Dear All
As Jack says elsewhere: "What I'm hoping is that practitioner-researchers
find some of my ideas about the nature of educational theory helpful as they
construct their own, just as I draw on the ideas of others." The following
tries to explain what I understand by 'draw on', a phrase within which the
process of review is implicit.
I am asking the question: "How can we review the work of Kathryn Yeaman
('Creating Educative Dialogue in an Infant Classroom' at
http://www.bath.ac.uk/%7Eedsajw/module/kathy.htm )and thereby develop
standards of judgment which help us to understand the nature of educational
theories and what counts as evidence of educational influences in learning?"
- while, at the same time, I am hoping that others who have been
concentrating on other strands of this e-seminar will be able to adapt the
process in order to themselves respond to questions of the sort: "How can we
review the contributions to the xx strand of this e-seminar and thereby
develop standards of judgment which help us to understand the nature of
educational theories and what counts as evidence of educational influences
in learning?".
However, if the e-seminar is to draw to a focused conclusion that responds
positively to this last question, then I feel we must come to some sort of
common understanding about how we have been doing what we have been doing
i.e. we need to reflect more on our own individual and collective processes.
For example - Moira; you say in your review of Kathryn's account: "To start
with an engaged and appreciative response; I like the way it draws me in as
a reader" (and you then go on to expand on what you mean by 'draw in'); and
"The logic she uses, transparent and dialectical, makes me realise how
useful this document would be as an example to offer my colleagues in China,
who sometimes find it difficult to theorise from practice or indeed accept
that as a way of conceiving and developing educational knowledge." My sense
is that you have taken a step beyond just constructing a critique according
to the standards I suggested at
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/monday/pmcritbera00.html - you are engaging me
in your process of what it is for you to read (i.e. engage your living self
with) this text. It is this sense of 'linked engagements' (drawing on and
drawing in) which make me claim that here we are seeing process-based living
standards of judgment being given form. If we are to talk about 'living
theory' then I must gain from the text (or from a commentary on a text) a
sense of life and of people's (including my own) linked life processes. It
is not so much 'What do I need to carry out a review?' as 'What is it for me
to engage in this process of review?' (I take it as axiomatic that such
engagement is dialectical in form.) I think I am asking for a slight shift
in perspective. What do you think?
- Peter
