Hi Alan, Je Kan and All,
The cell metaphor works for me at many levels. Ironically, as I sent in my posting yesterday my
teacherly voice suggested, 'Living (educational) theories are stem cells in practitioner research.
Discuss.' A trip to Wikipedia revealed these definitions, which are stimulating my imagination...
Stem cells are primal cells common to all multi-cellular organisms that retain the ability to renew
themselves through cell division and can differentiate into a wide range of specialized cell types.
Research in the human stem cell field grew out of findings by Canadian scientists Ernest A.
McCulloch and James E. Till in the 1960s. The three broad categories of mammalian stem cells are:
embryonic stem cells, derived from blastocysts, adult stem cells, which are found in adult tissues,
and cord blood stem cells, which are found in the umbilical cord. In a developing embryo, stem
cells are able to differentiate into all of the specialized embryonic tissues. In adult organisms,
stem cells and progenitor cells act as a repair system for the body, replenishing specialized cells.
As stem cells can be readily grown and transformed into specialised cells with characteristics
consistent with cells of various tissues such as muscles or nerves through cell culture, their use in
medical therapies has been proposed. In particular, embryonic cell lines, autologous embryonic
stem cells generated through therapeutic cloning, and highly plastic adult stem cells from the
umbilical cord blood or bone marrow are touted as promising candidates.
I find this v. useful as it allows me to make a point that L(E)Ts could be seen metaphorically to be
a kind of stem cell in practitioner research but they are not the only kind - there are other multi-
cellular organisms with other lesser? equally? (or perhaps even more?) diversifying potentialities.
In the wrong 'measure' is it possible that stem cells can proliferate into cancers and be invasive? In
the wrong hands stem cells might be limited to cloning and resulting tissues develop none of their
potential uniqueness (My Popperian tendency to refute is investigating the validity of my metaphor
as I tentatively offer some ideas to the list!) How far do we see the emergence of different kinds of
living theories that might be see metaphorically at least as embryonic, adult and cord stem cells?
Well - I am 'inspired out' for the moment - so off for some breakfast & to mull over the metaphor!
Warm regards,
Sarah
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