On Fri, 24 Jun 2005 10:45:03 +0100, Jane Artess <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>Dear Peter
>This is a very moving piece of writing and thanks for letting us see it.
>Your father must have been a very special person to let you know all this;
>so many others could only cope with it by burying memories and hardening
>themselves or denial - reflection such as this must have required great
>strength and compassion - two more characteristics to perhaps add to the
>review process. Thank you. Jane
>
------------------
Thanks for your response Jane. In the last decade of his life, my father
completed a huge leather-bound hand-written account of his family entitled
'The Melletts - where from and where to?' Everything is there, complete with
Victorian photographs and birth/marriage/death certificates up to 1986 - my
children got to know him better after his death (and became aware of the
strength and compassion you speak of) as they were growing up by reading
bits of it during visits to grandma. I shall not reply specifically to you
right now but may well return to my inner personal circumstance and aspects
of 'me in action' later as this e-seminar unfolds. For the moment, I have
written the following to Jack as a response to a section of his posting
within the main archive that refers to me. It tries to express my concern
about the facility action researchers have for looking inwards rather than
outwards. It may be that I am misconstruing things - I always find a
good-quality face-to-face conversation easier to deal with and ultimately
more rewarding than the to-ing and fro-ing of huge slabs of text. - Peter
--On 24 June 2005 11:11 +0100 Jack Whitehead <[log in to unmask]> posted to
[log in to unmask]
Re: How do i~you~we assess the quality of our practitioner-research? A
Research Assessment Exercise:
>
> I would like to see Pete developing his account of his educational
> influence in his own learning as a parent, friend, magistrate, educator,
> managing editor and educational researcher, in a way that shows the
> meanings of his embodied values of dialogue and relationship.
Jack: Right - got it - but I need to understand how developing my account of
my educational influence in my own learning will help us to elucidate living
standards of judgment that emerge through engagement with and review of
accounts submitted by educational researchers claiming to have an
educational influence.
The theme of the BERA e-seminar is stated as 'The nature of educational
theories: what counts as evidence of educational influences in learning?'
The notes for reviewers for the journal Action Research state the desire of
the editors to initiate a debate concerning the nature of quality in action
research ventures and publications, adding: ". . . we need our concern for
quality to move from 'policing' to stimulating dialogue [and consequently]
we would urge authors to be explicit about which criteria they judge to be
most significant for their work and the issues they have chosen to explore .
. ."
I understand the term 'Action research ventures' to cover an enormous canvas
of activity and learning that runs from deeply personal ontological
investigations to the rudely practical - the accounts of all of which are
capable of revealing fundamental personal and universal values that might
inform and establish living standards of judgment applicable to those
accounts. However, my wish for my part in this e-seminar is ultimately to
engage with something practical - for example, an account of a
writer/presenter's attempts to improve the quality of an aspect of their
professional practice - that I can engage with, that engagement no doubt
acting as a vehicle which will ultimately involve me in employing (and
revealing in action) all the aspects of my self whose labels you list above.
Otherwise, I am not sure how to go about responding to the phrase you use
above - 'developing his account' - other than to engage in an extended bout
of navel-gazing and introspection. I need a practical vehicle or at least
something to focus on other than my belly button. - Pete
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