Educational Theories That Can Explain Educational Influences In Learning With Love And Other Values Of Humanity: A Response To Daniel Cho

Jack Whitehead

Department of Education

University of Bath

Draft 23 February 2005

Abstract

This paper explores some implications of accepting Cho’s analysis for the generation and testing of educational theories that can explain educational influences in learning. The implications are explored in terms of an educational process that can transform embodied values, such as love and other values of humanity, into living standards of educational judgement. The idea of living educational theories is introduced to the readers of Educational Theory to explain the educational influence of an individual in their own learning, in the learning of others and in the education of social formations. A distinction is made between education and educational theories. Education theories are constituted by disciplines of education that are within psychology, philosophy, sociology, history, economics, management and theology. Educational theories are constituted by the explanations individuals produce for their own learning in educational enquiries of the kind, ‘How do I enhance the meaning of my existence?’ from the ground of their experience of themselves as living contradictions.

An action research methodology is used to demonstrate how embodied values of humanity can be used to explain educational influences in learning. This methodology is also used to demonstrate how embodied values can be transformed into living educational standards of judgement for testing the validity of the explanations. A concept of inclusionality is introduced to develop shared meanings of values that carry hope for the future of humanity in the creation of living educational theories. Some implications of living educational theories for the education of individuals and social formations are explored in terms of 18 living theory doctorates supervised by the author and successfully completed over the last ten years in his work at the University of Bath.

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.

Mary Hartog’s thesis ‘A self study of a higher education tutor: how can I improve my practice?’ was the first thesis, under the new regulations, to submit a visual narrative and analysis of educational relationships. The explanation of learning connects, in the visual narrative, ostensive definitions of loving and life-affirming educative relations with lexical definitions:

Evidence is drawn from life-story work, narrative accounting, student assignments, audio and video taped sessions of teaching and learning situations, the latter of which include edited CD-R files. These clips offer a glimpse of my embodied claims to know what the creation of loving and life-affirming educative relations involves. (Hartog, 2004, http://www.actionresearch.net/hartog.shtml )

Madeline Church (2004) in her doctoral enquiry, ‘Creating an uncompromised place to belong: why do I find myself in networks?’ has successfully defended her thesis, in her viva-voce examination, which included the following claims to know:

I show how my approach to this work is rooted in the values of compassion, love, and fairness, and inspired by art. I hold myself to account in relation to these values, as living standards by which I judge myself and my action in the world. This finds expression in research that helps us to design more appropriate criteria for the evaluation of international social change networks. Through this process I inquire with others into the nature of networks, and their potential for supporting us in lightly-held communities which liberate us to be dynamic, diverse and creative individuals working together for common purpose (Church, 2004, http://www.actionresearch.net/church.shtml )

Eleanor Lohr’s (2004) prologue to her doctoral enquiry, ‘Love at Work’ presents a visual narrative and analysis of her inclusional value of loving. In the thesis submitted for examination, Lohr makes the claim:

In this thesis I represent the meanings of love as I experience love at work in my life. By writing, I learn how to craft the words to express that knowledge.  By seeing the visual images, I begin to understand the power of loving presence.  By listening to the reverberations of my body, I bring critical judgement into my action and articulate this judgement as living epistemological standards of love.  These loving standards enable me to judge the value of my practice, and to be better accountable for what I do. (Lohr, 2004, http://www.jackwhitehead.com/elFront%202.htm )

Having accepted Cho’s conclusions about love, knowledge and inquiry and drawn your attention to the web-spaces where the evidential base can be accessed to judge the validity of claims to knowledge that have been made using love as a standard of judgement, I now want to draw your attention to an existing knowledge base of some 18 doctoral theses that can be seen to have reconstituted educational theory into a living form with living standards of judgement that are formed from embodied values of humanity.

Living standards of humanity in living educational theories

The experience and expression of a loving, life-affirming energy is an inclusional standard of judgement. Because it is also used as an explanatory principle in accounts of learning it is important, as a knowledge-claim, for its validity to be open to question.

Cho, D. (2005) Lessons of love: psychoanalysis and teacher-student love. Educational Theory, Volume 55. Number, 1 pp. 79-95.

Inclusionality (Rayner, 2004) in educational research is a newly emerging awareness of educational influences in the evolutionary relationships between physical space and boundaries. Inclusionality is a form of awareness of space and boundaries that are connective, reflexive and co-creative. It has educational implications for understanding how human beings relate with one another and their environmental living space as distinct but necessarily interdependent identities. Explicating the meanings of inclusional, living standards of judgement in educational enquiries is in an embryonic phase of development. However, some progress has been made in the accounts of learning in recent doctoral submissions (Hartog, 2004; Church, 2004; Lohr, 2004) to the University of Bath. Some progress has also been made in accounts of learning emerging from China’s Experimental Centre for Educational Action Research in Foreign Languages Teaching (http://www.actionresearch.net/moira.shtml )