Dear Jack and every one on the list,
Jack,
You bring rigor, erudition and illumination through your thoughtful questions.
The issue of influence within education has been discussed from different perspectives. For example, Some scholars have studies the impact of teacher influence in the classroom (e.g., McCroskey & Richmond, 1983; Richmond & McCrosky;1984; Richmond & Roach, 1992), while others have examined forms of mutual influence in which the teacher influences students, student influence the teacher, and students affect one another (e.g., Simonds, 1997; Staton, 1990).
Jack’s question is: aren't there only a few values and understandings
that if
lived more fully could contribute to the generation of a world of well-being and
educational quality?
Absolutely! As long as we have an educational system that takes into serious consideration the question of “I” (not in its natural dimension), those values exist, make sense and bring liberation. This presupposes that the values, ontologically, need to be embedded within a system that nourishes “I” in its transcendental way.
When I was talking earlier on the relationship between is and ought and their ontologically significant relation, I was referring to the same values. Yes, there are values that need to be promoted, lived and strengthened and their presence would bring rigor, sublimity, growth, elevation and perfection to academia. The point is if educators need to promote those values, do they not need to live those values and if yes, they have already demonstrated the presence of those values through their both intentionality and their act (not their behavior). The mere presence of the values, in this sense, would produce, generate and create influences in different levels. One level is through the evidence that can come from those influenced (they may come verbally and acknowledge those influence trough comments like
“you changed my life”, “I am now somebody else”, etc.). Aside from the exteriorization of their comments (those influenced), the influence can bring a change of climate in terms of political, cultural and personal climate. let's think of those who have influenced us in terms of our cultural, educational, personal climates. Now matter who they are (Dewey, Plato, IbneSina, Kant, etc.), it is the change of the climate that may well indicate their powerful influence. This may not necessarily happen in a cognitive sense but in an emotive context.
Critical reflection of scholarly research allows us to ask questions about what should be, focus on ethical standards and social change, and rationally investigate alternative descriptions of what is taking place in the classroom. In doing so, Sprague (1992) offers six questions that should be asked:
Why do schools exist?
What do teachers do?
What is the nature of development?
What is knowledge and how is curriculum establihed?
How does language function in education?
How does power fucnction in the classroom?
Jack is also asking: “However, if we are to bring the
embodied knowledges of educational practitioner-researchers into the Academy as
valid and legitimated knowledge won't we have to provide evidence of our
educational
influences in learning
and express with some clarity and evidence the living
standards
of judgement we use to evaluate the validity of our contributions to educational
knowledge? Yes, we need to do that. But the question here is: are we supposed to circumscribe the presence of evidence within specific layers or the scope of evidence can not be cooped within some pre-established forms of knowledge? For instance, if we simply comply with a positivist approach that can corroborate the sensibility of evidence within specific avenues, then our options are getting restricted since the evidence
make sense only and if only they are recognized within our pre-defined forms of sensibility. In this sense, narratology, for example may be soon and easily ostracized, where as if we expand the pie, we can see the generation of other avenues that bring sense and sensibility while offering a new horizon for academia.
I’d like to warp up by poem which was published in Integral Review not while ago.
Review not while ago.
Avenues of Mysticism
Sayyed Mohsen Fatemi
I walked through the avenues of mysticism amidst the dark nights of despondency when the nightmares of failure, fiasco, annihilation, devastation, and delirium ferociously echoed in the dismal channels of desperation and frustration, when the fulcrum of being was paralyzed by the antagonizing impediments and the havoc of the mansion of life.
I walked through the avenues of mysticism and searched for the houses of peace where the erosion of anxiety and the mirages of certainty pine away.
I saw a man who was selling pomegranates of joy to the hearts of people at the cost of a sincere smile quite different form the ostentatiously hypocritical ones that can often be found in the metropolitan cities.
I saw a woman who was giving away cascades of lilacs and baskets of sweet basil munificently and generously to open up the incarcerated hearts.
I saw gazelles of sensibility running free in the realms of tigers.
In avenues of mysticism, jasmines teach eloquence and water lilies offer philosophy, the chosen would walk on water and the elite would break the moon and exceed the sun.
In avenues of mysticism, people share the nakedness of the heart and never get lost in the alleys of alienation. There is not a dead end, or a shut off. Nor any cul-de-sac or impasse.
In avenues of mysticism, people use the express train of bliss and bring the news of awareness without any need to C.N.N. or A.B.C. or C.B.S. In avenues of mysticism, the petals of the flowers act as correspondents and report the latest happenings not in utilitarian ways.
In the avenues of mysticism, the subordinate clause sits by the main clause without any shame or doubt. Even the compound sentences turn out to be prepositions afterward.
In avenues of mysticism, prayer serves as a panacea far better than any amphetamine, barbiturates, and PCP or thrill pills.
Fatemi: Avenues of Mysticism 24
Sayyed Mohsen Fatemi holds a Ph.D. in language and literacy Education from the University of British Columbia. He also has a doctorate in psychology and is a published author, poet and translator with many conference presentations. He has been teaching courses on education and language, language and communication, creativity and discourse, hermeneutics and psychology, communication and problem solving, communication and interpersonal skills, communication and television studies, English poetry, psychology of mind, general psychology, and psychology of mass media in the University of British Columbia, New York institute of Technology, Upper Iowa Universities and Pattison College, Century College
and Athabasca University. Mohsen is currently teaching graduate and undergraduate courses on education, psychology, language and communication for the University of British Columbia, City University, University of Phoenix and Upper Iowa University.
Telephone: (604) 222 4495
Address: 103-2720 Acadia Road UBC
Vancouver BC
V6T 1R9
Email: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]
INTEGRAL REVIEW 2, 2006
Sayyed Mohsen Fatemi, Ph.D.
Lecturer in Language Education, Psychology and Communication
The University of British Columbia
Tel: 604 2224495
Emails: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
From: Jack Whitehead <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: BERA Practitioner-Researcher <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Judging the educational influences
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2006 17:11:31 +0000
>Drawing on Mohsen's poetic expression I'm hoping that we can linger longer 'on the
>portico of explicitness to watch the ambiguity of elucidation' to see if we can develop a
>shared understanding of 'educational' influence in the e-seminar that can contribute to
>world leading standards of judgment.
>
>In responding to Mohsen's ideas below I feel their rhetorical power in the sense that I
>am persuaded by and agree with the meanings. However, if we are to bring
the
>embodied knowledges of educational practitioner-researchers into the Academy as
>valid and legitimated knowledge won't we have to provide evidence of our educational
>influences in learning and express with some clarity and evidence the living standards
>of judgement we use to evaluate the validity of our contributions to educational
>knowledge?
>
>Mohsen, I have responded to your different points below to see if we can develop a
>shared understanding of our meanings of educational influence and the standards of
>judgement we use to evaluate our contributions to educational knowledge. I have
>included urls to the evidence-based accounts of practitioner-researchers that I think
>show living meanings of the words and meanings in your rhetoric.
>
>Mohsen - "Richmond and Roach (1992)
suggest that social influence is by definition
>inherent in the role of a teacher. According to them, in order to have a lasting impact
>on student learning, teachers must facilitate academic growth while, at the same time,
>creating an environment conducive to learning. That is, we must establish and maintain
>positive teacher-student relationships if we hope to have a positive influence on
>learning. In this sense, teachers are constantly influencing learners? learning. Some
>may be aware of techniques, skills, knowledge, practices, strategies, classroom
>management, their use of power in the classroom, etc. while others may be oblivious
>of their influencing prism. Latin root of education, educere, connotes the bringing forth
>or leading out of what is inside each child. Heidegger says teaching is to let the
>learners learn.
I think this act of letting would be of great avail in that it can lead to
>learners? independent thinking instead of forcing them, albeit artistically, to abide by the
>prescriptive and proscriptive modes of the teacher."
>
>Jack - I not only agree that this 'would be of great avail in that it can lead to learners'
>independent thinking' I think that Ed Hawker in his educational enquiry 'How can I carry
>out Masters level educational research without abandoning my own educational
>values?' at http://www.jackwhitehead.com/tuesdayma/ehee06.htm , has explored the
>implications of holding such beliefs in his educational practice, researched this
>practice, and generated educational knowledge from this practice that has been
>legitimated in the Academy.
>
>Mohsen "In the meantime, if we look at the educational influences
in terms of learning
>as people like Peter Senge?s learning organization suggests, that requires a
>fundamental change in perspective. That change of perspective is what I call affecting
>the quality of life being the highest art. If we go with an ontological system that
>translates the learner?s meaning beyond his/her natural self, Do we as educators not
>have this mission at the apex of our agenda and in this sense are we not supposed to
>influence learning? ( Whether we have the tangible evidence (in the common sense) or
>not to prove this, we, having thought of this mission and being ontologically soaked into
>that mission, we are influencing the learning of the learners). This influence may unfold
>itself, in one level ,at the stage of intentionality where the educator's intention would
>embrace the action? and the action,
itself, would penetrate those who seek out
>connectivity to the sublime self, albeit from numerous avenues of learning: the paths to
>influence learning would be as infinite as the number of the people or as extensive as
>the number of the breathing."
>
>Jack - I do agree about the fundamental change of perspective. This is why I
>emphasise the importance of Alan Rayner's work on inclusionality as a relationally
>dynamic awareness of space and boundaries that is connective, reflexive and co-
>creative (see http://people.bath.ac.uk/bssadmr/inclusionality/ ). I like your stress on
>ontology and am very fortunate in working with practitioner-researchers here in Bath
>who are willing to account for their own lives and learning in terms of their ontological
>values and beliefs. Marion Naidoo's and Bernie Sullivan's doctoral
theses are
>particularly impressive for the way they hold themselves accountable to their values of
>a passion for compassion and social justice respectively. These accounts can be
>accessed from:
>http://people.bath.ac.uk/edsajw/living.shtml
>
>I also agree with you that that the paths to influence learning are as infinite as the
>number of people. However, aren't there only a few values and understandings that if
>lived more fully could contribute to the generation of a world of well-being and
>educational quality? Because I think that living a few of these values more fully could
>help to create a world of educational quality I like the ethical standards and standards
>of practice of the Ontario College of Teachers where they stress the significance of the
>values of care, trust, integrity and
respect.
>
>(see http://www.jackwhitehead.com/tuesdayma/octstandards.pdf )
>
>I have drafted out a visual narrative for this coming Monday evening's educational
>conversation at the University of Bath. It includes a video-clip that may resonate with
>your idea of affecting the quality of life being the highest art. The narrative is
>accessible from
>http://www.jackwhitehead.com/jack/jwecarpaper.htm and the second url takes you to
>the clip on You Tube that should start streaming quickly. I am wondering if such visual
>narratives that focus on Alan's expression of inclusionality and the living presence and
>relationships of ubuntu might contribute to the development of world leading standards
>of judgment from our practitioner-research?
>
>Love Jack.
