Abstract

In this keynote I want to share four ideas that may be helpful in combining our voices as teacher-researchers in order to extend our educational influence.

The first idea is that multi-media forms of representation are enabling teacher-researchers to represent and understand qualities of recognition in their educational relationships with their students. I am thinking of educational relationships that flow with a life affirming energy and a relationally dynamic awareness that tend to be masked or omitted from much writing on education and about educational research.

The second idea is that we can generate our living educational theories as explanations of our educational influences in our own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of the social formations in which we live and work and offer them as gifts to others.

The third idea is that we can combine our voices in enhancing our educational influence through producing and communicating our educational theories in the living boundaries of cultures in resistance.

The fourth idea is that while we live with the relationally dynamic awareness of space and boundaries that Rayner (2004) refers to as inclusionality, our present ways of representing our educational knowledge in the propositional and dialectical theories legitimated in the Academy and in established and renowned internationally refereed journals tend to mask this relationally dynamic awareness. They also mask or omit the educational significance of our flows of life-affirming energy.

Multi-media narratives of living educational theories are shown to reveal the meanings of such flows of energy and values. When combined in the living boundaries of cultures in resistance they can be a transformatory influence in educational change.

Update of 8th January 2005

I have added the links to the presentations from Symposia at the British and American Educational Research Associations during 2004. I have also added the link to Action Research Expeditions of October 2004 at http://www.actionresearch.net/writings/jack/jwareoct04.pdf

This includes access to the contents of The Growth of Educational Knowledge 1: Creating Your Own Living Educational Theories 1973-1993 at http://www.actionresearch.net/bk93/geki.htm. The first internet link, in Part Two of the multi-media presentation on THE GROWTH OF EDUCATIONAL KNOWLEDGE II: CREATING LIVING EDUCATIONAL THEORIES IN THE EDUCATION OF SOCIAL FORMATIONS, 1993-2004, leads to "How Valid Are Multi-Media Communications Of My Embodied Values In Living Theories And Standards Of Educational Judgement And Practice?" at http://www.actionresearch.net/multimedia/jimenomov/JIMEW98.html. This includes a multl-media performance text to show a process through which the expression of embodied values such as academic freedom can be transformed into living epistemological standards of judgement in the course of their emergence and clarification in practice.

16 September 2004 at the British Educational Research Association Symposium in Manchester on - How Are We Contributing To A New Scholarship Of Educational Enquiry Through Our Pedagogisation Of Postcolonial Living Educational Theories In The Academy? With Paulus Murray - Rayal Agricultural College; Sarah Fletcher (withdrawn) ; Je Kan Adler-Collins - Fukuoka University; Jack Whitehead - University of Bath. Click here

17 September 2004 at the British Educational Research Association Symposium in Manchester on - Have We Created A New Epistemology For The New Scholarship Of Educational Enquiry Through Practitioner Research? Developing Sustainable Global Educational Networks Of Communication. With Jean McNiff, Caitriona McDonagh, Bernie Sullivan, Mairin Glenn - University of Limerick; Joan Whitehead, Bernie Fitzgerald - University of the West of England ; Marian Naidoo - National Institute for Mental Health England; Jack Whitehead - University of Bath. Click here

16 April 2004 at the American Educational Research Association Symposium in San Diego on, The transformative potential of individuals' collaborative self-studies for sustainable global educational networks of communication with contributions from: Catriona McDonagh, Bernie Sullivan and Jean McNiff from the University of Limerick;�Joan Whitehead and Bernie Fitzgerald from the University of the West of England; from Cheryl Black and Jackie Delong from the Grand Erie District School Board; Jack Whitehead of the University of Bath and from Maggie Farren of Dublin City University. Click here

Evolution of Educational Knowledge and Living Educational Theories: A letter from Jack Whitehead 17th March 2003

I am writing this on the 17th March 2003 at a time when an attack by British and other troops on Iraq looks imminent. I can feel the closeness of the killing and death. I have just wished my son Jonathan, Happy Birthday! This carries my love. Living with these tensions between love, killing and death I'm wondering whether our contributions to the growth of educational knowledge might help to educate our global social formations in living more fully the values of peaceful well-being.

I have in mind a shared research programme in which we are learning to live our values more fully in our practices. I am thinking of how we might share our learning in our educational enquiries of the kind, 'How am I improving what I am doing?'.

I imagine that no matter who we are and what we are doing, we have a desire to educate ourselves through our life-time of learning. I also believe, whether as parents, educators and/or citizens, we also want to contribute what we can to the education of others and to influence the education of our social formations in ways that can contribute to the development of a more peaceful and productive world.

In this letter I am breaking new ground for myself as I move from a linear, one to one form of e-communications, to the interconnecting branching networks of e-communications below. I am hopeful that you will engage with some of the ideas this letter gives you access. I also hope that you will feel my desire for inclusivity as I show some of the interconnected pathways of communication that have already contributed to the creation and testing of living educational theories within our different local, regional, national and global contexts.

I will begin with the pleasure of seeing someone that I haven't met making a creative and critical response to the idea of living educational theory. I am thinking of Colin Smith's ideas on the development of shared living theories and I do hope we will and engage and respond to his paper 'Supporting Teacher and School Development: learning and teaching policies, shared living theories and teacher-research partnerships'. This has been published in Teacher Development, Volume 6, Number 2, pp. 157- 179, 2002. You can download the final draft of this paper in Word format by clicking here

I am connecting Colin Smith's ideas on shared living theory to the living educational theories of Jackie Delong, Cheryl Black, Heather Knill-Griesser and Geoff Suderman-Gladwell in the Grand Erie District School Board in Ontario, Canada. Jackie's award for leadership in action research from the Ontario Educational Research Council in 2001 was richly deserved. I think you will appreciate Jackie's achievements in stressing the importance of understanding one's 'system's influence' in the abstract and contents of her living theory doctorate as a Superintendent of Schools. Jackie supported Heather, Cheryl and Geoff in their masters programme at Brock University and it is my belief that they have made public their embodied knowledge as master educators in their dissertions. Cheryl is now a school principal and is continuing with her educational enquiries in a doctoral study of her educational influence. Yet, I doubt if these insights could have developed in the way they have without Kevin Eames' research in the 1980s and early 1990s where he demonstrated how teacher-researchers could 'grow their own' school-based action research group.

I am also connecting Colin's ideas to Maggie Farren's doctoral enquiry into a pedagogy of the unique. Maggie has 'pedagogised' living theory texts in her contributions to the curriculum at Dublin City University and Maggie's use of Information and Communications Technology at DCU is most inspiring.

Terri Austin, the Head of a Charter School in Alaska, has stressed the importance of the practice of community in the self-study of teacher-education practices. I am relating my present learning about the education of social formations to Terri Austin's doctoral enquiry on the practice of community and to Alan Rayner's inclusional ways of being. Alan Rayner is a biologist and ecological researcher whose stress on inclusional ways of being seems to me to offer great hope for the evolution of our living theories and their contributions to a more peaceful and productive future for humanity. Robyn Pound's (2003) doctorate on, 'How can I improve my health visiting support of parenting? The creation of an alongside epistemology through action enquiry' makes a contribution to this future by showing the potential of a living quality of alongsideness to contribute to the well-being of parent-child relationships and to a living theory of health visiting practice. I am also linking Peggy Leong's work on 'Learning Circles' at the Academy of Best Practice in Learning in Singapore to Colin Smith's notion of shared living theories.

The importance of making public our embodied knowledge through webs of living theories can be appreciated through the idea of living standards of educational practice and judgement. Moira Laidlaw developed this idea, communicated it to me and I shared this with Jackie Delong. We both shared the idea with Heather Knill-Griesser. Heather highlighted the significance of living standards of practice (and judgement) in her M.Ed. dissertation on Vision Quest of Support to Improve Student Learning: Validating My Living Standards of Practice: Heather Knill-Griesser. Mike Bosher has developed his own living standards of judgement and transformed his embodied knowledge into the public knowledge of a doctor educator in his thesis on 'How can I as an educator and Professional Development Manager working with teachers, support and enhance the learning and achievement of pupils in a whole school improvement process?'

Ben Cunningham and James Finnegan have influenced my learning about living standards of educational practice and judgement through the quality of their questioning in relation to spirituality and education. Ben's doctoral enquiry was, 'How do I come to know my spirituality as I create my own living educational theory?' James focused his enquiry on How do I create my own educational theory in my educative relations as an action researcher and as a teacher? James' question 'How can love enable justice to see rightly in my practice?', in Chapter Eight of his Thesis, continues to inspire me. I have also been influenced by Paulus Murray and his doctoral research, in my learning about the importance of racialising my insights and discourses. Paulus' ideas and educational influence can be see in a paper we presented at AERA in New Orleans in 2000 on White and Black with White Identities in self-studies of teacher-educator practices. Ian Phillip's is influencing my learning through his work as an educator and African Storyteller. Ian works with Eden Charles at the Sankofa Centre in London. This centre is seeking to meet the educational needs of disadvantaged black youngsters. I do recommend to you Ian's transfer paper from the Diploma to the M.Phil. Phase of a doctoral programme on The Makings and Unmakings in the Making of Me: Affirming and Improving
the Professional Practices of an African Storyteller

Moira Laidlaw continues to explore her educational influence through her work in teacher education at Guyuan Teachers College in China. Her action plan with the Dean of Education, Dean Tian Fengjun (you may have to rotate this PDF in your browser) and her other writings show the continuingevolution of her living educational theories and contributions to educational knowledge

Jean McNiff's original ideas on action research as a generative and transformative process have been matched by the influence of her books and writings in encouraging individuals and groups to develop their own living educational theories. As her writings show, Jean has extended her enquiries and influence into the Middle East. Jean's booklet on Action Research and Professional Development is a delightfully clear introduction and Jean has made this freely available to celebrate our 21 years of working together. Ideas from Jean's booklet have influenced the contributions to Passion in Professional Practice edited by Jackie Delong and Cheryl Black.

Peter Mellett is working on the development of the Action Research component of a 'Research Observatory' at the University of Bath. Action researchers at Bath have contributed to a review of educational action research carried out by Peter Mellett for the British Educational Research Association You can access the review in Word format by clicking here.

Sarah Fletcher has integrated action research processes into her research into making public the embodied knowledge in her own mentoring practice. She has also been supporting teacher-researchers to share and make public their embodied knowledge of mentoring. Sarah is also developing visual narratives that can communicate the meanings of embodied values in educational relationships. I am working with Peter, Sarah, Jackie and Cheryl in different enquiries to develop multi-media accounts of educational influence including the education of social formations. As soon as these can be accessed through the web, I will let you know. Sarah is working with Tadashi Asada from Tokyo University and Tadashi is doing much to develop action research approaches to teacher development in Japan. JeKan Adler-Collins is moving to Fukuoka to start work at the University. JeKan is researching his influence in making public his embodied knowledge as a healing nurse and integrating this into the nursing curriculum of the university. He is studying his own pedagogic influence in the learning of his students.You can read JeKan's writings and participate in the e-forum discussions of living action research.

You might also like to access the work of Judi Marshall and Peter Reason, two colleagues I work with in the Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice (CARPP) at the University of Bath. I particularly like Judi's papers on living life as inquiry. and Living Systemic Practice: Exploring quality in first person research, and Peter's inaugural address on Justice, Sustainability and Participation. Tony Ghaye has also been most influential in developing and communicating ideas on reflective practice. The resources at the Institute of Reflective Practice where Tony is senior partner are well worth accessing.

I want to finish this letter by drawing your attention to what I see as the government's most damaging policy in relation to the future of educational research. Departments of Education like my own who have been judged to be of 5 or 5* quality receive far more funding to support their educational research than other Departments. The present move to create greater selectivity by awarding 6* (and additional funding) is going to increase the damage I have in mind for the future of educational research.

Consider two of the living theory doctoral studies to have been awarded by Kingston University when the Faculty of Education was judged at level 2 in a previous Research Assessment Exercise. I am thinking of the doctorates of Moyra Evans and John Loftus . While Deputy Head of Denbigh Comprehensive School Moyra carried out her enquiry on 'An action research enquiry into reflection in action as part of my role as a deputy headteacher'. In Chapter Eight she explains how she developed her own living educational theory. While a Headteacher John Loftus conducted his research on 'An action research enquiry into the marketing of an established first school in its transition to full primary status.'

I think you will appreciate further the knowledge-creating capacities of practitioner-researchers by reading their educational enquiries. Sarah Fletcher has done much to publicise such enquiries at http://www.teacherresearch.net

From this site you can access Sarah's 'Best Practice Research Scholarship Guide to Research Mentoring'.

From the masters section of actionresearch.net you can also access the educational enquiries (and methods of educational enquiry accounts) of Simon Riding, Karen Collins, Mark Potts and other teachers I have been working with as a group at Westwood St. Thomas School in Wiltshire, UK.

See for example:

Mark Potts' Educational Enquiry Module, Sept. 2002, on - How can I use my own values and my experience of schools in South Africa to influence my own education and the education of others?

Karen Collins' Educational Enquiry Module, Jan. 2003, on - How can I effectively manage students' learning to take account of self-assessment within Modern Foreign Languages?

Simon Riding's Methods of Educational Enquiry Module, Sept. 2002, on : A Case Study on the impact of a teacher-research group at Westwood St Thomas School on professional knowledge and development.

Jean Bell's Educational Enquiry Module, Sept. 2002 on - How can I improve the quality of my teaching to motivate Year 9 boys?

My anxiety for the future of educational research is that the creation and testing of living educational theories will be marginalised by a funding mechanism that will support a degenerating research programme. Let me explain. In the 1960s and 1970s the dominant view of educational theory was that it was constituted by the philosophy, psychology, sociology and history of education. In terms of today's disciplines and fields of enquiry one could add, economics, politics, management and leadership. The problem with the old disciplines approach was that none of these disciplines either individually or collectively could produce a valid explanation for the educational development of an individual from within the learners' educational enquiry of the kind, 'How am I improving what I am doing?'. I set out an alternative 'living' approach to educational theory in my own doctoral thesis.

The creation and testing of living educational theories is grounded in the assumption that individual learners can create and test their own educational theories in the course of their educational enquiries.These enquiries can include the kind of appreciative and engaged responses to the ideas of others, researched by Pat D'Arcy in her thesis. Rather than the bulk of the money going to support the old disciplines approach to educational theory, I am suggesting that money should certainly be fairly distributed to those Departments of Education which can demonstrate a quality of teaching, supervision and research that is leading to the growth of educational knowledge through the creation and testing of living educational theories. For further evidence of the knowledge-creating capacities of practitioner-researchers do access Kevin Eames' Ph.D. (1995) 'How do I, as a teacher and educational action-researcher, describe and explain the nature of my professional knowledge?' and Erica Holley's (1997) M.Phil. Dissertation on, 'How do I as a teacher-researcher contribute to the development of a living educational theory through an exploration of my values in my professional practice?'

Love Jack.

A colleague, Martin Dobson, died last year at the age of 52 and the last thing he said to me was 'Give my Love to the Department'. In the 20 years I'd worked with Martin it was his loving warmth of humanity that I recall with great life affirming pleasure and I'm hoping that in Love Jack we can share this value of common humanity.
Jack Whitehead Tel: 01225 826826 extn 5571
Department of Education Fax: 01225 826113
University of Bath
Bath BA2 7AY UK