Hi Jaime and all,

I am responding warmly to your postings........

For me "audience" is a key concept in communication.

If my writing is for the purposes of gaining an MA or
Ph.d it will need to conform to the university
criteria and expectations of language, references,
conceptual frameworks, rigour, complexity.....the
canons of accepted writing.

If  I am writing as a teacher for other teachers (or
practitioners in other professions) my language will
be different.  

In my experience of 40 years in school, and with adult
education I have found , on the whole, that
practitioners are 'spring-loaded' for action,
impatient with theory that does not have clear
pay-offs in practical terms for their classroom (or
more recently with watercolour painting with adults). 

Speaking in the denser more complex language of the
university can create barriers, block communication
and can alienate students. 

It's not that theory or technical language is
irrelevant , but that theory can illuminate practise
when there is a readiness in the student.

If I want to help my students to think about ways of
improving their teaching, or artists to develop
further skills...then it seems self-evident to me that
I should speak in a way that communicates. Writing
needs to be 'incarnational'.

In terms of standards of judgement for practitioner
research I am proposing nothing new in saying....

"that effective communication of ideas to appropriate
audiences might be one standard of judgement"

We may need different criteria for different
audiences.


I have a had a passionate commitment in my career to
action-research improving pupils' understanding or
learning of skills, developing the curriculum, solving
practical problems in schools.  So much educational
research has seemed impenetrable, and irrelevant to my
practical world.  
 
To communicate with fellow practitioners I have needed
to speak the 'koine' as well as the 'classical', the
language of the teacher/nurse/clergy/police officer as
well as the technical/academic/theoretical language of
the university.

I am wondering how we can articulate 'quality' in
terms of language and audience?

Regards to all


Brian




Brian E. Wakeman
Education adviser
Dunstable
Beds