Dear Alan

Thank you for a most enjoyable and thought provoking response. I will read
it again. You provoke new trains of thought that is appreciated.

We strive for survival. The best approach I read of on how to council 
mankind towards taking decisions that will take us ever upward led into an 
assembly of some basic
axioms that gets to the basics of what man is all about and what he's trying 
to do.Great religions such as Buddhism had much to offer.


The very basic basic urge would be 'to survive'. From this followed a
formula or compass (tool) that over the long haul will ensure that our 
decisions always are based on what will yield the greatest content of 
survival potential for any situation, as:  "take the action that you believe 
to do the greatest good for each of the following; yourself; your immediate 
family;your group; mankind; other life forms; our planet and supreme being 
(e.gGod, or in harmony with one's own spiritual beliefs and mores.) Base 
decisions on what's true for oneself at present---truth being what one has 
him or herself personally observed or used and evaluated as true for him/her 
( a result hopefully of good
observation) across as many of the areas as are germane to one's scope of
the consequences of your decision. The issue might include all areas, or 
just a few. This approach  might be differently viewed for some situations 
and invert to 'do what does the least amount of damage across the spectrum 
of all the areas'.

The prospect of never harming, getting it wrong or never hurting is 
impossible but this kind of path I read of, and believe in, will give 
steerage for optimum survival, and we'd all make out very well. Our 
technologies in sane hands will serve us reliably and well and fix much past 
damage. We need to be doers who splurge on life by living it, challenging
all barriers to our survival by being causative, adventurous and creative in 
seeking a world without war or insanity and where honest men can rise to 
greater heights on a carrier wave of knowledge.

This, in my view, seems as useful as anything else I have read--greatest 
good for greatest number of areas (not people!) It seems very evident that 
while we might all be equal under the law  all people do not contribute 
equally to mankind's  efforts to survive and prosper!

Anyway---Very best to all here

Ed
Dr. Edward Cumings
(MBA,DPhil, Prof Prod Man.RSA)
Industrial Operations &Change Agent
Tel +27 11 615 8118
Cell  072 2195709
[log in to unmask]


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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "A.D.M.Rayner" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 10:34 AM
Subject: Re: Evaluating the quality of the educational knowledge we are
producing


Dear Ed,

What are you missing? I think that's a very good question!

Far from navel gazing, I think many of us on this list have asked themselves
'What am I/we missing?' We have asked it in many cases because of an
awareness of a contradiction between our values and our practice and a sense
that in the gap lies a source of profound human conflict, distress and
suppression of creativity. Some of us have also become aware of deep
paradoxes associated with the kind of objective rationality that alienates
'self' from 'other' to the extent of believing that 'true competitive
advantage' - as distinct from 'competence' - is a 'good thing' to aim for.

As educators, we are interested in deepening our contextual awareness so as
to improve our understanding of the potential implications of our
interventions in natural processes. If our underpinning logical premises are
unsound, we recognise that there is a risk of 'doing more harm than good',
no matter how benevolent our intentions. So that is what we might be
offering someone like yourself and indeed humanity in general - our
experience of how to build in such awareness to our learning processes. If
you like, we are endeavoring to understand and grow beyond what gets in the
way of understanding, and so asking about 'how to be wise' as well as 'how
to be clever'. I would be delighted if some of the 'products' of our enquiry
are indeed of endless significance whilst lacking 'substance'; in other
words, they are qualities associated with being able to live, love and be
loved in a harmonious and sustainable way. That's the 'value-added' that
'living educational enquiry' contributes to 'training' schedules.

So, what do I currently think is missing throughout much of modern culture
and approaches to learning? In a word: receptivity. But try informing an
unreceptive culture that what is missing is receptivity and your words are
liable to fall on deaf ears. That is the Catch 22 that many of us have been
struggling with as we try to find forms of expression that can get through
or around the definitive barriers to understanding that beset our
rationalistic culture.

You may find the essay at
http://people.bath.ac.uk/bssadmr/inclusionality/inclusionalscience.htm of
interest in this connection. Here is a paragraph from it:

"The most tangible artefacts of Science are those demanded by its ravenous
sister, technology, in order to ease our human way of life. Some, not
necessarily all, of these artefacts may, however, all too readily engender
dis-ease. Many a technological ‘silver lining’ brings with it a ‘dark cloud’
that compromises human and environmental well being in one way or another,
whether it be gunpowder, nuclear energy, cars, planes, wind-turbines,
genetically modified crops, nitrogenous fertilisers, drugs, computers or
whatever. Somehow, however, the ‘dark cloud’ always seems to take many of us
by surprise, looming from some neglected quarter of nature or human nature
that wasn’t accounted for in the initial research and development. Maybe
there’s something about our current accounting methods, which is
intrinsically neglectful and therefore biased in its expectations. If so,
what is being neglected? Could there be a form of enquiry and accounting
that enables us to be more circumspect, more aware of and able to navigate
unpredictable possibilities?"


Warmest

Alan








----- Original Message -----
From: Edward <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 24 June 2007 17:59
Subject: Re: Evaluating the quality of the educational knowledge we are
producing


> I am a practitioner-researcher, only recently early retired from a career
in
> development projects usually made up of internationally located new
> manufacturing facilities incorporating my contribution to holistic
corporate
> vision, feasibility studies, various technologies, logistics, staffing,
> training , and with the fullest requirements of turnkey delivery. The
> objectives always included a result that added true competitive advantage
in
> a way that (contingent always on having a pervasive innovation culture)
> could hold durable high ground for the multinational.
>
> Training (educating) staff, in a wide sense, was always vital for success
> and in application did not 'feel' very academic . action research and
> learning was, and remains, a rocket ride of staying ahead in the core
> competencies of our businesses and applying betterment. The style is best
> described as management by projects---with clusters of managers doing
things
> that aligned with corporate direction and added value---with constant true
> fostering of outward-looking innovation mindsets.
>
> What drew me to BERA-Practitioner-Research was the possibility of learning
> what other 'practitioners' were doing in other fields to advance
> competencies in training skills. Now located in South Africa I am involved
> in initiatives that will accelerate development of skills, without which
> South Africa cannot progress.
>
> My background and ALAR platform recognizes the futility of training
without
> balancing new knowledge with application, to a level of good do-able
> confidence on the part of the learner, mentee, aspiring miner, farmer or
> engineer.
>
> I cannot connect learning without a doingness or a step towards a result.
> Learning that sounds like esoteric pondering of imponderables and
> agonisingly structured (impossible to accurately duplicate) theories do
fill
> libraries with useless data. Huge areas of the 'humanities' subjects for
> example have delivered so little to mankind relative to the fortunes
poured
> into these faculties.
>
> I look at any field of anything and ask 'what have been the products and
> benefits from that body of knowledge?' Simply judge by its products.
> Engineering, physics, mathematics, medicine, phonetic teaching for example
> are, inter alia, clearly irreplaceable bodies of knowledge that grow under
> the umbrella of the strict rigor of fitness for use. In negative contrast
> are things like psychiatry and human resources that have added nothing
when
> their 'products' are looked at properly. Some recent views of physicians
> show their disgust of having psychiatry branched alongside conventional
> medicine, undeservedly linking  pseudo science with a great body of
> progress, making the point that it brings true medicine into disrepute.
>
> In summary I have tried to look well at the real world and firmly believe
> that authority must rest with the doers; the millions who keep the wheels
> turning and who reward productivity---knowing that productivity (in a wide
> sense as a mother raising children well may probably lead all) is the
basis
> of morale and the vitality that carries us all.
>
> BERA dialogue sounds like endless significance--no substance??
>
> Here within BERA most people sound very well educated, yet nothing
tangible
> ever seems to emerge into a firm step of action that works or is worth
> putting into a trial programme right now.  What am I missing? Does BERA
> have a repository of success stories and a direction that delivers some
> graspable value that adds to the progress of us all?
>
> best
>
> Ed
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Barra Hallissey" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2007 4:44 PM
> Subject: Re: Evaluating the quality of the educational knowledge we are
> producing
>
>
> > Thought I'd share a few ideas of Martyn Hammersley which may have some
> > relevence with respect to Evaluating the quality of the educational
> > knowledge.
> >
> > Hammersley (2002 p149) writes "value conclusions can only be drawn once
we
> > bring in value premises, and there is usually scope for reasonable
> > disagreement about the selection and prioritising of these.  Thus even
if
> > such premises are actually built into the orientation of a piece of
> > research, and the researcher draws value conclusions, these will always
be
> > open to challenge on the gounds that they do not follow directly from
the
> > factual data."
> >
> > "Feasibility cannot be judged in global terms.  Moreover, judgements
about
> > it are likey to be distorted by any pressure to produce 'actionable'
> > knowledge.  In my view, the problem  with much educational research
today
> > is that it is far too ambitious in its stated aims and in its knowledge
> > claims. It often pretends to have been successful when it has not been"
> > (Hammersley 2002 p111).
> >
> > And finally, "the value of research is not restricted to cases where it
> > modifies practice.  To accept such a restriction is to commit oneself to
> > what might be called modernist idolatry of change.  This forgets that
> > change is not always for the better, and that stability has intrinsic
> > benefits." (Hammersley 2002 p150).
> >
> > Hammersley, Martyn (2002) Educational Research, Policymaking and
Practice.
> > Paul Chapman Publishing, London.
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
> > Txt a lot? Get Messenger FREE on your mobile.
> > https://livemessenger.mobile.uk.msn.com/
>