John Bentley educational enquiry group at the University of Bath on the 12^th March

10.00-2.00 (longer if we need it) in room 1WN 3.8 of the Department of Education

Notes from the meeting of the 24^th Feb. 25. at John Bentley

At the end of the meeting I said that I’d access contributions to the most up to date literature from Journals of Educational Enquiry and Educational Theory to show how the educational enquiries at John Bentley could be placed alongside these contributions.

You can access the debate in the Journal of Educational Enquiry between Stephen Gorard and Roy Nash at:

http://www.omegageek.net/rickscafe/archives/000297.html

I drafted out my own response for submission to educational enquiry at:

http://www.actionresearch.net/monday/jwjee23feb.htm

(Do see if this explains something about my commitment to help to make public through your educational enquiries at JBS, the values of humanity in your embodied knowledge of your educational influence in your pupils learning.)

At last night’s session Patty showed a couple of video-tapes and asked us to work with her in understanding the values of humanity she was expressing in her relationships with her students. As part of my own response I accessed Daniel Cho’s paper in the latest issue of Educational Theory from the Electronic Journal’s section of the University of Bath Library (I accessed this from Vicky’s room with my library card number, my library pin number, the name and password I use for my e-mail access to the University – as a registered student you have free access to many thousands of pounds worth of educational journals)

My reason for accessing Daniel Cho’s paper was that he made a very good case (grounded in the work of the French psychoanalytic thinker, Jacques Lacan), for focusing on love as the primary value in educational relationships. There is a copy of Daniel Cho’s paper on Vicky’s lap-top. I’ve just started to draft out a response to this paper and my first rough notes are at:

http://www.actionresearch.net/monday/jwedtha.htm

The notes include the following:

“Living standards of love in claims and contributions to knowledge.

In making his case for the necessary place of love within pedagogy Cho turns to Lacanian psychoanalysis for an explication of Lacan's position on love. On the basis of his analysis Cho concludes that with love, education becomes an open space for thought from which emerges knowledge. Cho is clear that, with love, both teacher and student become self-aware and recognize that they exist in a space which preserves the distinctiveness of their positions by turning away from one another and toward the world in order to produce knowledge through inquiry and thought. (Cho, p. 94). This paper is an exploration of some implications for educational theory of accepting this relationship between love and knowledge in educational enquiries of the kind, ‘How do I enhance the meaning of my existence?’

Love, as an embodied value and living standard of judgement is not usually used in evaluating the validity of a claim to educational knowledge in the Academy. In this paper I am going to focus on claims to knowledge that include love as a living standard of judgement and that have been submitted for doctoral examination after five or more years of enquiry. I am also going to stress the epistemological significance of using ostensive definitions, with the help of multi-media accounts including video-clips of practice, to communicate the meanings of embodied values and their transformation into living standards of judgement. My own University, the University of Bath, has only recently permitted the submission of these accounts. A change in the University of Bath regulations during 2004 allowed the submission of multi-media accounts using e-media.”

At last night’s session I suggested that each of your accounts could give some context for your enquiries from school policy documents, other readings connected to your enquiry and the latest OFSTED report on the School. These readings could explain why you are interested in the focus of your enquiry. I thought you could use the above debate in the Journal of Educational Enquiry and the paper in Educational Theory to connect with a growing awareness of the significance of your account as a contribution to the professional knowledge-base of education.

If you would like me to respond to any drafts before we meet on the 12^th just send them on. Our deadline for the hand in to Alex Sing in our Continuing Professional Development Office (please don’t forget to attach the form from the handbook) is Monday 21 March.

Love Jack.