Dear Jack and all,
I have just drafted the paragraphs pasted below as introduction to a section
in an essay I/we are preparing on 'Living Evolutionary and Educational
Processes'. I think they may be very relevant to the discussions on this
thread.
Love
Alan
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Beyond Objective Definition: The Inclusional Nature of Evolutionarily
Sustainable Organization, and What This Means both in Theory and Practice
The evolutionary sustainability of living processes rests on the capacity to
attune patterns of energy flow with continually changing contextual
circumstances. Any kind of human endeavour or enquiry made within a rigidly
prescribed frame of reference cannot therefore endure in the long run, no
matter how convenient it may appear to be in the short term. There is
therefore a need not only to be able to recognise the diverse and often
covert ways in which such a reference frame is imposed in human
organizations, but also how this can be obviated, both in theory and
practice.
Most fundamentally, prescriptive objective definition is evident whenever
structure is given precedence over flow. In other words, prescriptive
definition treats structure as a given, already set in place, which is not
dynamically emergent from and within flow but solidly fixed before flow. By
the same token, boundaries are regarded absolutely as defining limits
between discontinuous insides and outsides, not as dynamic relational
distinctions between spatially continuous inner and outer neighbourhoods.
The paradoxical outcome is tantamount to arguing nonsensically that a river
consists of zillions of cups of water abstracted from its flow or that the
process of someone running or walking comprises the instantaneous 'events'
localized in the freeze-frames of a cine film of their movement. First the
flow is stalled within discontinuous segments of space and time, and then an
attempt is made to re-install the original fluidity by aligning the segments
contiguously, which is no more possible in reality than it is for all the
King's horses and all the King's men to restore the living spatial
continuity of Humpty Dumpty's fluid identity. To insist that it is possible,
whether by way of conceptual explanations of natural phenomena or physical
endeavours to assemble a live 'whole' from its 'parts' is a mark of the
utmost existential and intellectual Pride. It represents a vain attempt to
create an abstract virtual reality in which the local and particular can
have dominion over the non-local omnipresence of space throughout Nature,
based on assuming that Nature as a 'whole' can be completely divided up into
that from which it is assembled by some ineffable external force. It arises
from trying to localize infinity within a three-dimensional box-frame.
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack Whitehead" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 11:35 AM
Subject: Re: AA Thread 2 07-08 How do i~we explain our educational
influences in learning to improve our educational influences as
practitioner-researchers within the social and other formations that
dynamically include us?
How do i~we explain our educational influences in learning to improve our
educational influences
as practitioner-researchers within the social and other formations that
dynamically include us?
On 5 Mar 2008, at 10:38, Jean McNiff wrote:
"I believe that a strong evidence base has emerged - and now needs
strengthening - to show the
formation of a worldwide culture that is grounded in openness and engagement
with others,
through a willingness to demonstrate personal accountability - from all.
Which leads me to
suggest that all of us participants on this list might produce evidence to
show how we are
producing our explanations for what we do. I do think we would all learn
much from one another
about how we can contribute to personal and social wellbeing if this were to
happen, and would
go far in strengthening the global evidence base." (Jean McNiff, 5 March 08.
10.38)
I'm following Jean's suggestion of focusing on evidence to show how I am
producing my
explanation for what I do in my life and work as an educator and in my
educational research
programme into the nature of educational theory. I connect closely my 'how'
questions with my
'why' questions and Susie's latest posting resonates very strongly with the
values I use to give
meaning and purpose to my life. These values form some of the most
significant explanatory
principles in my accounts of what I do:
" I could never have got to this place of seeing into this living entity
without the few deep
conversations I have had with fellow workers experiencing the same things
and without going into the roaring terrain of my inner core which laments
the lost opportunity for love and friendship, trust and creativity, and
truly transformative experiences. As well as all this, and in the same work,
I am facilitating a team of volunteer facilitators where this experience of
inter-subjective and transformative experience is beginning to emerge - so
the story is going on." (Susie Goff 9 March 08 15.43)
Like Susie I value highly, love, friendship, trust, creativity and truly
transformative educational
experiences. I especially value the transformatory conversations with
members of the e-seminar
where these values have been expressed in our natural communion (see Alan's
writings on Natural
Communion at http://www.inclusional-research.org/furtherreading.php ).
I also value highly the development of the living boundaries within which
these values can be
expressed while at the same time providing resistance to damage from
individual and cultural
pressures that could undermine the expression of these values. I show where
my thinking has got
to in terms of these living boundaries in the first paper below:
I value the educational space this e-forum provides because it permits us to
share our educational
enquiries over months and years, to learn from each other's enquiries and to
benefit from each
other's wisdom.
Susie - I am looking forward to sharing your thoughts on your facilitation
of 'a team of volunteer
facilitators where this experience of inter-subjective and transformative
experience is beginning
to emerge.' I'm wondering whether this work will move your 'lament' (I
know the feeling) to one of
pleasure in feeling the fuller emergence of the expressions of love,
friendship, trust, creativity and
transformative experience. I'm hopeful that we might find it possible to
'combine' our voices ( see
below), as we work at living these values as fully as we can.
Occasionally I like to place in the archive, for any critical help you wish
to offer, my living theory of
explanations of educational influences in learning (my own, others and
social formations). My
living theory contains the evidence to show how I am producing my
explanation for what I do.
This paper, on the boundaries of cultures, in resistance is due of
presentation next week at a
Cultures in Resistance Conference in Manchester UK
How Are Living Educational Theories Being Produced And Legitimated In The
Boundaries Of
Cultures In Resistance?
http://www.jackwhitehead.com/jack/jwmanchester250208.htm
The following url takes you to a draft paper for a keynote to the
International Conference of
Teacher Researchers in New York on the 28 March on Combining Voices in
Teacher Research. Any
help you can give me on developing the idea of combining our voices as
practitioner-researchers
would be much appreciated.
Combining Voices In Living Educational Theories.
http://www.jackwhitehead.com/aerictr08/jwictr08keyDR303.htm
I do hope that you will share your own accounts for each other and for the
archive with live urls to
your explanations of educational influence. I'm thinking of accounts such as
these from Jean
McNiff's website for presentation at the AERA 08 conference (24-28 March),
from research in
Khayelitsha in South Africa:
http://www.jeanmcniff.com/khayelitsha/tsepo_AERA_2008.htm
Love Jack.
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