Application
for the ESRC Research Seminars Competition
DRAFT 26 JANUARY 2005
'Inclusionality, Learning and Living
Educational Standards of Judgement'
Inclusionality
is a newly emerging awareness of the evolutionary relationship between physical
space and boundaries, which shapes the fluid dynamical form of living and
universal systems. It has profound scientific, social, psychological and
educational implications for understanding how human beings relate with one another
and their
environmental
living space as distinct but necessarily interdependent identities. The aim of
this seminar series is to explore the implications of an inclusional approach
to the development of living standards of critical judgement in the educational
theories of practitioner and other researchers.
The
importance of developing inclusional meanings of living standards of
educational judgement on the social ground of intersubjective agreement, is
related to the significance of these standards in the creation and testing of
educational theory. The fundamental assumption on which this proposal is based,
follows Kilpatrick's (1951) point in the first issue of Educational Theory,
that educational theory is a form of dialogue that has profound implications
for the future of humanity. There is much intercultural and intergenerational
learning to be done as to what constitutes the embodied values that carry hope
for the future of humanity. There is much learning to be done about how such
values can be transformed into the living standards of judgement that can be
used to accredit contributions to educational knowledge in the Academy. There
is also much learning to be done about how to enhance the flow of such values
through global channels and boundaries of communication so that they influence
the education of social formations in the direction of their well-being.
The
need for ESRC funding is because the inclusional, social and interdisciplinary
nature of the seminar series, while inclusional of understandings from
different disciplines, does not fit easily within any existing disciplinary
associations or learned societies.
Learning
is one of the most salient characteristics of what it is to be human. Human
beings learn values through whatever counts as education in a particular
culture. One of the cultural and personal characteristics of education is that
it is a matter of value to whoever is committed to it. Because of the
differences in values between persons and cultures there is little evidence of
intercultural consensus about what counts as education and even less on the
nature of the educational theories that can explain the educational influences
in a person's learning or in the education of a social formation. Yet, there is
much international effort spent in seeking to understand the values that carry
hope for the future of humanity. There is also much effort spent by social
researchers in the creation and testing of theories that seek to explain how to
enhance learning that contributes to the well-being of humanity.
While
there appears to be a lack of understanding in the social research community
about the nature of the values that carry hope for the future, there is some
consensus about the significance of a constellation of values associated with
social inclusion and exclusion.
There
is little understanding of how these inclusional values are being clarified in
the course of their emergence in practice. There is little understanding about
how such values can be transformed into the critical judgements that can be
used to validate what counts as legitimate educational knowledge and theory in
the Academy. Some progress has
been made in self-study, action research and practitioner-researchers
communities.
Hence,
this seminar series aims to explicate the processes of reaching agreement on
the recognition of those values that create inclusional standards of judgement.
It
aims to develop understandings of the educational theories that can explain how
to enhance the flow of such values and standards in the intergenerational and
intercultural learning of individuals and their social formations.
The
objectives of the proposed seminars are:
i)
To make
public the tacitly agreed inclusional standards of judgement that have been
used to give academic legitimacy to self-study doctoral, and other accounts of
learning, of self-study, practitioner-researchers.
ii)
To provide
evidence that shows intergenerational learning and intercultural learning about
values between cultures that can sever educational relationships and those
co-created inclusive values that can sustain educational relationships.
iii)
To
demonstrate how web-based communications can contribute to developments in
intercultural learning about the co-created inclusional values that enable this
learning to be sustained and developed.
The
originality and relevance of the proposed seminar series is provided partly by
the existing recognition of original contributions to the knowledge-bases of
different professions in the legitimation of doctorates on the self-study of
professional practice by the Universities of Bath, Glamorgan, West of England,
and Edith Cowan University in Australia. Other evidence of originality and
relevance will be provided in the explication of the constellation of
inclusional values that constituted the originalities of mind and critical
judgements in these doctoral, auto-biographical accounts of learning.
The
scientific context and content of the proposed seminar series has theoretical
methodological and logical components.
The
main theoretical components draw creatively on the ideas of Rayner (1997, 2003,
2004) on inclusionality and the complex self and of Whitehead (1989, 1999,
2004) on living educational theory. Inclusionality is understood as a
relationally dynamic awareness of space and boundaries that are connective,
reflexive and co-creative. In this inclusional perspective a complex self is a
fully contextualised understanding of a self-identity that is formed through
the reciprocal coupling of inner with outer spatial domains through an
intermediary self-boundary. In Whitehead's idea of living educational theories,
individual's produce their own educational theories as accounts of their own
learning as they seek to live their values more fully in their practice and
engage with the ideas of others.
One
of the theoretical resources that will inform the seminar series is Dreier's
(1999) criticism of existing social theories (Burkitt, 1994; Giddens, 1991;
Griffiths, 1995; Habermas, 1987; Kleinman, 1995; Leontyev, 1973; Markus &
Herzog, 1995; Mos, 1996; Ricoeur, 1992; Strauss, 1993; Taylor, 1991) about the
person, in his work on the personal trajectories of participation across
contexts of social practice.
The
examples of current research on the person, identity, and self in the previous
sections show a remarkable neglect of the significance of the fact that persons
live their lives by participating in complex structures of social practice and
by conducting trajectories in and across diverse social contexts. They do not
understand personality, identity, and self from the standpoint of subjects
involved in such a practice and as a means for these subjects to orient
themselves in it and reflect on it. This critique of their shortcomings is part
of my theoretical argument for why we need to develop theories about complex
personal trajectories of participation in structures of social practice and
offer persons analytic means for an adequate self-understanding. (Dreier, 1999, p.32)
The
seminar series will be seeking to develop a theory of the person that is not
open to the criticism that one reason why social theories about the person did
not conceptualize subjects as participants in local contexts of action is that
by and large social theory played down the concrete locatedness of social
practice.
The
series will draw critically on Mitroff's and Kilman's (1978) theory of methodological
approaches to the social sciences as being defined in terms of the logics and
modes of enquiry of the analytic scientist, the conceptual theorist, the
conceptual humanist and the particular humanist. An inclusional view of social
and educational enquiry will be
developed through the seminar series. This will draw on Popper's (1959) Schema
for the growth of scientific knowledge in which individuals experience concerns
and problems, propose tentative theories, eliminate error and reformulate the
problems. Unlike Popper's logic of scientific discovery, in which contradiction
is seen as entirely useless within a theory, an inclusional logic of enquiry transforms
contradiction into reciprocal complementarity. An inclusional logic of enquiry also meets a criticism of dialectical
logic that it fails to answer Ilyenkov's (1977) question, ÔIf an object exists
as a living contradiction what must the thought (statement about the object) be
that expresses it?'
The
formal seminar format includes four, day seminars and a mini-conference, over
two years at the University of Bath.
An
informal seminar format will support the formal seminar programme. This will be
based on the weekly Monday evening educational conversation meetings in the
University of Bath (see http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/monday.shtml).
These conversations sustain and extend the communications between
practitioner-researchers who are engaged in self-studies of their own
professional practices around the world. These include video-conferencing and
on-line e-mail links with:
Dr.
Terri Austin, University of Fairbanks, Alaska.
Madeline
Church. Doctoral student, University of Bath.
Je
Kan Adler Collins – Assistant Professor In the Department of Mental
Health of Fukuoka University. A doctoral research student at the University of
Bath.
Dr.
Jackie Delong, Superintendent of Schools, Grand Erie District School Board,
Ontario.
Dr.
Margarida Dolan, Learning Support Unit, University of Bath
Margaret
Farren, Lecturer in Education, Dublin City University. Doctoral student,
University of Bath.
Marie
Huxtable, Educational Psychologist, Bath and North East Somerset LEA.
Erica
Holley, Senior Lecturer in Education at Oxford Brookes University.
Professor
Jean McNiff, Limerick University.
Peggy
Leong – Manager of the Academic of Best Learning in Education at the
Institute of Vocational Education in Singapore.
Eleanor
Lohr. Doctoral student, University of Bath.
Ken
Masters, former Head of Department of Sociology, University of East Anglia
Professor
Jean McNiff, University of Limerick, Ireland
Peter
Mellett, University of Bath
Paulus
Murray, Senior Lecturer at the Royal Agricultural College. Doctoral student,
University of Bath.
Marian
Naidoo, National Institute for Mental Health, England, Doctoral student,
University of Bath.
Dr.
Robyn Pound, Health Visitor, Bath.
Dr.
Alan Rayner, University of Bath
Alon
Serper. Doctoral student, University of Bath.
Jane
Spiro, Head of Applied Linguistics at Oxford Brookes University. Doctoral
student, University of Bath
Dr.
Mark Williams, Edith Cowan University, Australia.
Richard
Williams.
Dr.
Jack Whitehead, University of Bath
Joan
Whitehead, Policy and Liason Officer for the University Council for the
Education of Teachers.
Mark
Williams, Edith Cowan University
The
Four Formal Seminars and Mini-conference
1)
9 July 2005, University of Bath. Keynote – Alan Rayner on Inclusionality
and The Complex Self – 30 participants
The
day will focus on the ideas of Inclusionality in Alan Rayner's writings and an
analysis of the artefacts produced for assessment by undergraduate students in
the ÔLife, Environment and People Unit. This is based on the principles of
inclusionality, taught by Alan Rayner and researched by Richard Williams during
the 2004-05 Academic Year.
2)
15 October 2005, University of Bath. Keynote – Margaret Farren and Jack
Whitehead on Inclusional Meanings of Living Standards of Judgement in the
Creation and Testing of Living Educational Theories - 30 participants
Between
1995-2005 some 17 doctoral students have successfully submitted their living
educational theory theses to the University of Bath with Jack Whitehead's
supervision.
These
are available in the living theory section of http://www.actionresearch.net . The
day will focus on the exploration of intersubjective agreements, arising from
these theses, on inclusional meanings of living standards of judgement.
3)
4 February 2006, Keynote - Erica Holley. Accounting for Ourselves with
Inclusional Meanings of Embodied Values - 30 participants
Erica
Holley's opening address to the Third World Congress on Action Learning, Action
Research and Process Management in Bath in 1994 focused on the theme of the
Congress on ÔAccounting for Ourselves'. The collection of accounts of learning
in enquiries of the kind, ÔHow do I improve what I am doing?', in the living
theory and masters programme section of http://www.actionresearch.net
will provide the evidential base for the day's focus on accounting for
ourselves with inclusional meanings of embodied values.
4)
10 June 2006, Mini-conference.
Speakers:Paulus
Murray on Postcolonial Critical Pedagogy.
Jackie
Delong on Transforming Embodied Values into Living Critical Standards of
Judgement in the Development of a Culture of Enquiry.
100
participants.
The
day will include ideas developed by Paulus Murray from the workshop he convened
on the 10th March 2005 on "Translating
Diversity Policy into Practice: Responsibilities and Opportunities for
Transforming Our Living Practices in British Higher Education" for the
University of Sussex Diversity Week. It will be grounded in the paper presented
to the 2004 British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, on, Speaking in a Chain of
Voices ~ crafting a story of how I am contributing to the creation of my
postcolonial living educational theory through a self study of my practice as a
scholar-educator, to the Symposium: How Are We Contributing To
A New Scholarship Of Educational Enquiry Through Our Pedagogisation Of
Postcolonial Living Educational Theories In The Academy?
5)
14 October 2006 - Keynote Moira Laidlaw. Analysing Evidence of the Educational
Influence of Inclusionality in Intergenerational and Intercultural
Learning - 30 participants plus
on-line participants linked through the informal seminar programme.
The evidential focus for the day will be provided by the
accounts of practitioner-researchers from China's Experimental Centre for
Educational Action Research in Foreign Languages Teaching at Guyuan Teachers
College (see http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/moira.shtml
) and from the research of Je Kan Adler Collins on his pedagogisation of living
educational theories in the curriculum of the healing nurse in the Faculty of
Nursing at Fukoaka University.
Expected outputs and plans for dissemination.
The action research process underlying this seminar series
integrates outputs and processes of dissemination. The expected outputs include
a collaboratively produced e-book on Developing the
dynamic boundaries of living standards of judgement in educational enquiries of
the kind, 'How do I improve what I am doing? This process is already underway from
the informal Monday evening seminars in the University of Bath and the
embryonic text can be viewed at http://www.jackwhitehead.com/jwartl141015weba.htm
Participants in the seminars include regular presenters at
the British and American Educational Research Association and they intend to
disseminate their learning in seminars and presentations at the Annual
Conferences of these Associations.
The accounts of learning from the seminar series will be
accessible from http://www.actionresearch.net
with a dedicated section to the outcomes from the seminars. The 90,000 logins
to the resources in this web-space give some indication of its popularity.
As
all the participants to the seminar series will be practitioner-researchers who
are engaged in self-studies of their own professional practices as they ask,
research and answer questions of the kind, ÔHow do I improve what I am doing?'
they are both the creators and users of the research findings as they produce
their own living educational theories as accounts of their learning. The
practitioner-researchers participating in the seminars include individuals from
Health, Education – Schools and Universities, Local Authorities, Housing
Associations, Police. This range of participants is already reflected in the
living theory doctoral research programmes legitimated by the University of
Bath.
One
of the potential users of the research are academic researchers working within
the disciplinary frameworks and methods of validation of the social sciences.
One of the intended outcomes of the seminar series is an inclusional theory of
human existence that conceptualises persons as participants in local contexts
of action in their concrete locatedness of social practice. Academic
researchers who are not engaged in self-studies of their own practice, will be
invited to the mini-conference to explore the possibility that an inclusional
theory of human existence could help to overcome the present severance between
theory and practice that seems to be a problem intrinsic to the language and
logic of present social theory.
Proposed
Speakers
Dr.
Alan Rayner, Reader, Department of Biology, University of Bath.
Dr.
Jack Whitehead, Lecturer in Education, University of Bath.
Margaret
Farren, Lecturer in Education, Dublin City University.
Erica
Holley, Senior Lecturer, Oxford Brookes University.
Dr.
Jacqueline Delong, Superintendent of Schools, Grand Erie District School Board,
Ontario.
Paulus
Murray, Senior Lecturer Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.
Dr.
Moira Laidlaw, Adviser to China's Experimental Centre for Educational Action
Research, Guyuan Teachers College.
The
participants listed above who participate in the Monday evening seminars in the
University of Bath are all committed to participating in the seminar series.
The
participation policy is to involve participants from a range of professions as
set out in the research users section. These include people who can be
identified as full-time academics, as practitioner-researchers in the Health,
Police and Education services, from Housing Associations and from Industry.
They also include participants from the UK, Ireland, Japan, China, Canada and
Australia. This should ensure intercultural learning about the educational
influence of an intercultural approach to inclusionality.
The
participation policy is to draw on the participants in the weekly face-to-face
and on-line educational conversations in the Department of Education of the
University of Bath.
The
participants listed in Section C above, include young researchers, established
academic researchers, users from local authorities and practitioner researchers
from the range of professional contexts listed above.
The
plans for publicity of the seminars will be largely web-based through the
extensive global e-lists that participants use. These include the BERA
practitioner-researcher Special Interest Group, the AERA Self-Study of Teacher
Education Practices (S-STEP), Special Interest Group, the Collaborative Action Research
Network and the individuals and groups associated with the Centre for Action
Research in Professional Practice (CARPP) at Bath. The follow-up action for
maintaining contact with the participants will be an extension of the informal
network of educational conversations that have been sustained for the last 30
years between practitioner-researchers associated with the University of Bath.
Burkitt,
I. (1994) The Shifting Concept of the Self. History of the Human Sciences. Vol.
7, (2), pp. 7-26.
Dreier,
Ole (1999). Personal Trajectories of Participation across Contexts of Social
Practice. Outlines 1 (1), 5-32.
Giddens,
A. (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity. Self and Society in the Late Modern Ave.
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Griffiths,
M. (1995) Feminisms and the Self: The Web of Identity. London; Routledge.
Habermas,
J. (1987) The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 2: System and Lifeworld,
Cambridge; Polity Press.
Ilyenkov,
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Kleinman,
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Rayner, A. D. M.
(2005) Inclusionality and the Role of Place, Space and DynamicBoundaries in
Evolutionary Processes. Philosophicus (In Press)
Rayner,
A. D. M. (2004a) Introduction to the Complex Self. Retrieved 25 January 2005
from http://www.bath.ac.uk/~bssadmr/inclusionality/complexself.htm
Rayner, A. D. M.
(2004b) ÔLife, Environment and People' (BB30108) - Encouraging creative and
critical biological and scientific enquiry into issues concerning human
relationships with the living world. Course notes, University of Bath.
Rayner,
A. (2003) Rationality and Inclusionality. The ÒOutsÓ and ÒInsÓ of Biological
and other Science. Retrieved 25 January 2005 from http://www.bath.ac.uk/~bssadmr/inclusionality/complexself.htm
A.D.M. Rayner (1997) Degrees of
Freedom – Living in Dynamic Boundaries (Imperial College Press)
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