HI All
This is a very serenpitious e seminar for me! Not only does the topic
of traditonal scholarships hit home with me, the insights and thoughts
from some of the emergent threads speak so profoundly to the
philosophies and readings that I have been immersed in for some time.
Louise, take heart! there are ways of putting poststructalism to work
that makes it impossible to return to tradtional notions of scholarship
and research - that helps to gain new perspectives on things and abandon
old habits of thought. Traditonal models that follow narrow goals and
attempt to homogenize, limits the possibilities for learning and reduce
them to representational ideologies. It also denies difference and
locks us into oppressive patterns that repeat and pushes thinking into a
grid, method or formula. Whilst I don't subscribe to theory being
imposed; I also wouldn;t subscribe to any approach being imposed so
don't think this is a problem with 'theory' as such but more in the way
that 'theory' is being used.
As Foucault says "In this sense theory does not express, translate or
serve to apply practice; it is practice. But it is local and
regional…and not totalising. This is a struggle against power, a
struggle aimed at revealing and undermining power where is most
invisible and insidious. It is not to ‘awaken consciousness’ that we
struggle but to sap power and not their illumination from a safe
distance. A ‘theory’ is the regional system of this struggle."
And as John Mullarkey says "its doing is its creating" !
Louise, perhaps you should surprise your supervisors and write your way
out of it!! The threads here give some multiple suggestions for how to
use your intuitions, feelings, senses of things as positive energy to
create and by the same token, to create texts!
Good luck
Cathie
Dr Cathie Pearce
Research Fellow
ESRI
MMU
tel: 0161 247 2074
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>>> Dianne Allen <[log in to unmask]> 04/10/08 8:36 PM >>>
Hi all,
Maree wrote
Reading what Louise and Jack wrote reminded me of how I felt when I read
Jane Spiro's wonderful story 'Eye and the Fellow-traveller' for the
first time. I found Jane's story inspiring and wondered if other people
might as well. You can find it on
http://www.jackwhitehead.com/monday/janeepilogue.htm
Thank you for sharing that.
And what is interesting, for me, is to struggle with the bit that says
"Will this do?" I asked.
"Just check in the mirror. What does the mirror say?"
I looked in the mirror. But all I saw was myself, exactly that, just
the same. I didn't look a bit like Thought Doctor or even like Fellow
Traveller.
"All I see is myself, unchanged," I said, somewhat disappointed.
"Exactly that, "said Fellow Traveller. "The journey was yourself, so it
follows that the journey leads to yourself. And your Crown celebrates
yourself."
"Is that going to be alright, do you think?"
"That's the only way it would be alright. I think you are ready to
submit your Crown to the Club," said Fellow Traveller.
How, when I look in the mirror I still think I look the same, but I have
been changed and by the journey, but so subtly, and with continual cross
checking in a mirror that I can't quite notice the difference; just as I
cannot see the stigmata of mild depression that is likely to degenerate.
The awareness of change comes as I continue the walk with the crown,
and find that I and my crown can no longer walk comfortably in some
paths, through some doors; but other doors that have previously been
closed and locked are now open.
Dianne
----- Original Message -----
From: Marie Huxtable
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 9:46 PM
Subject: Re: AA Thread 1 07-08 Raising issues, asking questions, and
making networking available for pr On 8 Apr 2008, at 13:12, Louise Phillips wrote:
"I totally agree about the imposition of theories of others (the
traditional scholarship model) onto
the children's responses, but this is the model that my supervisors
have guided me to follow -
how do I break free from the traditional scholarship model as a PhD
student? It's ridiculous really
- as my supervisors and myself position ourselves as
post-structuralist - yet they still adhere to
many features of the traditional academic model - which is so
positivist...
Anyway I guess I am asking for strategies/ tips to challenge the
traditional scholarship - in my
less powerful position of student."
when you wrote on 9 Ap 2008
"I think I'd learn a lot from sustaining a conversation with a focus
on Louise's question, 'How do I
break free from the traditional scholarship model as a Ph.D.
student?'"
This resonates with me as an educator trying to improve the
educational quality of what I am doing within a school context dominated
by traditional thinking. I hope that you and others contribute further
references and material which can be drawn on to develop a more
authoritative and powerful response to the 'powers that be', and enhance
the quality of scholarship and educational research. Reading what Louise
and Jack wrote reminded me of how I felt when I read Jane Spiro's
wonderful story 'Eye and the Fellow-traveller' for the first time. I
found Jane's story inspiring and wondered if other people might as well.
You can find it on http://www.jackwhitehead.com/monday/janeepilogue.htm
Marie
----- Original Message ----
From: Jack Whitehead <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, 9 April, 2008 8:52:23 AM
Subject: Re: AA Thread 1 07-08 Raising issues, asking questions, and
making networking available for practiti
On 8 Apr 2008, at 13:12, Louise Phillips wrote:
"I totally agree about the imposition of theories of others (the
traditional scholarship model) onto
the children's responses, but this is the model that my supervisors
have guided me to follow -
how do I break free from the traditional scholarship model as a PhD
student? It's ridiculous really
- as my supervisors and myself position ourselves as
post-structuralist - yet they still adhere to
many features of the traditional academic model - which is so
positivist...
Anyway I guess I am asking for strategies/ tips to challenge the
traditional scholarship - in my
less powerful position of student."
On 8 Apr 2008, at 23:50, Louise Phillips wrote:
"THis is what I understand Brian - that I need to follow the widely
recognised academic model -
for success & for recognition. Hence my question to Jack. In the
hierarchy of academia that Jack
has reached a point where he has academic freedom but as a student
this is limited for me."
I think I'd learn a lot from sustaining a conversation with a focus on
Louise's question, 'How do I
break free from the traditional scholarship model as a Ph.D. student?'
This question feels like a
really good question that could form the title of a Ph.D. thesis.
Louise - you are asking for strategies/tp challenge the traditional
scholarship - in your less
powerful position of student. What you might enjoy doing is to read
Donald Schon's paper on The
New Scholarship Requires ad New Epistemology.
Schon, D. (1995) The New Scholarship Requires a New Epistemology.
Change, Nov./Dec. 1995 27
(6) pp. 27-34.
You might also browse through some of the contributions to the 2007
Handbook of Narrative
Inquiry: Mapping a Methodology, published by Sage. I like Jean's
contribution on My Story is My
Living Educational Theory.
I was helped enormously in extending my epistemology capabilities,
from the limitations in
traditional scholarship, by Michael Polanyi's book Personal Knowledge,
where he recommends
taking a decision to understand the world from one's own point originality and exercising judgment, responsibly with universal
intent.
I think you could also gain confidence, in making a contribution to
the new epistemology of
educational knowledge, through seeing that there are external
examiners of doctoral theses who
have track records of examining theses that have extended/transformed
the epistemologies of
educational knowledge from the limitations of traditional scholarship
and into inclusional and
relational epistemologies.
I think you'd find Barbara Thayer Bacon's book on Relational
(e)pistemologies most helpful.
I don't want to overwhelm you with readings but I do hope that we can
sustain a focus on your
enquiry 'How do I break free from the traditional scholarship model as
a Ph.D. student?' in this
thread on Raising issues and asking questions. If you go into Jean's
website at
http://www.jeanmcniff.com/papers/reports.html , you will see the list
of dissertations and theses
includes 5 doctoral theses that have moved onto the new epistemology
base. You will find more at
http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/living.shtml ....
I've also attached Pip's contribution to the March 2008 issue of
Research Intelligence on Increasing
Inclusion in Educational Research: Reflections from New Zealand as
this seems particularly relevant
to Louise's question.
Love Jack.
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