Dear All
have been trying to find a way into some of these discussions which I
am finding both energising (dare I say it!) and helpful in trying to
think through some of my own questions and queries around these areas.
I think Geisha's idea for CARN to be a space to
explore/discuss/debate/argue is both welcome and appreciated and it
was good to hear your comments Sarah re jiscmail - its important to have
different kinds of conversations I guess... Jack, I'm both drawn and
interested in what you are trying to do with the video clips and i
share your commitment to finding other legitimising strategies within
the academy - my query would be whether it is a hostage to fortune to
ask alternative formats to serve a similar function in the prevailing
discourses?? By asking questions such as does this show? can this
prove? does it work? instead of perhaps shifting the question
altogether..... and with it possible responses .... so that meanings
have to be 'sensed' (not in their obscurity) rather than asserted.
Alan's work seems to do something with the 'stuckness' that we are all
caught up in between reasoning and a sense of things and which you,
Jack, work so admirably with from all that I have seen and heard so far.
Attempting to think without immediately recognising thought and
therefore returnng thinking to sameness is as much of a problem in
art, science and philosophy - we separate these at our peril but perhaps
have lost ways in which we can connect them without territorialising
into subject areas or discipline wars - they are importantly ways of
thinking and I'm interested in disrupting my own habits of thought,
trying to understand what holds them or keeps them in place and then
finding some space to think otherwise....
"A thing, an animal, a person are only definable by movements and rests,
speeds and slownesses, and by affects and intensities" Deleuze,
Dialogues and at first it seemd odd, but its beginning to work in my
head as a way of widening the possibilities for our understandings of
humanness and connectedness - so something of energy perhaps but also in
the necessary ebbing and flowing of life
perhaps we need to rethink, resist and reformulate the excesses of
performativity culture that has us chasing our tails for evidence,
visible and measurable dogmas instead of foussing our minds on thinking
and feeling... that is what I sensed from the videos and I donlt have
any answers but I like the questions you;ve started and into motion!
cathie
Dr Cathie Pearce
Research Fellow
ESRI
MMU
tel: 0161 247 2074
Before acting on this email or opening any attachments you should read
the
Manchester Metropolitan University's email disclaimer available on its
website
http://www.mmu.ac.uk/emaildisclaimer
>>> "Alan Rayner (BU)" <[log in to unmask]> 06/04/09 11:46 AM >>>
Dear Jack,
I guess an even simpler way of expressing this might be in terms of
'Showing' (ostensive expression) and 'Telling' (lexical
definition/distinction). Both involve attempts to communicate some kind
of imagery of what is being borne in mind (i.e. 'mental imagery') as a
means of corresponding (attuning) with others. Each in its own way is
vital to the other, so that problems arise when one or other is used
exclusively, i.e. as 'All Show' or 'All Talk' (corresponding with the
current 'gap' between 'Art' and 'Science'). Such exclusive use is
exacerbated - especially in the Academy - by DEFINITIVE LOGIC, of the
kind that is deeply embedded in normative educational practice and
objectivistic science and mathematics (including that upon which Quantum
Theory is based), founded in the imposition of discontinuity between
'matter' and 'no matter' (space).
This is why I have been at such pains to try to develop a 'Language of
Allusion' (cf attached poem) that can help us effectively to combine
'showing and telling', as distinct from a 'Language of Definition' that
reinforces false impressions of discontinuity by permanently solidifying
'flow' into 'concrete word-bites'. Such a language of allusion allows
distinctions (and descriptions) to be made that conserve openness to
creative possibility (and uncertainty) without the need to impose
definition (absolute closure). The trouble is that we have taught
ourselves to accept 'definitive language' as 'plain language' - which is
how I think the likes of Richard Dawkins get away with what I view as
intellectual murder, by appealing to what sacrifices truth for the sake
of ease/convenience of expression.
Warmest
Alan
----- Original Message -----
From: Jack Whitehead
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 10:35 AM
Subject: Re: Life affirming energy with values/A new epistemology for
educational knowledge
On 3 Jun 2009, at 20:46, geisha rebolledo wrote:
High every one!!!. I enjoyed this discussion very much. This
discussion about "the flow of energy" fascinates me. It made me think on
one side on Quantum theory. I would like to ask Jack if that is a way
to approach this concept?. On the other hand I just had the experience
of attending a Symposium on Action research in San Diego University
which was ecelent . There they showed a video life conference with
some Professors from the Japan Association of Action research . They
examined the integration of Action research with japanese way of
practical thinking.They introduced the idea of " OMOI" which to my
understanding is very similar to the energy connotation that Jack
refers. Therefore I agree with this idea very much and somehow I feel it
is more than knowledge. When I asked if OMOI has an spiritual
connotation in teaching they said something like witough OMOI you cannot
teach !!!! So, I believe this is a crucial concept that deserves a
special discussion.Thank you !! geisha
On 4 Jun 2009, at 08:26, Alan Rayner (BU) wrote:
.....experiential knowledge (embodied knowledge), acquired through
learning to live, love and be loved as a dynamic embodiment of natural
energy flow....
HI Geisha (and all) - very pleased to hear that you are enjoying this
discussion - me too. You ask if Quantum Theory is a way to approach the
concept of 'the flow of energy'. I do think that Quantum Theory offers
one way of conceptualising energy. I like Alan's point that the embodied
knowledge I am writing about is acquired through 'learning to live, love
and be loved as a dynamic embodiment of natural energy flow.'
My own understandings of flows of energy in educational relationships
and explanations of educational influence are developing in a different
way to that offered by Quantum Theory.
My understandings are developing from both the ostensive expressions
of energy with values in educational relationships together and the
lexical or conceptual understandings of energy and value that are
carried through our use of a 'normative' language.
By a 'normative' language I mean a language that assumes that a shared
understandings of the meanings of the words we use rests on shared
definitions of the meanings of the words.
I think of these two forms of understandings as being grounded in
ostensive expressions of meaning and lexical definitions of meaning.
In ostensive expressions of meaning we develop a shared understanding
through pointing to the phenomena we are seeking to understand. In
lexical definitions the meanings of words are defined in terms of other
words. Perhaps I can clarify my meanings with the following two
multi-media illustrations.
I have literally just come back from a meeting with the Inclusion Team
of Bath and North East Somerset where I gave a short presentation on the
different forms of understanding that can be developed with ostensive
expression and lexical definitions. The presentation included viewing
the video-clips and written/multi-media accounts of the participants in
which the participants explain what they are doing. Please click on:
http://www.jackwhitehead.com/banes310509/
Everyone in this morning's meeting said that playing the clips all at
once (you just click on each arrow), without the sound, resonated with
their expressions of a 'life-affirming energy with values'. Those who
had produced written accounts (click on the urls beneath the images)
felt that their use of a 'normative' language helped with the
clarification and communication of the significance of flows of
'life-affirming energy with values' in their explanations of educational
influence. I find inspirational Chris Jones' dissertation on 'How do I
improve my practice as Inclusion Officer working in a Children's
Service' because of the way she integrates both ostensive expressions
and lexical definitions on meaning.
The second illustration is in the notes I've prepared for a masters
session next Tuesday evening at:
http://www.jackwhitehead.com/jack/jwtuesday8june09.htm
It follows the same format as the first illustration. Video-clips show
expressions of life-affirming energy with values in the professional
educational practices of the participants. Each individual has provided
an account/explanation of their educational influences in their own
learning and in the learning of others.
Over the next few months, before the Keynote Symposium at BERA on the
3rd September I'm hoping that everyone will help me to evaluate the
validity of my claim that the academic legitimation of such energy-flow
values as explanatory principles is contributing to the creation of an
epistemological transformation in what counts as educational knowledge.
Love Jack.
|
