Brian Hi. I am sorry but I cant currently participate in the discussion
due to pressure of work and wondered how I could step out and in particular
stop receiving the e mails
colleen
Colleen McLaughlin
Senior Lecturer
University of Cambridge Faculty of Education,
184 Hills Road,
Cambridge
CB2 2PQ
Tel: 01223 767600
--On Thursday, January 25, 2007 5:27 pm +0000 Brian wakeman
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Mmmm,
>
> Thanks for responding Alan.....
>
> but what do people feel about the questions I
> expressed about the truth of our practitioner research
> ?
>
> Truthfully,
>
>
> Brian
>
>
>
>
> --- Alan Rayner <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Dear Brian and all,
>>
>> Yes, Truth is Absolutely Relational, where Absolute
>> means everywhere,
>> including all, matter and no matter, without
>> completion, an omnipresent
>> Ghost Space, unconfined to local forms but finding
>> expression through them.
>>
>>
>> Yours inclusionally,
>>
>> Alan
>>
>> --On 24 January 2007 20:22 +0000 Brian wakeman
>> <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > Hello Moira,
>> >
>> > Yes this is very moving.
>> >
>> > I wonder whether we have explored fully enough the
>> > idea of truth being relational and more personal:
>> > ie. that truth is not necessarily an abstract
>> concept
>> > or in research a set of categories or a check list
>> we
>> > have to subscribe to for verifying truth
>> > claims......but more "being true", same root as
>> > 'troth'.
>> > 'Trustworthiness', 'faithfulness' in relational
>> > ethical terms to the people involved in the
>> research,
>> > or to our potential audience?
>> >
>> > Recently I've been reading about 'truth' in Hebrew
>> > thought that has this relational and ethical
>> dimension
>> > according to Brian Walsh and Sylvia
>> > Keesmaat(Colossians re: Mixed. Subverting The
>> Empire.
>> > Paternoster Press 2005)
>> >
>> > Similarly 'love': "Chesed", 'peace': 'Shalom',
>> > 'respect','fairness' and 'justice' :
>> 'Sedeq'......are
>> > all activities, actions, something we do, rather
>> than
>> > concepts we talk about..... according to the
>> ancient
>> > Prophets.
>> > Apparently the O.T. idea of 'covenant' is
>> similarly
>> > rich and meaningful.
>> >
>> > In truth,
>> >
>> > Brian
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --- Moira Laidlaw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Dear Bernie, Jack and everyone!
>> >>
>> >> I've been reading the recent responses to the
>> video
>> >> stuff and people's reactions to them with great
>> >> interest, but haven't had much time to respond.
>> As I
>> >> pack up to leave Beijing to come to England
>> >> for a month before going back to Guyuan as an
>> >> independent worker, I've been thinking about the
>> >> qualities of humanity represented by the utube
>> >> presentations Jack compiled, and all your
>> >> responses to them. Like you, Bernie, I was also
>> once
>> >> convinced of the superiority of text over the
>> >> visual. The work that you're doing, Jack, is
>> really
>> >> important in terms of finding ways to represent
>> >> truths realistically, helpfully and
>> authentically. I
>> >> really like the way the visuals help us to
>> clarify
>> >> what it is we're trying to do and in the name of
>> >> what.
>> >>
>> >> Friday was my last day as a volunteer with VSO,
>> an
>> >> organisation I have worked with for over five
>> >> years. Its slogan is 'sharing skills, saving
>> lives',
>> >> something I find has grown in dynamism and life-
>> >> affirming energy, the longer I have remained with
>> >> the organisation. My brief there was to work
>> >> with colleagues (about twelve of them) on action
>> >> research enquiries, and also to take a look at
>> >> their monitoring and evaluation procedures in the
>> >> light of an impending whole-country review in
>> >> November 2007. If we 'fail' the review, we'll be
>> >> closing the VSO China programme after March
>> >> 2009.
>> >>
>> >> I don't know whether the following anecdote is
>> >> meaningful for anyone else, but I offer it here
>> as a
>> >>
>> >> celebration of something wonderfully human and
>> >> inspiring, something, I hope you'll agree, we can
>> >> all recognise. Something that shows that what is
>> >> remembered isn't necessarily ideas, but, as in
>> >> recent postings from me and others, more akin to
>> >> love, respect, fairness and justice.
>> >>
>> >> On Thursday last my colleagues took me for lunch
>> in
>> >> a really lovely restaurant and as we ate and
>> >> drank toasts, they decided it would be a good
>> game
>> >> to say something about Moira! This is so
>> >> Chinese. 'What enduring memory of Moira do we
>> have?'
>> >> the country-director asked. I suggested
>> >> that my ability to leave the table pronto was a
>> good
>> >> one, but that was ignored!
>> >>
>> >> What was really fascinating to me, was the
>> qualities
>> >> they drew out had little to do with the quality
>> >> of my work in terms of ideas, and almost all
>> about
>> >> the way they see me interacting with people
>> >> and how I treat others. Each person told a
>> personal
>> >> anecdote that was, on the surface, trivial and
>> >> yet not so. A young colleague with tears in her
>> >> eyes, talked about the fact that she had learnt
>> so
>> >> much from the way in which when I'm getting a
>> drink
>> >> in the office of a morning, I go round to
>> >> everybody to ask what they want. She said that
>> she
>> >> had not seen anyone else doing this kind of
>> >> thing so consistently, and that she realised that
>> it
>> >> wasn't my ideas that stuck with her, it was the
>> >> way I showed respect to others. One colleague
>> >> mentioned the time when I said in a one-to-one
>> >> meeting we should perhaps concentrate on
>> something
>> >> she was worried about rather than
>> >> continuing the Action Planning session we had
>> >> arranged for. I'd forgotten the incident but she
>> >> said
>> >> she never would. She said she didn't realise she
>> >> could be more important than a scheduled
>> >> meeting. Another colleague said that because of
>> her
>> >> daughter having sudden onset asthma, my
>> >> internet search and discussions with my sister
>> whose
>> >> son had the same problem at the same age
>> >> as her daughter, was something she'd never
>> forget.
>> >> She had tears in her eyes too. And this is
>> >> China where people don't cry that in public.
>> >>
>> >> My point? Everyone said that the demonstrations
>> of
>> >> respect for them as unique individuals had
>> >> really moved them and some mentioned times when
>> they
>> >> had acted differently as a result of their
>> >> insights about the importance of relationships in
>> >> any endeavour. It's so moving because it
>> >> vindicates so much of what I believe about
>> process
>> >> and people, and means that the ideas we have
>> >> been sharing in the office may truly have a
>> chance
>> >> to embed themselves in meaningful ways with
>> >> the individuals concerned and within the
>> >> organisation because of the nature of respect and
>> >> trust
>> >> that has built up between us.
>> >>
>> >> I offer this anecdote because it moves me,
>> because
>> >> it reveals what matters about being human. If
>> >> our research can focus on ways to help us show
>> >> respect, to help us make connections and walk
>> >> around from inside others, then surely this
>> current
>> >> research has to be very important indeed. I
>> >> wish, so much, that this had been videoed. NOT
>> >> because of what they said about an individual but
>>
> === message truncated ===
>
>
> Brian E. Wakeman
> Education adviser
> Dunstable
> Beds
>
Colleen McLaughlin
Senior Lecturer
University of Cambridge Faculty of Education,
184 Hills Road,
Cambridge
CB2 2PQ
Tel: 01223 767600
|