Title:	How do i~we improve our educational practices? Creating living standards of judgment for practice-based research in the professions.
Authors & affiliations:	Marie Huxtable, Bath & North East Somerset, Local Education Authority Jack Whitehead, University of Bath
Abstract: (Your abstract must use Normal style and must fit in this space)	Relevance of enquiry The 2005 BERA Presidential Address (Whitty, 2005) highlights the importance of making a clear distinction between education and educational research. A former BERA president (Furlong & Oancea, 2005) has highlighted the importance of developing a clear understanding of appropriate standards of judgment for evaluating the quality of practice and practice-based research. A clear distinction is made between education research and educational research. Education research is based in the theories and methods of the philosophy, sociology, psychology, politics, economics, management and leadership of education. Educational research, from a living educational theory perspective, is grounded in the explanations produced by practitioner-researchers for their educational influences in their own professional learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of social formations. Clarity of the research question(s) Living educational theories are being generated as explanations from practitioner-researchers of their educational influences in educational enquiries of the kind, ‘How do I improve what I am doing?’ The ‘i~we’ in the question addressed in this presentation indicates a collaborative and inclusional relationship within which the distinctiveness of the individual’s identity is recognized without loss of integrity in the ‘we’. Appropriateness of methods and literature The methods follow Wallace’s (2003) insights into the development of an approach known as Thinking Actively in a Social Context (TASC). This approach can integrate action reflection cycles of: experiencing concerns when ontological values are not lived as fully as possible in practice; imagining what to do and forming an action plan; acting and gathering data on which to make a judgment on the validity and effectiveness of values, skills and understandings; evaluating effectiveness; modifying concerns, ideas and actions in the light of the evaluations; responding to a validation group response to an explanation of educational influence in learning, in a process of democratic evaluation. The literature draws on the work of McNiff & Whitehead (2005, 2006) and Whitehead and McNiff (2006) and on some 19 living theory doctoral and other research degrees published on the web at http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/living.shtml . The explanations of professional learning in these theses include the professional contexts of the police, education and health services. The multi-media methods, used in representing living standards of judgement, develop those used by Naidoo (2005) in her doctoral research programme on the emergence of a living theory of inclusional and responsive practice. The methods for clarifying these living standards will include the use of Dadds’ and Hart’s (2001) idea of methodological inventiveness and draw on Dadds’ (2006) idea of empathetic validity in practitioner researcher. Robustness of analytical or theoretical framework The robustness of the theoretical frameworks of living educational theories can be judged from their genesis (Whitehead, 1989) to their global spread in processes of enquiry that are withstanding evaluations of validity and legitimacy in a range of communities of educational researchers in Britain, China, Japan, Canada, South Africa, the USA, Australia and Singapore. Significance for educational policy and/or practice. Drawing on the work of Huxtable (2006) the presentation will demonstrate how educational enquiries of the form ‘How do i~we improve our practices?’ are influencing teachers’ classroom practices and educational policies in schools and a local education authority. In relation to national educational policy a comparison will be made between the educational theories generated from the 30 million pounds already spent on the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP) and the educational theories generated by practitioner researchers at no cost to the ESRC. Attention will be drawn to the project titles from the TLRP and the number of 'I' enquiries of the kind, How do I improve what I am doing? References Dadds, M. (2006) Empathetic Validity in Practitioner-Research. Proposal submitted for for BERA 2006. Dadds, M. & Hart, S. (2001) Doing Practitioner Research Differently, p. 166. London; RoutledgeFalmer. Furlong, J. & Oancea, A. (2005) Assessing Quality in Applied and Practice-based Educational Research. Oxford; University of Oxford, Department of Educational Studies. Huxtable, M. (2006) How can I improve my practice through 'walking the talk' and 'dealing with doorsteps'? Educational Enquiry Masters Unit, University of Bath. Submitted February 2006. Naidoo, M. (2005) I am because we are (A never ending story). An emergent living theory of inclusional and responsive practice. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Bath. Retrieved 20 January 2006 from http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/naidoo.shtml McNiff, J. & Whitehead, J. (2005) Action Research for Teachers. London; David Fulton. McNiff, J. & Whitehead, J. (2006) All You Need To Know About Action Research. London, Sage. Wallace, B. What Learning Experiences do Gifted and Talented Children need in order to develop Life Skills. Retrieved 20 January 2006 from http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:rHvMzrq_fegJ:www.e-gfl.org/egfl/activities_uploaded/intranet/teacher/NAGC.ppt+thinking+actively+in+a+social+context+TASC+Wallace&hl=en&client=firefox-a Whitehead, J. (1989) Creating a living educational theory from questions of the kind, ‘How do I improve my practice?'. Cambridge Journal of Education, Vol. 19, No.1,1989, pp. 41-52. Whitehead, J. & McNiff, J. (2006) Action Research Living Theory. London; Sage. Whitty, G. (2005) Education(al) research and education policy making: is conflict inevitable? Presidential Address to the British Educational Research Association, University of Glamorgan, 17 September 2005.