CREATING AND TESTING INCLUSIONAL AND POSTCOLONIAL LIVING EDUCATIONAL THEORIES

 

SEMINAR PRESENTATIONS TO THE BERA 2005 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

15 SEPTEMBER, 2005, UNIVERSITY OF GLAMORGAN


OVERVIEW

 

The seminar is an exercise in social validity. Its aim is to test the validity of shared understandings of inclusional meanings of new living standards of critical judgement in the educational theories of practitioner-researchers. Each contributor will present their research into their own educational influence. That is, their educational influence in their own learning, the learning of others and in the education of the social formations in which they are living and working. They are researching from within an inclusional perspective and will make transparent the assumptions in this perspective. Inclusionality is a newly emerging awareness of the evolutionary relationship between physical space and boundaries. Each contributor will address the ontological, epistemological and methodological significances of inclusionality for their educational enquiries. They will do this in terms of the development of their contexualised explanations of educational influences in their living theories of learning and self-identity in their professional practices.

 

The new living standards of critical judgement for testing the validity of educational theories will include: a postcolonial critical pedagogy; a pedagogy of the unique and web of betweenness of an Irish University Educator; the passion for compassion of a practitioner-researcher in an Institute for Mental Health; the pedagogisation of a living theory curriculum for the healing nurse in a Japanese University; a flow of life-affirming energy in educational relationships in China's Experimental Centre for Educational Action Research in Foreign Languages Teaching.

 

The seminar builds on previous symposia at AERA and BERA on:

 

AERA 04:

The transformative potential of individuals' collaborative self-studies for sustainable global educational networks of communication.

 

BERA 04:

Have we created a new epistemology for the new scholarship of educational enquiry through  practitioner research: Developing sustainable global educational networks of communication.

 

How are we contributing to a new scholarship of educational enquiry through our pedagogisation of postcolonial living educational theories in the Academy?

 

 and the research programmes in 18 living educational theory doctorates at http://www.actionresearch.net/living.shtml .  The seminar marks a transformatory advance in understanding the nature of the living critical standards of judgement that can be used to test the validity of claims to educational knowledge made from within a living theory perspective.

 

The ontological significance of the seminar is that the practitioner-researchers will be showing how their accounts of their enquiry-learning include the embodied values they use to give their lives meaning and purpose. These ontological values are transformed into epistemological standards of judgement in the course of their emergence and clarification in practice. While each narrative of learning demonstrates a unique form of methodological inventiveness, the methodologies are recognisable as forms of action research.



Title:

 

Pedagogising a living educational theory curriculum for healing nurses

 

Authors & affiliations:

Je Kan Adler-Collins, Fukuoka University, Japan.

Abstract:
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The cultural context of my question is the Faculty of Nursing at Fukuoka Prefectural University in Japan. The history, economics and politics of this social context are important to my enquiry as I am seeking to influence the education and the social formation of a new faculty of nursing through the design and pedagogisation (of a curriculum for healing and enquiry nurses. This is a context for my own learning between September 2004 & September 2005 as I ask, research and answer the question, 'How am I developing a curriculum and pedagogy for healing and enquiring nurses in living my life of learning in educational enquiry?'

 

The research context is focused on my knowledge-creation as I seek to contribute to the development of a new epistemology for a new scholarship of educational enquiry for healing nurses. The development of this epistemology will be studied as part of the process through which the embodied knowledge of nursing practitioners is validated and legitimated in the Academy. This will involve the clarification of the embodied values in the process of their emergence in nursing practice. It will also involve the clarification of my own embodied values and knowledge as I design and pedagogise a curriculum for the healing and enquiring nurse. In the process of this clarification, the embodied values and knowledge will become transformed into living educational standards of judgment and practice that can be used to evaluate the validity of my knowledge claims.

 

 

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Title:

 

Creating a pedagogy of the unique through a web of betweenness

Authors & affiliations:

Margaret Farren, Dublin City University

Abstract:
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This presentation analyses the growth of my educational knowledge as higher education educator, over six years of my self-study, as I develop my pedagogy of the unique and co-create a curriculum in collaboration with teachers on an award bearing programme in ICT in education.

 

I will show how I have clarified the meaning of my values in the course of their emergence in my practice of enquiry. The ontological values, which I have clarified have become stabilised and have become epistemological standards of judgement.  One of my stable standards of judgement, the Web of Betweenness respects the unique constellation of values that I, and practitioners can contribute to a knowledge base of practice. The Web of Betweenness is a relational, connected, dialogic and mutually collaborative learning environment.  It has been generated and sustained through a spirit of community, which values each human being.  ICT can bring embodied values into the public domain using forms of representation that move beyond text.

 

This is a professional journey that involved risk, courage and challenge and I present my explanation of my educational influence in my own learning as I create my pedagogy of the unique. This includes an analysis of how I learn and extend my educational knowledge in mutual dialogue and collaboration with others.

 

 

 

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The emergence of a living theory of responsive practice.

Click here for the full doctoral thesis on which this account is based.

Authors & affiliations:

Marian Naidoo National Institute of Mental Health, England
Note - Marian sent her apologies for having to withdraw after the programme was printed.

Abstract:
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I am a story teller and the focus of this narrative is on my learning and the development of my living educational theory between September 2004 and September 2005 as I have engaged with others in a creative and critical practice

 

This narrative demonstrates how I have encouraged people to work creatively, critically and imaginatively in order to improve the way they relate and communicate in a multi-professional healthcare setting in order to improve both the quality of care provided and the well being of the system.

 

In telling the story of the unique development of my responsive practice I will show how I have been influenced by the work of theatre practitioners such as Augusto Boal, educational theorists such as Paulo Freire and drawn on, incorporated and developed ideas from complexity theory.  This original account of my emerging practice challenges the dominant management theories of life in organisations which focus on command and control and the reduction of uncertainty rather than as is explored in this thesis, developing the capacity to live creatively within uncertainty by exploring identity, strengthening relationships and improving communication.

 

 

 

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Title:

 

Living critical standards of judgement in educational theorising

Authors & affiliations:

Jack  Whitehead, University of Bath

Abstract:
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This presentation analyses the educational influence of  practitioner-researchers in their own learning, in the learning of others and in the education of the social formations in which we live, work and research. The evidential bases of the analysis are 17 doctoral theses awarded between1996 and 2005 for which I was sole or joint supervisor, including my own. These can be accessed at http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/living.shtml

 

The analysis will show how each practitioner-researcher clarifies, in the course of their emergence, in the practice of educational enquiry, the embodied ontological values to which they hold themselves accountable in their professional practice.

The analysis will also show how, through the process of clarification, the embodied values are transformed into the living epistemological standards of critical judgement used to test the validity of the claims to educational knowledge in each doctoral thesis. These standards of judgement will include the traditional standards of originality of mind, critical judgement, original contribution to knowledge and extent and merit of the work.

 

The scholarly significance of the analysis is that it shows an inclusional form of educational theorising that overcomes limitations in the generation of explanations for the educational influence of individuals in learning, from propositional and dialectical theories of education.

 

A distinction will be drawn between education theories and educational theories. This distinction will be used to show how living educational theories can draw insights from the traditional theories of education while being resistant to categorisation within any existing discipline of education. The need to develop a new discipline of educational enquiry, to explain the educational influence of individuals in their own learning, in the learning of others and in the education of social formations, will be explained.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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