Hi Jack and others
Yes, I think it's reasonably clear. And I think it's a very important
message. The disciplines-based approach has been influential for a very long
time even after it's past its use-by date, I think.
You may be interested to know that your 'living educational theory' concept
has also been reinforced in a recent profile posted on Prof. Kereti
Rautangata, an expert carver whose work is one of the reasons I wrote the
initial paper in 'Research Intelligence' challenging the purely written as
validation of research. While some of Kereti's work is very esoteric,
combining aspects of Maori and non-Maori spirituality, he has this to say:
"...the best teaching method is really by being a dynamic living example..."
If you want to read more about Kereti's work, go to
http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/community/ako-aotearoa-academy-tertiary-teaching-ex
cellence/resources/pages/professor-kereti-rautang
I just thought it is worth passing on this information in the context of
your leading of the e-seminar, Jack, because it supports the value of your
work in an international context.
All the best to all
Pip Bruce Ferguson
-----Original Message-----
From: Practitioner-Researcher
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jack Whitehead
Sent: Thursday, 12 February 2009 1:18 a.m.
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Explaining our educational influences in learn...
I've been asked to lead the BERA Practitioner-researcher e-seminar on an
epistemological
transformation in educational knowledge, from the 16-22 February on the new
BERA web-
site. Whilst this is only open to BERA members I'm hoping that because of
our shared
interest in practitioner-research you will help me to improve the clarity
and invitational
quality of the introductory comments below. I'll be sending in my
introductory comments
for posting, on the 13th February for posting on the new BERA web-site to
begin the week
long seminar. The topic is closely related to the focus of our year long
2008-9 seminar so
do please let me have your suggestions for improving the introductory
comments. Don't
hesitate to be 'robustly critical'.
(Brian - I've tried to simplify the language of the first draft and put some
of the urls into
the notes and references)
"An Epistemological Transformation in Educational Knowledge
A few words of introduction.
The introductory ideas for this e-seminar are on pages 28-29 of Issue 105 of
Research
Intelligence (November 2008) on an epistemological transformation in
educational
knowledge. You can access Issue 105 at:
http://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/category/publications/ri/
My focus on the standards of judgment used in the Academy to legitimate the
educational
knowledge in educational theories relates to a mistake made by some
Academics about
the nature educational theory. This mistake has had serious consequences for
programmes of professional development. It led many academics to believe
that the
practical principles used by educators to explain their educational
influences in learning
were "at best pragmatic maxims having a first crude and superficial
justification in
practice that in any rationally developed theory would be replaced by
principles with
more fundamental, theoretical justification." (Hirst, 1983, p. 18).
The mistake in 'replacing' the explanatory principles of educators by the
principles from
the disciplines of education, is still within the habitus of higher
education. The mistake
has a 2,500 year history and can be traced back to the language and logic of
Aristotle. It
is a mistake that is both difficult to recognise and to rectify. I hope that
this e-seminar
will help by making explicit the energy-flowing and values-laden practical
principles that
educators use to explain their educational influences in learning. I am
thinking of
explanations that draw insights from the theories of the disciplines of
education, without
being reduced to the conceptual frameworks of any individual theory or any
combination
of such theories.
I use the term, living educational theories to distinguish these
explanations from
explanations derived from theories in the traditional disciplines of
education.
I am hoping that this seminar will serve to widen the influence of living
educational
theories in an epistemological transformation of educational knowledge. I
believe that it
will draw attention to the educational knowledge created by
practitioner-researchers who
see themselves as 'creators of a body of professional knowledge' (Saunders,
2009, p. 10).
I also believe that it will highlight forms of educational enquiry that are
owned by
professionals in doing the job better and perhaps go beyond the provision of
a tool-kit
(Pollard, 2009, p.10) in asking, researching and answering questions of the
kind, 'How do
I improve what I am doing?'
References and Notes
1) Hirst, P. (Ed.) (1983) Educational Theory and its Foundation Disciplines.
London;RKP
2) Pollard, A. (2009) in Hofkins, D. (2009) Eight letters starts with. P,
Teaching: GTC
Magazine, Spring 2009.
3) Saunders, L. (2009) in Hofkins, D. (2009) Eight letters starts with . P,
Teaching: GTC
Magazine, Spring 2009.
4) I think Biesta's insights about educational responsibility might help in
the recognition of
the mistake and support the need to go beyond a language of learning in the
creation of
a new epistemology for educational knowledge:
".education is not just about the transmission of knowledge, skills and
values, but is
concerned with the individuality, subjectivity, or personhood of the
student, with their
"coming into the world" as unique, singular beings." (Beista, 2006, p. 27).
Biesta, G. J. J.
(2006) Beyond Learning; Democratic Education for a Human Future. Boulder;
Paradigm
Publishers.
5) My educational research programme at the University of Bath between
1973-2009 has
focused on the nature of educational theory. You can access my 1988
Presidential Address
to BERA on How do we Improve Research-based Professionalism in Education?-A
question
which includes action research, educational theory and the politics of
educational
knowledge. at http://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/category/publications/presidents/
and my
paper on 'Creating a living educational theory from questions of the kind,
"How do I
improve my practice?'. Cambridge Journal of Education, Vol. 19, No.1,1989,
pp. 41-52,
at: http://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/category/publications/presidents/
6) My latest 2008 publication on A Living Theory Methodology In Improving
Practice And
Generating Educational Knowledge in Living Theories in the Educational
Journal of Living
Theories, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp 103-126 , can be accessed from
http://ejolts.net/node/80
7) Some 26 'living theory' doctoral theses, completed over the past 12 years
will be used
as evidence that new living standards of judgment for educational knowledge
have been
legitimated in the Academy. You can access the theses at:
http://www.actionresearch.net/living.shtml "
Love Jack.
|
