Harriet - your paper captivated my imagination through the power of your narratives
and your desire to help children and families improve the quality of their lives. I've
prioritised my responses to you in the four points below from your paper:

1) “…. it began to be more clear what needed to happen to improve things in the
lives of these children and their families.” (p.6)

In developing your practitioner-research it might be helpful to construct an action
plan that is focused on what is more clearly needed. It might also be helpful to
include some information about the data gathering with the children and the families
that might be helpful in evaluating the effectiveness of what is being done to improve
the safety and structure (and other qualities that might need improving) in family life.

2) “We also knew that if the worker could establish a supportive enough relationship
with the responsible adults in the family, they themselves were quite likely to figure
out what was needed and begin to insert a little more safety and structure into
household functioning.” (p.8)

This belief, that the responsible adults in the family could figure out what was
needed and work to improve the safety and structure of family life, appealed to my
own values as an educator. I imagine that it might be possible to work with the
responsible adults to show and explain this learning?

3) “How do we know? Harriet's beginning of a paper…..” (e-mail heading)

How do we know? This is a question that continues to intrique me. Answering this
question could help to fulfil some of the aims of the BERA Practitioner Researcher
Special Interest Group- see the following description and aims of the SIG:
http://www.jackwhitehead.com/monday/berapc.htm

It was also part of the AERA 01 Conference theme of What we know. How we know
it? and the focus of a paper on Living Standards of Judgement In What We Know
And How We Know It - you can download this from
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/writings/aera01stand.doc . Your question, How do we
know? seems to connect closely to a contribution on evidence in the International
Handbook of Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices. See
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/writings/evid.htm

4) “It's psychosocial information That Tells Us What to Do!” (Title of Beginning paper)

In responding to this title, I wonder what it is that tells you what to in the context of
responding to your desire to contribute to improvements in the lives of the children
and their families? I can see the importance of information in making appropriate
responses. Yet, I'm curious to know if what you do is somehow guided by the values
of humanity in your way of being in relationship with others. I'd like to know if what
you do, can be understood as a response to your intuitive judgement about the
interests of the other? I am thinking of your intuitive judgements of what is in the
interests of the other as you are acting with the other in a way that is guided by your
values as well as the information?

Love Jack.