When I experience myself as a living contradiction in the sense of holding together
two mutually exclusive opposites such as 'I am acting ethically/I am not acting
ethically', I seek to move to live more fully the values in 'I am acting ethically'. As I do
this, I clarify for myself the meanings of the ethical principles that help to give
meaning and purpose to my life in education and my educational
knowledge-creation. I hope that you experience me holding myself accountable to
these principles, in the living educational theory that emerges from my practitioner
research, in public research forums such as this.
Through this present writing I feel a resolution emerging in my living contradiction
of 'I am acting ethically/I am not acting ethically' in relation to the paper I presented
at BERA 04 on
Do the values and living logics I express in my educational relationships carry the
hope of Ubuntu for the future of humanity?
This paper was presented at the BERA 04 Symposium 16 September, in
Manchester, on: "How Are We Contributing To A New Scholarship Of Educational
Enquiry Through Our Pedagogisation Of Postcolonial Living Educational Theories In
The Academy?"
You can access it:
at http://www.jackwhitehead.com/jwbera04d.pdf
You can also access it from:
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/writing.shtml
I think the quality of Sarah's and my own ethical practice can be felt in the final draft
paper of the 6th September that Sarah prepared for presentation to the BERA
Symposium and has asked us to read, but not share outside our e-seminar at:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind0506&L=bera-practitioner-resear
cher&T=0&O=A&X=1E95F36F290667E81B&Y=edsajw%40bath.ac.uk&P=7816
(You may have to copy this url into your browser because it is longer than one line)
In preparing my own BERA 04 paper, I circulated to my co-presenters four drafts in
the weeks before the presentation. Because of the sensitive nature of the content of
my own paper, I was particularly concerned to have Sarah's confirmation that where
I referred directly to her that what I was saying was valid. I received this confirmation
on the 8th September with no other criticisms of the paragraph which has been
offered to the symposium as evidence of my unethical behaviour:
"To: Jack Whitehead <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 11:13:04 +0100
Subject: Re: Friday's gathering/4th Draft of paper for Symposium
......I wonder if you can say this - it works for me as a post-colonial reflection;
I didn't explain to Sarah why I felt so compelled to work from home while she
vented her anger. I didn't appreciate that in moving away I was increasing her
isolation and vulnerability to attack. As we reflect on the colonialism that
temporarily marred our relationship, I see that isolating the colonised, as we
seek to protect ourselves from the expression of their suffering, increases it.
yes - this says what I need it to say - let's offer our learning in your draft! "
As I look at Sarah's final draft for the Symposium of the 6th September and Sarah's
response to my fourth draft of the 8th September I return to the pleasure I felt in both
our papers and the belief that I acted ethically in the writing of the paper I presented
at BERA. My feeling of living contradiction was in reviewing the evidence in Sarah's
claims in some of her postings to this e-seminar that 'I had not acted ethically'. I'm
hoping that as you read Sarah's final draft for the BERA 04 Symposium and the
paper I presented that you will have a strong feeling of ethically appropriate
behaviour in both our writings.
I also hope that I am not deluding myself in thinking that this posting is a gentle and
polite response to those other postings to our e-seminar that refer to my ethics.
I'm also hoping that this response is a contribution to holding open a safe,
pleasurable and interesting space for educational enquiries of the quality that
Margarida is asking for, and Pete is explicitly seeking to promote in the thread 'Start
of the Review Process'. I've just read Branko's contribution on 'How do you assess
the quality of your practitioner research?' in the thread on 'Questions 2 and 3 of the
Review Stage' and it evokes the pleasure of recognition of a life being lived well in
the service of education.
Love Jack.
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