Dear Chris, Jack and other colleagues,

It is very good, Chris, to read your posting on this list. It was also 
an absolute pleasure to meet with you at NMMU. I am taking the 
opportunity of responding to you, and also to respond to Jack's request 
that participants on this list should submit our thoughts on what we 
have learned through the experience of being part of the e-seminar, and 
what we have learned in relation to our own enquiries.

As you all know, I went to South Africa for two weeks. I first went to 
the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, where Chris works, and then 
did some workshops at the winter research school near Cape Town. Those 
were wonderfully educational experiences that served to strengthen my 
resolve, begun some two years ago after my first visit to South Africa, 
to work there with colleagues in thinking about action research 
approaches to professional development. I have been in touch with 
several groups and it now looks likely that I will be working in 
different contexts in South Africa in the coming time. I will also 
continue to work with St Mary's University College in London, where 
there are also considerable creative opportunities for collaborative 
working. I am just delighted about this, and am so grateful for the way 
that life is opening up to further worthwhile work. I am grateful for 
the opportunity of working with committed, kind people, who wish to do 
good work and to develop learning.

Out of these experiences, I can say in response to Jack's request to 
say how we make judgements about our work, the way that I make 
judgements about my work is to question whether my influence has helped 
others to think for themselves, and to act in a way that can encourage 
further learning. Learning is one of the things I value most. Learning 
of the kind that inspires new learning requires openness to creative 
possibilities and a commitment to freedom, and, in my view, finding 
freedom is always grounded in the capacity to love. This was brought 
home to me especially through my experiences in South Africa, where I 
am constantly overwhelmed by the capacity of people to express love and 
kindness. This is what leads me there.

I have learned much from being a participant in this e-seminar. One of 
the most important things I have learned, and I want to encourage 
others to think about, is to hold one's own space as a free and 
free-thinking person, not to give in to negative influences, and to 
insist on maintaining the power of one's own creativity to develop 
caring and educational relationships. I hope others will respond to 
Jack's request in this vein, before this list closes and the 
opportunity goes, showing that we do have a powerful community of 
caring and committed action researchers who wish to stay connected with 
one another, and to learn.

Thank you, Jack, for creating this space for us to share our learning. 
I hope we do you justice.


Jean




On 25 Jul 2005, at 12:23, Chris Hoelson wrote:

> I am a late list joiner from the Nelsion Mandela Metropolitan 
> University in
> Port Elizabeth, South Africa. My interest in AR is of recent origin but
> already becoming an essential, although fragmented, part of my 
> practice and
> teaching as a practitioner and lecturer in psychology.
>
> Then on Wednesday, 22 July, I was fortunate to attend an AR workshop 
> with
> Jean McNiff. It was wonderful being immersed for a brief time in the
> thoughts and actions of AR through Jean’s workshop. She is a warm, 
> friendly
> and enthusiastic person and reminded me of my first meeting with Jack 
> in
> Bath. I came away from the workshop remotivated and keen to become 
> involved
> with other local teachers and researchers interested in AR at our newly
> merged Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. I was fortunate enough 
> to
> get an individual appointment with Jean to meet with her personally 
> and to
> explore and discuss some of my interests in AR.
>
> The meeting with Jean was nourishing, enervating and a real blessing 
> to me
> and reawakened the interests and enthusiasm I had for AR but that had
> become eroded gradually over the past year or so through the merger 
> process
> and the rush to finalise the dissertations of the Masters students I 
> have
> been supervising over the past three years. In talking with Jean I 
> came to
> realise that many of my AR interests had grown in depth although I was 
> not
> really aware of this over the past few months. I still have the strong
> desire to conduct AR with local colleagues and students and to 
> maintain and
> extend my relationship with other interested international AR 
> practitioners
> and researchers.
>
> One of the factors that has inhibited my action has been my anxiety 
> about
> not being able to initiate and maintain the high level of conversation 
> in
> internet listserves. My interests are also limited by my recent 
> discovery
> of and limited involvement in AR and my perception of personal 
> inferiority
> in relation to more experienced and knoweledgeable ARs. Not having 
> ongoing
> contact and mutually reinforcing relations in the area of AR research 
> and
> practice has left me isolated and slow in making any significant 
> progress
> in AR activities although I do see some evidence of my interest in AR 
> in my
> teaching, research and psychotherapy practice. However, these 
> instances are
> largely unexplored, undeveloped and unintegrated due to my isolation 
> from
> ongoing and stimulating conversations, collaborative actions and mutual
> contact and learning with others interested in AR.
>
> But let me not discount the little growth and development that has 
> taken
> place in this context. I have begun introducing more AR ideas, methods 
> and
> literature into existing research by students whose dissertations I
> supervise, although in a fragmentary and unsystematic way over the past
> eighteen months or so. AR ideas and “methods” have also started 
> emerging in
> a similar piecemeal way in my teaching and psychotherapy practices. 
> This
> essentially unplanned and spontaneous manifestation has sustained my
> interest in AR and its diffusion in many of my professional activities.
> However, I think that these small random fragments could develop an
> increased momentum if I am able to become involved in more systematic,
> collaborative research and practice with other ARs.
>
> I touched on these aspects with Jean but I also want to continue and 
> expand
> relationships and explore further collaboration and contact between 
> others
> interested in AR.
>
> This marginal position in relation to this listerve is not an isolated
> experience but has been part of many experiences over the past few 
> years,
> which I am sure will become more central and extensive through my
> involvement in AR.
>
> I apologise for this late response but trust that it will be received 
> in
> the spirit in which it was written.
>
> Kind regards
> Chris
>