Dear Matthias/Je Kan/All

At the risk of pushing the garden metaphor far too far
I'll try to explain what I understand by agency
ithrough collaborative research mentoring 
After that, I'll be off-line a while because I'll need
to start writing my paper on possible selves and
incorporate new ideas about metaphors.

When I find aggressive invasive plants or aggressive
invasive mentees I have a choice.  I can destroy (as
seeds) or decline to mentor (mentees). If I do either
I run the risk of never seeing either mature and bear
fruit.  Alternatively I can think hard about where/how
each may flourish best.

I open myself to the others' agency while considering
my own agency.  Sure, I get invaded, stung,
temporarily smothered and hurt sometimes.
However, in the process I feel I can learn how to
become more flexibly accommodating to 'otherness'.
Mentees mentor me as I mentor them.

Now - enough of the garden metaphor and photography
for a moment.  
 
How to deal with the ethical balancing act between
what I consider to be ethical and what my colleagues
in my institution think to be ethical?  In the end I
have a choice - I don't have to align myself 
institutionally but I do have to be willing to face
what may occur if I choose to take a stand ethically
aganst something that I can (or will) not accommodate.

Personally, I am unwilling to 'sell out' if students'
futures are at risk so when for example I found that
one student's work using a KEEP multi media snapshot
had been judged not upon the CD or the URL that was
available to an examiner but on a (partially)
downloaded hard copy, I alone took a stand and I alone
will continue to do so - come what may.

Matthias, thank you for your observation about my work
and narrative.  I hadn't vocalised photographs and
multi-media as personal narrative too but of course
they are.  Images that Rachele chose are particularly
evocative for me. I have begun to understand
iamgination diffferently since I saw the tree image of
the mind that she selected in her enquiry.

http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=40142960511281

Warm regards,

Sarah




 

--- MATTHIAS MEIERS <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hello,
>  
>  
> I hear Je Kan playfully wondering about
> 
> *	
> 	the line that practitioners walk between ethical
> practice both as to what the practitioner and
> institution deems
> 	as ethical
> 
> *	
> 	the inclusional answer to aggressive invasive seeds
> 
> I found the garden metaphor a little confusing.
> Isn't action research a sustained inquiry into
> agency. To me, the word agency means, the difference
> my presence makes in the lives of my students and to
> our shared experiences in the institution. The
> institution comes to life through us, policy makers,
> parents, students and practitioners. I cannot place
> myself outside it and be a responsible agent within
> it. Being an ethical agent within the institution
> means enacting purposes, as well as, problematizing
> and reshaping hurtful practices. Fundamentally, this
> entails an appeal to moral and ethical reasons for
> educational policy and action.
> 
> What happens when competing visions emerge, as Je
> Kan reminded me? I believe that the answer lies in
> creating time and space for a moral and ethical
> conversation that would allow people to talk about
> the practical consequences of these visions and ask
> what kind of lifeworld are we creating for each
> other here.
> 
> Sarah's words are inviting me to rethink agency
> 
> *	
> 	As a photographer I choose the subject and the
> framing of the subject and when I talk about the
> loving eye of the camera I am describing how I (try
> to) bring an empathetic focus that communicates the
> essence of what I see. 
> 
> I have been using narrative inquiry to understand my
> agency in the classroom and to construct a better
> understanding of what the students are doing. How
> does narrative help me focus on the experiences of
> my students? This is the question I hear Sarah ask
> me.
> 
> Greetings from Winnipeg,
> 
> Matthias
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> From: BERA Practitioner-Researcher on behalf of
> Sarah Fletcher
> Sent: Tue 10/10/2006 4:15 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: What are living standards of judgement?
> 
> 
> 
> Dear Je Kan/All,
> 
> Thank you! You have hit on something that really
> fascinates me!  It's the notion of metaphor as a
> standard of judgement - and I so like the image of
> the
> rose as a weed being its rose-like self & to the
> best
> of its ability but in the wrong location and
> inadvertently courting destruction.
> 
> As a photographer I choose the subject and the
> framing
> of the subject and when I talk about the loving eye
> of
> the camera I am describing how I (try to) bring an
> empathetic focus that communicates the essence of
> what
> I see.  How does this relate to educational research
> mentoring and living educational stanards of
> judgement?  Well - if for example I work with a
> teacher who sees mentoring as 'equal connectedness'
> then I will do what I can as I video to embody that
> metaphor on film.  If they perceived mentoring as
> 'benevolent hierarchy' I would employ the lens
> differently.  That's not to say one form of metaphor
> or mentoring is superior but different. Both can be
> appropriate in different locations.
> 
> Sometimes a mentor has to be directive (rather like
> Je
> Kan may decide what is to be weeded out) and
> sometimes
> working alongside). A good gardener retains strong
> plants and doesn't feel threatened by strength.
> Balancing colour and vigour and form s/he may
> nurture
> 'weeds' that a less expereienced gardener burns. 
> The
> art of gardening is 'balancing'.
> A good mentor isn't threatened by a strong mentee
> but
> is empowered.
> 
> Similarly in assisting teachers to depict their
> growing undestandings of research mentoring...  When
> I
> looked at Donna's image of the gargoyle
>
http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=51952540922866
> I saw a metaphor for being scared and yet excited
> (is
> that what you see too?)
> Donna's chosen image offered me the chance to draw
> out
> more insight into how she was feeling as a new
> research mentor studying for an MA.
> 
> Thinking about questions posed by Matthias for uus
> on
> the list today:
> 
> "how are students invited into the action research
> process and how do they begin to problematize human
> relationships in the classroom or at school with a
> view to transforming them?"
> 
> I use metaphor for assisting new teacher researchers
> to communicate how they 'see' themselves as teachers
> and there may be potential for helping them identify
> new possible selves that they'd wish to embody using
> photographic or computer generated image.  What do
> you
> thnk?
> 
> Warm regards,
> 
> Sarah
> 
> 
> 
> Sarah Fletcher
> http://www.TeacherResearch.net
> <http://www.teacherresearch.net/> 
> 


Sarah Fletcher
http://www.TeacherResearch.net