Dear Sarah,

To respond to what you say and because you mention me specifically:

That's great news, Jack - many congratulations to Jocelyn.  By the way
information please - how many examiners are there for Living Educational
Theories internationally?

I do not use this kind of language. When speaking about examining PhD 
work, I would not use the form of words ‘examiners for living 
educational theories’. I would not do this for the following reasons:

1	I think examiners examine reports, or dissertations, or theses – they 
do not examine theories;
2	 I do not use capitals for the idea of a living educational theory. 
This has been a consistent practice over the years, and many people 
will vouch for what I am saying. To capitalize something is to turn it 
into a proper noun, which has a tendency to reify it. I do not see a 
person’s living educational theory as a proper noun or something to be 
reified. Similarly, I avoid capitals for the form of words ‘action 
research’, and many other terms.

I know that you examine in Ireland and Jean
examines elsewhere - how many others specialise in LETs?

I would not speak about ‘LETs’, as noted above. I avoid using acronyms 
wherever possible. I would resist the idea of turning a person’s living 
educational theory into a brand of some kind.

You are right in saying I examine doctoral studies internationally, and 
so can speak out of this experience. In response to your question about 
the number of examiners involved in examining a PhD thesis, I think a 
point needs to be made that there seems to be broad agreement 
internationally that a thesis needs to be examined by at least two 
examiners to maintain quality, and these usually take the form of an 
internal and an external examiner. In the case of a member of faculty, 
three examiners are often appointed. I have returned recently from 
South Africa, where accepted practice requires the supervisor 
(‘promoter’ in South African terminology) to be the first examiner. I 
therefore do not think there is a specific number of people who 
specialize in examining a thesis that takes the form of a living 
educational theory. I know many colleagues working in higher education 
who have the right qualifications for examining doctoral theses and 
they have examined the theses of people I have supervised as well as 
others, of course. Some of these people would have acknowledged 
strengths in methodological issues while some would have strengths in 
subject or content issues. Some have had little knowledge of the idea 
of a living educational theory, but have definitely been open to new 
ideas about methodologies and epistemologies. Some of the viva voce 
examinations I have attended have turned out to be engaging and 
thought-provoking conversations. I do not think anyone expects anyone 
else to conform to a party line of any kind; the whole point of 
examining a PhD thesis is to test a candidate’s capacity for fulfilling 
nominated assessment criteria, such as the capacity to make an original 
contribution to knowledge of the field or demonstrate critical 
engagement.

I also want to make the point that, as an examiner, I do not specialize 
in any one form of methodology. I have examined PhD theses from a range 
of methodological stances. During my recent visit to South Africa I was 
asked to act as critical reader to a thesis written from a critical 
theoretic perspective. I was asked to do this specifically because my 
opinion and experience were respected by the accrediting institution, 
on a broad range of fronts.

The reason I ask is that I am critiquing the living educational theory
approach to action research and I want to understand for how 
'generative' it
is as an educational process,

Finally, a word on the idea of ‘the living educational theory 
approach’. I wonder if there is such a thing. I am reminded of a 
colleague recently who spoke of ‘applying action research’. We talked 
about how action research is something you do, not something you apply, 
in the same way as one could say, ‘I do the housework’ but one would 
not say, ‘I apply the housework.’  In my view, theory is something we 
do – I am not alone in this view; many writers speak about theory 
generation as a process. Also a word on the idea of ‘generative’: I 
began developing the idea of generative transformational processes in 
educational research in the early 1980s, borrowing the term (with his 
permission) from Noam Chomsky. Chomsky speaks about generating language 
in the sense that a finite number of linguistic elements can generate 
an infinite number of original utterances. This is the way in which I 
use the term ‘generative’, that a living entity, especially a person, 
has the capacity to generate an infinitude of new actions or ways of 
being in the world. You may have your own understanding and use of the 
word, however, Sarah, in which case perhaps you need to explain how you 
understand and use it.

I wonder if this response addresses some of the questions you have 
raised, Sarah?

I wonder also if it may generate some useful conversations about what 
it takes both to produce and to examine a PhD with integrity?

All good wishes,

Jean

On 22 Oct 2008, at 19:12, Jack Whitehead wrote:

> On 22 Oct 2008, at 10:24, Sarah Fletcher wrote:
>
> That's great news, Jack - many congratulations to Jocelyn.  By the way
> information please - how many examiners are there for Living 
> Educational
> Theories internationally? I know that you examine in Ireland and Jean
> examines elsewhere - how many others specialise in LETs?
>
> Sarah - I'm trying to keep the space on explanations of educational 
> influence for that
> particular focus hence my response to the above points here.
>
> I don't think that is is possible to give a number to your question 
> about 'how many
> examiners are there for Living Educational Theories internationally'. 
> I've examined some
> 6 doctoral theses from Australian Universities, 4 of these were living 
> theory theses, and
> I'm sure the supervisors of these doctorates are competent to judge 
> living theory theses.
> I know many examiners who are competent to judge living theory theses 
> and have used
> over 40 internal and external examiners for Ph.D. vivas over the last 
> 12 years.
>
> I don't know any examiners who specialise in Living Theory Theses. 
> Examiners of
> doctorates tend to develop national and international reputations and 
> their publications
> usually show a range of competences. I've examined critical theory 
> theses and theses
> that focus on narrative enquiry as well as ethnography and 
> phenomenology.
>
> I'd be careful about your assertions. By saying 'I know that you 
> examine in Ireland', when
> I have never examined in Ireland, this might easily lead to a lack of 
> trust in your
> knowing.
>
> Love Jack.