unfortunately lead to an overemphasis on a 'threads of connectivity'
visualization in recipients minds, rather than stressing the importance of the
feeling for labyrinthine connective space. We see both our connecting threads
and our feelings for labyrinthine connective space as necessary in
communicating the inclusional idea that it is space that connects, through its
relationally dynamic intermediating boundaries.
Enhancing
the flow of life-affirming energy and living educational theories in the
education of individuals and their social formations
By
placing our ideas into the flow of the communication channels and boundaries of
the internet we are seeking to contribute to the enhancement of the flow of
life-affirming energy and living educational theories that characterise the
educational development of individuals and their social formations. In doing
this we want our living educational theories to be as fully contextualised as
possible in the flow of economic, political and cultural influences. We see the
value of accounting for our lives and learning to ourselves and to others not
only in terms of the pleasure of feeling the interest of others in ourselves
and our interest in their lives. We see the value of accounting for our
learning in a process of democratic evaluation as offering the opportunity of
enhancing the validity of our accounts by not persisting in error, and by
sharing a range of possibilities for moving our own enquiries forward as we
seek to live our values as fully as we can.
Evaluating the validity of each
others’ accounts and helping to move enquiries forward
The first video-clip shows Margaret with a group of
participants on the masters programme in a validation group. 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. The first 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 web of betweenness
in the validation meeting is characterised by a process of democratic
evaluation where the unforced force of reasonable response holds sway in the
conversation. 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. 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 second video-clip was taken during a videoconferencing
link up between participants on the masters programme in DCU and Jack Whitehead
at University of Bath. The
videoconferencing validation meeting further challenged the participants to
consider the data they needed in order to present evidence that they had
improved student learning. The
validation meeting, through videoconferencing, represented part of Margaret’s
endeavour to live her own values of collaboration and dialogue in the learning
process through use of technology.
The
next video clip shows Jack with Jackie Delong in a supervision session during
2001 before the submission of the doctorate in 2002. The clip was made at the
end of a week during which both Jack and Jackie had experienced some tensions
in dealing with Jack’s criticism of an earlier draft of the thesis Abstract.
Space doesn’t permit here a detailed analysis of the responses to the criticism
and the resolutions at the end of the week, expressed in the shared laughter in
this second clip. A more detailed analysis can be found in the multi-media
account: "How Valid Are Multi-Media Communications Of My Embodied Values
In Living Theories And Standards Of Educational Judgement And Practice?"
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw//multimedia/jimenomov/JIMEW98.html
This
account is also included in Action Research Expeditions of October 2004 in Part
11 of the multi-media presentation on: Do action researchers'
expeditions carry hope for the future of humanity? How do we know? An
enquiry into reconstructing educational theory and educating social formations
at:
http://www.arexpeditions.montana.edu/articleviewer.php?AID=80
(Whitehead, 2004b)
Expressing,
defining and communicating a loving flow of life-affirming energy in
educational relationships
Video-clip
3 was one of those fortunate occurrences. Jack had switched his camera off at
what he thought was the end of the lesson as the students were about the leave
Moira’s lesson. He then saw Moira going over to the door and he turned the
camera back on. We both feel that the clip shows something about Moira’s
relationships with her students that is educationally significant. In the flow
of the relationships as the students stream past Moira, we see Moira
communicating with her students in a way that resonates with our understandings
of our webs of betweenness and pedagogies of the unique. Moira signals for Tian
Fang to join her right at the end of the clip and congratulates her on her
participation in the lesson. Moira’s response is unique to Tian Fang and is an
expression of what we are meaning by a pedagogy of the unique. We have agreed
with Moira that we can define the qualities she is expressing in her
educational relationships in this clip in terms of a loving flow of
life-affirming energy. We are affirming such loving flows of life-affirming
energy as one of our own ontological values and living educational standards of
judgement.
Here is
an extract from an essay by Guo Yanyan, a student in the class writing about
the significance of Moira smiling in her class. We do not want to reduce Guo
Yanyan’s meanings to the phrase ‘loving flow of life-affirming energy’, yet we
do want to connect such meanings to the living flow of life-affirming energy
that we experience Moira expressing as both an embodied value and living
standard of judgement in her educational relationships:
I
love your smile. It lights me up. Because of your smile I have the courage to
teach a class. I am so happy with my achievement because I never did it before.
I greeted my 'students' with a smile because you did that for us and it has
changed my life. There was a happy and relaxed atmosphere in the class. Thanks
to your smile I overcame my nervousness and taught. (Guo Yanyan, English Methodology Essay, December 2004)
Expressing
affirmation with Peter Mellett and Jackie Delong on the legitimation by the
University of Bath of Jackie Delong’s Living Educational Theory for her
Doctorate
Video-clip
4 shows Peter Mellett’s explaining his use of the music of Stephane Grapelli
and Django Reinhardt in their ‘Minor Swing’ and their expression of affirmation
in their own achievement at the end of the piece, to evoke his feelings of
affirmation for Jackie Delong’s achievement in her doctorate.
The
feeling of sharing the pleasure in this celebration of Jackie’s achievement may
be experienced at the moment of the laughter when Peter explains to the group
that they should listen attentively for the last note and Margarida asks how
she will know it is the last note if she hasn’t heard the piece before! In our affirmation of Jackie Delong’s
achievement we believe that we are sharing in a double sense of affirmation of
the kind that Marx described in his earlier writing as distinguishing a productive
life in what it means to produce something as a human being:
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. 41)
Jackie
summarised the achievement of her thesis in her Abstract:
How
can I improve my practice as a superintendent of schools and create my own living
educational theory?
One
of the basic tenets of my philosophy is that the development of a culture for
improving learning rests upon supporting the knowledge-creating capacity in
each individual in the system. Thus, I start with my own. This thesis sets out
a claim to know my own learning in my educational inquiry, 'How can I improve
my practice as a superintendent of schools?'
Out
of this philosophy emerges my belief that the professional development of each
teacher rests in their own knowledge-creating capacities as they examine their
own practice in helping their students to improve their learning. In creating
my own educational theory and supporting teachers in creating theirs, we engage
with and use insights from the theories of others in the process of improving
student learning.
The
originality of the contribution of this thesis to the academic and professional
knowledge-base of education is in the systematic way I transform my embodied
educational values into educational standards of practice and judgement in the
creation of my living educational theory. In the thesis I demonstrate how these
values and standards can be used critically both to test the validity of my
knowledge-claims and to be a powerful motivator in my living educational inquiry.
The
values and standards are defined in terms of valuing the other in my
professional practice, building a culture of inquiry, reflection and
scholarship and creating knowledge. (Delong, 2002)
In the
quote from the early writings of Marx, our only point of difference is where he
says that in producing something as a human being, one individual can directly
create the life of another. In our educational philosophy we see that the
originality of mind and critical judgement of individuals must mediate between
what we do and what the others learn. So, our influence does not directly
create the life of another. Our educational influence in the learning of
another is mediated by their originality of mind and critical judgement for us
to recognise our influence as educational.
Jackie’s
achievement includes the evidence of her own web of betweenness and pedagogy of
the unique as she supports the educational enquiries of the teachers in the
Grand Erie District School Board. She adds significantly to these ideas in her
thesis with her political and economic understandings, of the educational
significance of the development of a culture of inquiry with teachers and
students in the processes of improving learning, contexualised within
educational administration and leadership of a District School Board. Evidence
of the influence of this culture of inquiry in teachers’ accounts of their own
learning can be seen in the volumes of Passion in Professional Practice.
·
Volume 1 - http://schools.gedsb.net/ar/passion/pppi/index.html
·
Volume 11 - http://schools.gedsb.net/ar/passion/pppii/index.html
·
Volume III - http://schools.gedsb.net/ar/passion/pppiii/index.html
·
Volume 1V - http://schools.gedsb.net/ar/passion/piv/index.html
In
watching the video-clip as Peter contributes to the celebration of Jackie’s
achievement, we are both aware that Peter is expressing qualities of love and
understanding that his Father expressed. Peter’s Father had a most significant
experience during the 1939-1945 war in Europe. He was captured by German
soldiers and walking through a field of dead German soldiers he felt that he
might be killed. This experience had a transforming influence on his commitment
to enhance his expression of love and understanding which he did with his own
children. Peter shares this commitment with his Father. In his Masters
Dissertation ‘Making the Break’ Peter documents his own learning as he moved
from a commitment to technical rationality to more dialogical and dialectical
forms of communication, enquiry and understanding. Here is the foreword in
which Peter acknowledges the influence of John Wisdom:
“Foreword
John
Wisdom: obituary in The Independent 15th December 1993
Photograph:
A lean open face with a broad smile; cloth cap, muffler and raincoat against a
background of hay or straw bales.
‘...
His book Paradox and Discovery (1965) ... continues his work of showing that philosophy
can advance and deepen our understanding, not in the ways with which we are
familiar in logic and the sciences, but in a way that good literature
does. His last book, Proof and
Explanation
(1990), ... is concerned with the nature of reasoning inside and outside
philosophy ... He argues for the fundamental character of the particular case
in all forms of reasoning, such as a mother refers to in explaining things to
her child. He argues for the priority of "mother's method" over
"father's", where the father resorts to general principles in his
explanations. It is the mother who has to come to the rescue when the child asks
for an explanation of the father's general principles - what they mean and why
the child should believe them. ... He did not lecture from notes and brought
his students into dialogue with what he was saying. ... Wisdom's philosophy was
neither the study of arcane facts, nor the pursuit of complex theories; rather,
anyone who has reached a certain linguistic level has, he believed, the
capacity both to raise central philosophical doubts and to take steps towards
settling them. Wisdom called these processes "provocation and
pacification". Unlike Wittgenstein, he stressed the insight (rather than
the craziness) that informs even - or perhaps especially - the most paradoxical
and most notorious philosophical ideas. ("There is good in them, poor
things"). Philosophy thus calls for a perturbation of our apparently
stable conceptual schemes, and an uncomfortable deconstruction of what we know;
but also for a reconstruction through which the relations between neighbouring
conceptual areas are redescribed, and that which we have already known is seen
anew. ... psychoanalysis, another enquiry through which that which we in a
sense have always known is regained, but with greater vividness, particularity
and authenticity. In both philosophy and psychoanalysis there is resistance to
such knowledge, and to the exploratory use of free associations of ideas which
may feel dangerous or mad. Wisdom ... drew out of his students these often
inaccessible thoughts. He was truly Socratic. ...’
This
outline of Wisdom's philosophy describes the place from which I now attempt to
write.” (Mellett, 1995)
Concluding
comments
What we
are seeking to do in this present communication is not only to express and
define our living educational standards of judgement. We believe that we have shown
that it is possible in particular contexts to live these values in practice.
Because we believe that the world would be a better place to be, for the
majority of people, if such values could be lived more fully in a range of
different contexts, we are hoping that what we are showing captivates your
imagination to extend the possibilities that are open for you to explore. In
other words, following Joan Whitehead (2003), we are seeking to make the
possible probable.
Our use
of the digital information and communications technology of the internet is
most significant in our ideas of how to make the possible, probable. We believe
that the visual narratives of our own educational practices show what is
possible in our different contexts to live values that we identify for
ourselves as giving meaning and purpose to our lives and that carry our hopes
for the future of humanity. Without any colonial intent that we are aware of,
we believe that the world would be a
better place if such loving and productive values were more widespread.
We are placing these ideas in the interconnecting and branching flows of
communication in the channels of the internet. In doing this we believe that
the ideas could captivate the imagination of readers such as yourself. We also believe that our embodied values and
flows of life-affirming energy will resonate with your own in a way that serves
to enhance your own expression of these values and energy in your educational
relationships. Through sharing our accounts of our own learning in our living
educational theories we believe that we are also showing how we are
contributing to the education of the social formations in which we live and
work. In doing this together we feel stronger than we do when working as
separate individuals and appreciate the communion in our webs of betweenness
that respect and celebrate each others differences in our pedagogies of the
unique.
What we
are hoping is that you will feel moved to respond to our ideas so that we can
evaluate the validity of our ideas in relation to your own beliefs and
commitments and can be helped to understand how we might further enhance our
contribution to living more fully the values that carry hope for the future of
humanity, and our own.
References
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B. (2000) Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity: Theory, Research,
Critique.
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R. (1971) Praxis and Action. London; Duckworth.
Bourdieu,
P. (1990) The Logic of Practice. Cambridge; Blackwell.
Buber,
M. (1970) p. 117, I and Thou, Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1970
Crotty, Y. (2005). How do I create a visual narrative that
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M. (2004) Draft Abstract of Doctoral Thesis. Retrieved 27 December 2004 from http://webpages.dcu.ie/farrenm/Abstractfin.doc
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