Hi all
What a delightful attestation to great work - well done, Eden.  Indeed, this
warm tribute to the work gives me hope that indigenous peoples' ways of
knowing CAN be recognized and gain awards within predominantly Western
academies.  It's made my day - and I shall look forward to the 'webflowing'
you refer to, Jack.  I'm sure there are a number of indigenous researchers
with whom I maintain contact, who will be most interested to read this work
if you post it on your website.
Warm regards
Pip Bruce Ferguson

-----Original Message-----
From: BERA Practitioner-Researcher
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jack
Whitehead
Sent: Thursday, 21 June 2007 4:02 a.m.
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 18 December 2002

On 20 Jun 2007, at 12:12, Peter Mellett wrote:

"Jack -

I think the following distillate from our recent conversation does not
distort the form of our overall 
intended meanings as I heard them (what do you think?). I believe it shows
us evolving the idea of 
living standards of judgment arising from within a process of co-generation
- as people work at 
using dialogical and inclusional forms of collaboration in order to make new
meanings from within 
their individual and shared forms of life. The standards are tacitly a part
of their evolving 
educational enquiry that is generating new living educational theories of
their own practice(s).......

P. So as a supervisor you are actually looking at - in the case of a thesis
that is generating living 
educational theory - in order to appraise the development of the thesis, you
have to develop your 
own standards of judgment that fit that evolving theory. You've used those
standards of judgment 
that you have generated during your relationship with the student . . and
yet those are not the 
standards of judgement that are applied by the external examiners in the
course of the viva."


I do like what Pete has written here (Pete - I didn't feel any distortion of
my meanings). The 
examiners of a Ph.D. Thesis at the University of Bath have to examine using
criteria that include 
originality of mind and critical judgement and matter worthy of publication.
My own experience is 
that in using these criteria examiners get on the inside of the meanings of
the standards 
generated by the researcher in their judgment of whether or not the
doctorate should be awarded. 

The latest practitioner-researcher thesis to be examined at the University
of Bath is Eden's and the 
Director of Studies has written with his congratulations in a way that I
think supports my 
experience of examiners getting on the inside of the researcher's meanings:

"I am delighted to tell you that Eden Charles has completed his PhD and
satisfied his examiners 
that he has reached the doctoral standard.

Eden's thesis is entitled "How can I bring Ubuntu as a living standard of
judgement into the 
academy?  Moving beyond decolonisation through societal re-identification
and guiltless 
recognition" 

The examiners wrote:

We found the thesis to be an important, discerning and highly original piece
of work, containing 
much publishable material about the new approaches necessary to address and
alleviate 
oppressive practices of all kinds, especially those associated with
colonialism and post-
colonialism. Two key approaches are identified and described in depth:
'guiltless recognition' and 
'societal re-identification'. These emerge from a perception of selfhood
that is distinct within but 
not isolated from natural neighbourhood. The relationship between this
perception, the African 
cosmology of Ubuntu and the recently described philosophical awareness of
'inclusionality' is 
brought out in a clear, insightful and well-rounded way, through the artful
use of personal 
narrative.

Congratulations, Dr Eden, we are all delighted with your success!"

What I'd like to do over the next month is to explore the significance of
Eden's standards of 
judgment in relation to the purposes of this e-seminar. I like the way
Eden's Abstract 
communicates the essence of his thesis:

"This is a living theory thesis which traces my engagement in seeking
answers to my question that 
focuses on how I can improve my practice as someone seeking to make a
transformational 
contribution to the position of people of African origin. In the course of
my enquiry I have 
recognised and embraced Ubuntu, as part of an African cosmology, both as my
living practice and 
as a living standard of judgement for this thesis. It is through my Ubuntu
way of being, enquiring 
and knowing that my original contribution to knowledge has emerged.

Two key approaches are identified and described in depth: 'guiltless
recognition' and 'societal re-
identification'. These emerge from a perception of self that is distinct
within but not isolated in an 
awareness of 'inclusionality'.

They are intimately related concepts. Guiltless recognition allows us to
move beyond the guilt and 
blame that maintains separation and closes down possibility. It provides a
basis for action and 
conception that moves us towards the imagined possibilities of societal
reidentification with 
Ubuntu.
 
Both 'guiltless recognition' and 'societal reidentification' embody
strategic and epistemological 
practices that move away from severing, colonising thought, towards ways of
being that open up 
new possibilities for people of African origin and for humanity generally.
Visual narratives are used to represent and help to communicate the
inclusional meanings of these 
living standards of judgement. The narratives are focused on my work as a
management 
consultant and include my work with Black managers. They explain my
educational influence in 
creating and sustaining the Sankofa Learning Centre for Black young people
in London. They 
include my living as a Black father seeking to remain present and of value
to my son within a 
dominant discourse/context in which this is a contradiction to the prevalent
stereotype."

I think Eden's thesis will be flowing through web-space in the next couple
of weeks.

Love Jack.