Dear Geisha,

Thank you very much!

I'm very pleased that you find my comments helpful in support of your 
resistance to the assaults of 'standard practice'! Yours is the kind of 
work that I would especially like to feel my efforts to introduce the 'new 
thinking' of inclusionality can help.

I appreciate that you and others may struggle with some of the 
technicalities and unfamiliar language that you may encounter in some of my 
writings. Do feel free to query me if you wish.

'Natural Inclusion' is just one of four books that I have 'published' at 
www.inclusionality.org, which are free to anyone who wishes to download 
them. I'm attaching the introduction and chapter summaries, so you will 
know where to find what you might be looking for!

Warmest

Alan


--On 11 March 2009 08:48 -0400 geisha rebolledo <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> To Allan ,
> Thank you Alan for the response.It gave me an argument in relation to
> living theory and  how to fight arguments against it. I agree with the
> idea of Education for the development of human beings and ´human
> condition´.However, still there is the point on social conditions,
> specially comming from places like the  so called thirld world and  a
> country having political struggles like mine. I am going to read your
> article on neighbours  inclusion and environment and people. On march 24
> I will have to talk about Action Research and Praxis within the context
> of the Environmental Education Master´s event  at the Pedagogic
> University where I work in Caracas, and I would like to include these
> ideas ,to start to move towards living theories in EE  within our
> context. Greetings, geisha
>
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> __________________________________________________
> Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 08:23:12 +0000
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: The real usefulness of living theory - appreciating
> uncertainty To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
> Dear Geisha and All,
>
> The way in which standard theories and definitive practices actually
> represent an evasion of the uncertainties of real life is,
> coincidentally, a topic which I am discussing this week in my final year
> undergraduate course on 'Life, Environment and People', which is based on
> the attached chapter 8 from my book, 'Natural Inclusion - How to Evolve
> Good Neighbourhood' (downloadable from www.inclusional-research.org).
> The kind of attacks on living theory that you describe correspondingly
> arise not from a deep understanding of nature and human nature, but from
> neurosis - the kind of neurosis that has sustained objective rationality
> for millennia. This is the fear that comes of erroneously believing in
> individual independence and associated random free-for-all that would
> occur in the absence of fully definable rules and regulations. Standard
> theory instils this fear in our classrooms and lecture theatres every
> day, making it more and more difficult for ourselves to face up to and
> make the most of real life. That's not what I would call education. It's
> not what leads us out into wider awareness of our circumstances, but what
> dumbs us down into both creating and being unable to cope with the
> conditions that precipitate environmental, social and psychological
> damage.
>
> Warmest
>
> Alan
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: geisha rebolledo
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 1:22 AM
> Subject: Re: The real usefulness of living theory
>
> Hi!!! I would like very much to participate in the discussion. Though I
> feel I like the idea of living theory when I think in the academic world,
> I forsee  resistance and attacks on its  application in pedagogic
> research and practice. One of the points is related to  atacking  it as
> ¨ individualistic¨  and caotic. There is this accepted believe that
> using  standard theories  and   different types models  one is safe  and
> accepted as  a profesional. While if everyone follows his own living
> theory there might be caos. I would like some response on these ideas.
> Thank you, geisha
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> __________________________________________________
> Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2009 08:29:22 -0400
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: The real usefulness of living theory
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
> All:
>    Yes, I echo the thought about taking some time to reflect on these
> ideas for a day or two (and more). This topic has a great deal of
> importance in my dissertation research as well. Let's keep this going.
> I'll post on this later in the week.      I've also enjoyed reading the
> posts thus far, along with the attachments. Jack, I'll try to get your
> article online tonight.  Regards,
> David Loe
> Kent State University
> Kent OH USA
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 11:46 PM, geisha rebolledo <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>
> Thank you Jack for this enlighting article. I will try to write some
> ideas about my own  practice tomorrow. Greetings, geisha
>
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>> Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2009 13:55:18 +0000
>> From: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: The real usefulness of living theory
>
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>
>
>
>> Dear Robyn, Pip, Alan and all.
>>
>> I'm looking forward to giving this issue of the real usefulness of
>> living theory more  thought.
>>
>> My initial thoughts are focused on Robyn's insights that:
>>
>> "Alongsideness has another value that I have not been living here.
>> Responsive  responsibility (thanks Moira - I remember you helped me find
>> this explanation). I need  also to take responsibility and act as a
>> professional when things are not right. If she is  asking for
>> containment then I need to act for her and for the safety and future
>> mental  wellbeing of the children. That is the value that is not being
>> lived here. This is the  conflict within alongsideness values that I
>> found hard during my research process and still  find hard. It requires
>> special effort to act but having decided to do it I can do it. The
>> other alongsideness values remain in place as I act because, I believe,
>> they are more  intuitively me."
>>
>> One of the uses of living theory is that it can focus our attention on
>> the significance of our  learning in terms of our understandings of (and
>> evolution of) the values we use in giving  our lives their meaning and
>> purpose and in terms of our explanations for our influences in  the
>> world. For example, I like Robyn's awareness of the importance of
>> 'responsive  responsibility' as a value that needs to be lived along
>> with 'Alongsideness'. As I've said,  I'll give this more thought.
>>
>> I'm wondering if a paper of mine (attached), in the March 2009 issue of
>> Action Research  on 'Generating living theory and understanding in
>> action research studies', might  contribute to our understandings of the
>> real usefulness of living theory. The March 2009  issue of the Journal
>> on 'Theory' only came through this morning! If you find useful any of
>> the ideas in this paper on living theory, with its live url links, it
>> would be good to know as  I think that your use of my ideas (and mine of
>> yours) is evidence of the real usefulness of  living theory.
>>
>> Love Jack.
>>
>>
>>
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