Well, wow! I just had to rush out and hug a tree after reading the 
lasts postings,they  were truly life affirming, Thank you so much, that 
what I call sharing supportive values in practice. So with tongue in 
cheek I took some deep breaths and a collective sigh of male bonding, ( 
it was a male tree I think, but I do not have the evidence). Reluctant 
to get back to building my nuclear fallout shelter in my temple, 
(heuristic research, emersion stage) I pondered, as you do in important 
ontological moments like this,( Reflection in action ,) and a though 
passed my mind as the two brain cells I possess had a small synapse.( 
epistemological event).

  Do you have any pointers in how portfolios can be used to evidence 
knowledge claims or more to the point how to provide a suitable 
framework for external markers fellow teachers as how to see the 
relevance of knowledge that it out side of their cultural perspectives? 
  If for example you are battling to contest the reliance on text as 
some times being inappropriate form and limited of knowledge 
representation. How do you set a standard in terms of a measurable ( 
western logic) out come? I have introduced the group portfolios in my 
class here at the university, I have come to the realisation that I am 
guilty of what freire would class as becoming a banking educator. I 
revisited my standards for the healing curriculum and found them nearly 
all to be embedded in blooms taxonomy and the new Andersons revision of 
cognitive theory and process. No problem for my peers but as far as my  
healing values go, I just want to crawl under a suitable rock and hide.
  My next step is to show  to my peers  why I think that they are 
educative and scholarly ( work in progress if I decide to vacate my 
rock!). I am completely stumped as to how to teach other teachers to 
use and assess portfolios… and  contest the  critical allegations that 
they are scrap books filled with the musings of children who ramble in 
their reflections with unfocused emotionalism.. I find a solution even 
more stressful when you have different cultural ideas as the what is or 
is not knowledge.

  Love to all Je Kan




Quoting Susan Goff <[log in to unmask]>:

> Most dear Pip
> How delightful ­ I had forgotten about the ALARPm event or perhaps did not
> know you then ­ not made the connection anyway ­ I feel so connected through
> time, place and mutuality in what you have written. Thank you for such a
> treasuring of experience and person.
> You have given me some strength to say something else. That when I read Je
> Kan¹s email regarding N Korea, while I was aware that I am not there, I
> wrote what I did because I could not bare him to feel isolated in his
> geography, to carry this approximate horror so ³alonely² in our midst ­ and
> that we need to face the reality that no geography is protection against
> nuclear war... And given that, what we do as living theorists has to grow
> into that arena too, I apologise to all if what I said sounded trite but it
> was not meant to be so ­ it was based on my experience of hope even in what
> appear to be the most hopeless situations. If I think of these things
> systemically, then any distinguished hold on reality has within it some
> resonation of any other... It is was in that spirit that I wrote what I did.
> I love your song Pip ­ the spirit of our community so beautifully sung and
> across the ages
> Thank you
> xxxxx
>
>
> On 24/10/06 11:35 AM, "Pip/Bruce Ferguson" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Gidday Susie and others
>>
>> In the posting below, you said ³I am not known to anyone² on this list.
>> Having written earlier in this dialogue on the evidence we can put 
>> forward for
>> our own living standards of judgement, and stressing that I think the best
>> evidence is what OTHERS say of our practice rather than what we put forward
>> ourselves, may I speak from a past experience of you?  Susie and I were both
>> involved in the ALARPM network some years back.  I attended a conference in
>> Australia at which Susie spoke of a piece of research she had done, which
>> involved Aboriginal participants, and for some reason (I don¹t remember the
>> details now) it had problems.  Susie¹s honest manner of presenting this
>> information, and her gentle challenge to us to consider the effects 
>> on others
>> of our usually well-meaning attempts to engage, but often getting it wrong,
>> were a profound intervention at that conference and provoked a lot of
>> discussion, not all of it positive as I recall.  Some people seem to find
>> challenges to the Œreceived wisdom of the time¹ difficult, and I think this
>> was a case in point.
>>
>> Susie, you also wrote: ³I find I stop worrying about whether I will 
>> transgress
>> in what I say next and instead hold the silences as the other person needs,
>> and when I can speak, I seem to speak with clarity without rigidity or even
>> authority of an oppressive kind.² I attest that you did exactly that at that
>> conference in Australia ­ you lived out your claimed standards of 
>> judgement in
>> a gentle yet honest and pointed way.  I think your contribution was 
>> one of the
>> outstanding ones I took from that conference.
>>
>> I also recognize the Œalive, cracking, with fire¹ response to Je 
>> Kan¹s emails.
>> They resonate so much with me too ­ I held off responding to the North Korea
>> situation email because I just feel overwhelmed by the negative dynamics of
>> much that happens on the world political stage, and unsure how to respond on
>> that global level.  I guess the Œact local, think global¹ mantra of 
>> the green
>> movement in the 70s is my best selection of possible responses.  But 
>> I am open
>> to challenges that it also just wussing out on major issuesŠ.
>>
>> I hope that the conversations continue.  I am not joining in often, but am
>> reflecting on and drawing inspiration from many of the contributions.  Thank
>> you all for the sharing, and kia kaha (be strong) Susie.  Good luck with the
>> thesis examination.  I¹ll conclude with a song I learned when I was an AFS
>> scholar in Kansas, USA, almost four decades ago (words changed 
>> slightly to be
>> more inclusive!)
>>
>> ³No-one is an island
>> No-one stands alone
>> Each one¹s joy is joy to me
>> Each one¹s grief is my own
>> We need one another
>> So I must defend
>> Each one as my brother
>> Each one as my friend.²
>>
>> In peace
>> Pip Bruce Ferguson
>>
>
>
>



Rev Je Kan Adler-Collins
Assistant Professor of Nursing
Fukuoka Prefectural University Faculty of Nursing
Tagawa City
Fukuoka Prefecture
Japan