For the Monday group and an
invitation to colleagues:
5.00-7.00 1WN. 3.8 Monday 22nd
January.
When we've caught up with each
other's news from the week I'm hoping that we can continue our explorations
into the implications of inclusionality for educational research, especially in
relation to values and logics.
Today is Moira's last day of five and a half years as a VSO
volunteer. Before moving on to
Ningxia Teachers University in March Moira has accepted an invitation to share
her reflections on her work in China, on Monday evening, the 26th
February, and to share her hopes for the future. Je Kan is working to an end of February deadline for the
submission of a complete draft of his doctoral thesis for an internal reader.
Jane is also hoping to submit her thesis for an internal reader in the next six
months. Alon is writing up his thesis on a heuristics of a human existence
through blogging.
Because of the imminence of
Eden's submission of his doctoral thesis our priority is to respond to any
writings or ideas Eden wishes to share. In
creating a decolonizing living educational theory through enquiries into
improving his practice, Eden is suggesting that a concept of societal
reidentification, that includes an understanding of an African Cosmology with
Ubuntu, might be a more appropriate guide to social transformation than the
concept of decolonisation.
Margarida has been invited back
to Brazil following her recent lectures and workshops on prioprioception in
learning. It would be good to work at ways of showing what Margarida does in
communicating her insights on the significance of understanding the movement of
bodies in space for learning.
If we have time do let's develop
our explorations of the implications of Alan's expression of inclusionality as
a relationally dynamic awareness of space and boundaries as connective,
reflexive and co-creative and Marian's emerging living theory of inclusional
and responsive practice with its living standard of judgment of a passion for
compassion. I often find meeting
deadlines for the submission of symposia and paper proposals for BERA, AERA and
ICTR helps to develop a clarity about research intentions for the next 12
months.
Marie has met today's deadline
for the submission of proposals for the BERA 07 Conference in September with
the following symposium proposal involving Nigel, Jack Chris, and Marie:
BERA 07 Symposium Proposal -
Researching And Explaining Improvements In Practice With Children's Services
From An Educational Perspective on Learning.
You can access the full proposal
at:
http://www.jackwhitehead.com/bera07/jwsymbera07abs.htm
You can access the individual
proposals by clicking on the live url lines below:
´
Research questions and foci of enquiry
The
issues and questions that move the enquiries of the four researchers are:
Over the
coming months, whether the proposal is accepted or not, I'm hoping that we can
have several conversations on the development of the individual enquiries.
I'm also
hoping that we will all participate in the BERA Practitioner-Researcher SIG
2006-7 e-seminar on standards of judgment for evaluating the quality of the
educational knowledge generated by educational practitioner-researchers. Given the concern about fairness in
evaluating practice-based research in the 2008 RAE I'm focusing attention on
the standards of originality,
significance and rigour in world leading, internationally excellent,
internationally recognized and nationally recognized, practice-based research.
At AERA
and ICTR in April in Chicago Jean has convened several presentations and
Jackie, Maggie, Jean and Jack have had proposals accepted for either AERA or
ICTR or both. Maggie and I will be developing ideas from our 2006 publication:
Farren, M.
& Whitehead, J. (2006) Educational Influences in Learning with Visual
Narratives, in
Childs, M, Cuttle, M, & Riley, K. (2006) Developing Innovative Video
Resources For Students Everywhere. DIVERSE Proceedings: 2005 & 2006 5th
International DIVERSE Conference 5th to 7th July 2005 Vanderbilt
UniversityNashville , USA 6th International DIVERSE Conference 5th to 7th July
2006. Glasgow; Caledonian University Press, pp. 219-234. Retrieved 15 January
2007 from http://www.jackwhitehead.com/mfjwDIVERSEcomplete.pdf
Jackie will be letting us know when Volume 6 of Passion in
Professional Practice is available.
In the BERA Practitioner-Researcher e-seminar, I'm
suggesting that new living standards of judgment can evolve from Alan's
expression of inclusionality. These standards evolve from the expression of the
ontologically embodied values of individuals and emerge from clarifications of
the meanings of the values in educational enquiries of the kind, 'How do I
improve what I am doing?'. I posted to the e-seminar a collage of streaming
video-clips at:
Bernie Sullivan's response in the BERA Practitioner-Researcher
e-seminar on 17 Jan 2007 gives me
some hope that we are on the way to generating new living standards of
educational judgment that have the potential to be world leading:
" Belated New Year wishes
to all!
During the Christmas break I had
time to access the video clips on YouTube. I can now put a face to many of the
contributors whose insights and ideas have had an educative influence on me
over the past few months. From now on, when I read contributions from Alan,
Peter, Moira, Marie and Yaakub (I have already met Jean, Jack, Maggie, JeKan
and Sarah)I will be able to visualise them and have an awareness of their
values as expressed through the video clips.
I am now convinced of the value
of visual forms of representation as a means of conveying values and of
articulating standards of judgement. I had been rather sceptical around this,
having been conditioned to believe in the superiority of the written word. In a
situation somewhat similar to the stories of Alan and Moira, whose schooling
appears to have been affected by the dominant ideologies of the time, I was
encultured into the belief that the written word was paramount. Intellectual
ability and scholarship were defined by expertise in writing. Art was not taught
in either primary or secondary school, the whole emphasis being on 'academic'
subjects. As a result, all my energy was focused on the written word and I paid
scant attention to other, visual forms of representation.
There were so many values evident
in the video clips on YouTube that it would take too long to describe them all
in detail, but these are the ones that were apparent to me and that were
evident in more than one clip:
Conviviality - in the clips of Jack, Peter and Jean
Inclusion - in the clips of Alan, Nigel, Marie and JeKan
Commitment - in the clips of Jack and Maggie
Life-affirming energy in the clips of Jack, marie and Jean
Humanness - in the clips of Yaakub and Nigel
Unity - in the clips of Alan, Marie and Jean.
I was particularly impressed
with the video clip of Nigel - about whom I know nothing, not even his surname
- but in listening to him speak, I could discern compassion, humanness and love
all bound together and embodied in him - an example of what Marian Naidoo (I think!)
calls 'a passion for compassion'.
Viewing
the video clips was truly a life-enhancing and positive experience for me so
thank you, Jack, for posting them on YouTube."
I
hope we can find time to discuss Bernie's response in terms of our exploration of
the implications of Alan's expression of inclusionality, for educational
research.
Any
more news do e-mail it in.
Love
Jack.