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I find it difficult to know how to start each posting. In the physical world there are the micro-movements, the quiet exploratory ‘um’, that is used to test the space and introduce – such subtly isn’t available here. As I can’t find a salutation that doesn’t feel inappropriately over-familiar, impersonal, or personal I leave you to imagine whatever you find communicates my intention to contribute to the flow of exploration Jean and Jack are provoking and connect with the thread of the list’s conversation. Jean wrote: How we are with one another is what we do, our embodied actions. And how we are makes us who we are. Our identities are grounded in our actions. We literally create our selves and our identities. As you, Moira, greet each person I believe you are explaining publicly how you are, with that person and with yourself in the world. In this context I find the Zulu Sawubona thought provoking. Jack wrote: Tsepo Majake introduced me to the idea of Sawubona in a paper for his masters programme with Jean in the township of Khyaletisha. A literal translation means, 'I see me in you'. As you look at the clips I am wondering if you recognise the expression of embodied values, skills and understandings you are also working to bring more fully into the world? I wonder if that is something I see in the flow of connections in the greetings of students and Moira; each is connecting with their ‘me’ in the other, in the context of a quality educational environment. Jack asks: http://www.jackwhitehead.com/jack/jwyoutubeimages3.htm As you look at the clips I am wondering if you recognise the expression of embodied values, skills and understandings you are also working to bring more fully into the world? And Jean asks: How do we make judgements about how we are? When I look at Jack’s collage and narratives I feel an invitation to see and create these flowing connections extend across time and space. As I create and recreate those connections I am thinking ' do I see me in you?’, ‘what ‘me’ am I seeking?’ and I wonder how often I connect to the ‘me I don’t want to be’ in others: impositional, aggressive, demanding. How am I making judgements about me and the way I want to be in the world? When Jack writes: In asking, researching and answering good quality questions I think we can contribute to the creation of a world of educational quality. I am wondering if exploring the implications of asking questions about our educational influences in our own learning, in the learning of others and in the social formations in which we live and work, is a characteristic of world leading standards of judgment for educational practitioner research? I see in the collage and narratives Jack recognising people seeking to connect to the other invitationally, non impositionally, sensitively, to communicate enquiringly of themselves and the other, to communicate something that is important to them. (I appreciate this is how I am seeing the world and I do not pretend that I can talk for Jack.) In writing this I realise these are qualities I wish to see lived more fully in the world and in the world of education children and young people are exposed to and I am asking myself how I might contribute more to the realisation of such a world. So for me the question is an important one to continually ask, ‘am I asking good quality questions and in researching answers do I contribute to the quality of an educational world I wish to see?’ For me a gift is in the creation with another in mind, the offering and the manner in which it is valued. Jack writes: I hope you receive this visual narrative in the spirit of a gift in which I'm developing my own talent for communicating the living standards of judgment that can help to move the world to a better place to be. I feel an open offering, rather than the delivering, of a gift in creation; in working with it over time I hope I can contribute to it’s worth. Feels like a really good way to start a day, a week and a year. ----- Original Message ---- From: Jack Whitehead <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Saturday, 30 December, 2006 2:32:17 PM Subject: Re: Judging Educational Influences In Terms of World Leading Standards of Judgement Here's wishing you a most pleasurable and productive New Year as we move into 2007. Do please share your thoughts on the questions we might address in 2007 that could help to fulfil the purpose of the seminar. As part of my own contribution I have produced a multi-media response to the question: Are we co-creating world leading standards of judgement in our enquiries as educational practitioner-researchers as we work at contributing to the generation of a world of educational quality? and you can access the collage of video-clips and visual narrative at: http://www.jackwhitehead.com/jack/jwyoutubeimages3.htm I do hope the account captivates your imagination and stimulates a response. My question is grounded in the assumption that each one of us is contributing to the creation of a world of educational quality through the expression of world leading standards of judgment in our local contexts. My own feeling is that each individual in the different video-clips is freely giving of themselves in the educational relationships and conversations and it is in this spirit of a gift that I offer the collage of video-clips. Love Jack. 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