Experiencing
and evidencing educational influences in learning through self-study using ICT
in schools and universities
A
presentation at the American Educational Research Association Conference on 8th
April 2006 in San Francisco
Margaret Farren, Dublin City University, Ireland
Joan Whitehead, University of the West of England, U.K.
Jack Whitehead, University of Bath, U.K.
DRAFT OF 16TH FEBRUARY 2006
Abstract
There is a growing awareness in higher
education of the need to move beyond the "tired old 'teaching versus research'
debate" (Boyer 1990) and work out what are 'due standards of excellence'
(Furlong & Oancea, 2005) for practice-based research. As three self-study researchers in higher education, we will
show how we are contributing to a knowledge base of professional practice by
using a 'living educational theory' (Whitehead, 2004)) approach to action
research in our own learning. We will provide evidence to show how the
meanings of our embodied ontological values, can become living standards of judgement
in evaluating the validity of our knowledge-claims. These living critical
standards of judgement include a 'pedagogy of the
unique', a 'web of betweenness' a 'generative approach to mentoring' and
'racialising whiteness' in educational discourse.
Purposes
Our purposes are to:
i). To communicate the meanings of embodied
values of a web of betweenness, a pedagogy of the unique, a generative approach
to mentoring and racialising whiteness as living critical standards of
judgement in our S-STEP research.
ii). To demonstrate
how Information and Communications Technology (ICT ) can contribute to making
the embodied knowledge of teacher-researchers public, through "artefacts that capture its richness
and complexity" (Shulman 2004).
iii). To
provide evidence of how other S-STEP researchers are being taught and mentored
on masters programmes and supervised in doctoral programmes to develop their
own living standards of judgement and educational theories from their
practice-based research.
Educational and
scientific importance
Part of the
educational and scientific significance of this presentation is in showing how
multi-media representations of educational practices and accounts of learning
can open up new possibilities for expressing and communicating living standards
of judgment appropriate for the self-study of teacher education practices.
The educational
significance of the presentation is also related to the issue of the
relationships between individual and collective standards of judgment . The
shared living theories (Smith 2003) developed in this presentation include
self-studies of the contribution ICT has offered to the development of
educational knowledge. This is particularly significant in the development of
new standards of collective-individual educational judgments in educational
relationships. These will be characterized in terms that include the webs of
betweenness of Celtic spirituality, a pedagogy of the unique, a generative
approach to mentoring and racialising whiteness.
The significance is
in the evidence that shows how ICT has been used to complement and support the
pedagogies of the self-study researchers. These include;
�
digital video to
record teaching and supervision and reveal tensions and living contradictions
when values could be lived more fully;
�
online learning environments that have
sustained ongoing dialogue among practitioner-researchers with evidence of
reciprocal educational influences in learning;
�
desktop videoconferencing that has
opened up the classroom environment and provided opportunities to share our
knowledge with others with reciprocal influences in learning;
�
multimedia and web-based artefacts with
supporting text provide evidence of how practitioners are developing living
standards of judgement through asking, researching and answering the question,
"How do I improve my practice?'
Data Sources
The following data
sources will be used to provide evidence of the standards of judgements used to
show learning in the public interest.
i). Accounts of our
learning as higher education educators. These include pre-doctoral, doctoral
and postdoctoral educational enquiries.
Farren, M.
(2005c) How can I support a web of betweenness through ICT. Farren M. EARLI
Conference SIG Invited symposium Teaching and Teacher Education Nicosia, 2005. Retrieved 14 February 2005 from http://www.elearningeuropa.info/index.php?page=doc&doc_id=7020&doclng=6&menuzone=1
Whitehead, J. (2005) Living inclusional
values in educational standards of practice and judgement. Keynote for the Act,
Reflect, Revise III Conference, Brantford Ontario. 11th November
2005. Retrieved 14 February 2005 from http://www.jackwhitehead.com/monday/arrkey05dr1.htm
Whitehead, J.
and Fitzgerald, B. (2006). Professional learning through a generative approach
to mentoring: lessons from a Training School partnership and their wide
implications. Journal of Education for Teaching 32, (1) pp. 37-52.
ii). Accounts of the learning of
self-study researchers on an MSc in Computer Applications for Education and MSc
in Education and Training Management (ICT) - http://webpages.dcu.ie/~farrenm/dissertations.html
iii). 19 Living Theory Doctoral Theses
awarded between 1995-2006 - http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/living.shtml
iv). Accounts of the
action research methodology used in the development of a Training School in the
UK. http://edu.projects.uwe.ac.uk/trainingschool/methodology/action-research_txt.htm
Organisation
The presentation is organized in three
sections. In Section 1, Margaret Farren provides insights from her doctoral
research into her meanings of a pedagogy of the unique and a web of betweeness
and draws attention to her use of ICT in the development of her doctoral
research programme and to her generative mentoring of her students. In Section
2 Joan Whitehead outlines a generative approach to mentoring developed in a
training school partnership in the UK, with the use of ICT and an action
reseach methodology. In Section 3 Jack Whitehead's asks 'How can I racialise my
educational conversations with whiteness in a way that doesn't damagingly
scarify myself and others?' and analyses the
educational value of racialising whiteness in his living educational theory.
Section 1 – Margaret Farren
Introduction
The context of my research is the collaborative process
that developed between myself and participants on the M.Sc. in Computer
Applications for Education and the M.Sc. Education and Training Management
(ICT) at Dublin City University. In my practice-based research, I demonstrate how I am
contributing to a knowledge base of practice by creating my 'living educational
theory' (Whitehead, 1989, 2003). This involves me in systematically researching
my practice in order to bring about improvement and contribute to a knowledge
base of practice. I have recognised that in a certain sense I represented
myself as a 'living contradiction' i.e. holding educational values and denying
them in my practice. Through the
action research process of experiencing myself as a 'living contradiction' I
have been able to imagine a way forward in order to live my educational values
more fully in practice. In
my opinion, an appreciation of one's own ontological position is a vital step
in clarifying the meanings of one's values in the course of their emergence in
practice. We are never finished
products, but we are always emerging, thus we are beings in becoming. The
values that have emerged in the course of my practice-based research include a
'pedagogy of the unique' and a 'web of betweenness' (O' Donohue, 2003). I
intend to analyse my educational influence in terms of the transformation of my
embodied knowledge into public knowledge, by showing my educational influence
in my own learning, in the learning of others and in the education of social
formations. My understanding of the education of social
formations is a social formation's learning to live values that carry hope for
the future of humanity more fully in the rules that govern its social
organisation (Whitehead, 2005). I provide evidence to
show how I have supported practitioners on Master's degree programmes in
bringing their embodied knowledge and values into the public domain as they
design, develop and evaluate multimedia and web based artefacts for use in
their own practice contexts.
Educational
values
Barnett (2000, p. 164) claims that a 'higher
education' must embrace three dimensions of being: knowledge, self-identity and
action, in its pedagogies. In other words, new methods of teaching have to be
developed in higher education. 'Pedagogy of the unique' expresses my belief
that each participant has a particular and distinctive constellation of values
that motivates his/her enquiry and that sets a distinctive context within which
their own enquiry proceeds. This is based on my belief that participant brings
to their learning their own previous life knowledge and experience. I
demonstrate how I help to develop each participant as a person in relation to
one another rather than only their content knowledge.
The Celtic spiritual tradition is among the most ancient in Europe
and has its origin nearly 3000 years ago (Sellner. 2004, p.13). The Irish Theologian and Philosopher, John O'Donohue, refers
to the 'web of betweenness' (O'Donohue, 2003) of Celtic spirituality. He understands spirituality as intimately linked with
relationship and community. He
does not see community as something that is produced but believes that it has to
be allowed to emerge: "True community is not produced. It is invoked and awakened. True
community is an ideal where the full identities of awakened and realized
individuals challenge and complement each other. In this sense individuality and originality enrich self and
others" (O' Donohue, 2003). His idea of community extends beyond the social
community to the idea of a community of spirit: "The human self is not a
finished thing, it is constantly unfolding" (O' Donohue, ibid.). The 'web of betweenness' is a way of expressing my
understanding of 'power with', rather than 'power over' others. Each
individual's uniqueness can enrich self and the community. In the 'Web of
Betweenness', I show how participants develop their own sense of being as they
learn in relation with others.
Validation
Meetings through desktop videoconferencing
During the Master's
supervision period, I organise group validation meetings. The purpose of a
validation meeting is to give participants the opportunity to present evidence of
their own learning and influence in the learning of others. With the permission of all, I videotape
these meetings.
In this section, I
will focus on my supervision of
four teacher-researchers, Chris Garvey, Bernie Tobin, Mair�ad Ryan and
Fionnuala Flanagan. Each was carrying out research into his/her own educational
practice. In order to give them the opportunity to make their research public,
I arranged a validation meeting through a videoconferencing link up with Dr.
Jack Whitehead of the University of Bath. I believed that it was useful to
bring in an international expert in action research who would listen and
respond to their enquiries and provide constructive feedback on their research.
This represented part of my own endeavour to live my values of collaboration
and dialogue in the learning process. As for participants, the
videoconferencing link up further challenged them to consider the data that
they needed in order to present evidence that they had improved student
learning. I believed that this
would help them in presenting their final dissertation. The video clip 'chrisvideoconf' was taken during
the videoconferencing link up. The dialogue with Jack Whitehead helped Chris to
reflect on his own learning in the research enquiry. It also helped him to
consider the data he had collected and determine whether he could show evidence
of improvement in student learning.
This was to be the focus of the next validation meeting between myself,
Chris, Bernie, Mair�ad and Fionnuala.
Peer validation meetings
In guiding the
deliberations of the peer validation meetings, I keep in mind the general aim
of developing each participant's 'living educational theory', having regard
also to Habermas' insistence on social validity. In his book Communication and the
evolution of society, Habermas (1976) states that "anyone acting
communicatively must, in performing any speech action, raise universal validity
claims and suppose that they can be vindicated (or redeemed). Insofar as he wants to participate in a
process of reaching an understanding, he cannot avoid raising the following
– and indeed precisely the following validity claims".
He
claims to be:
- Uttering
something understandably;
- Giving
[the hearer] something to understand;
- Making
himself thereby understandable; and
- Coming
to an understanding with another person.
(Habermas, 1976, p. 2)
I
have adopted Habermas' four criteria in the form of questions (below);
criterion 4 has been adapted to include a question on evidence of the
teacher-researcher's influence in the learning of others.
During the validation
meeting, each teacher-researcher had 45 minutes to present his/her research
within the framework of the following questions;
- Are the descriptions and
explanations of the teacher-researcher's learning comprehensible?
2 Is
there sufficient evidence to justify the claims being made?
3 Are
the values that constitute the enquiry as 'educational' clearly revealed and
justified?
4 Is
there evidence of the teacher-researcher's educational influence on the learning
of others?
Validation meeting.
From
left: Chris Garvey, Bernie Tobin,
Mair�ad
Ryan, Fionnula Flanagan and Margaret Farren
The 'web of
betweenness' (O' Donohue, 2003) in the validation meeting is characterized by a
process of democratic evaluation in which 'the unforced force of the better
argument' (i.e. the unforced presumption of reasonable response holds sway in
the conversation). The video clip
'Validatear' was taken at
the end of the validation meeting, Chris asked for clarification on the action
research cycles. The presence of the other participants helped Chris to see how
his learning could relate to the action research cycles. The explosion of laughter, at the end
of the meeting, reflected Chris' acceptance of belonging to an action research
community and the quality of empathy binding the community together. The
'pedagogy of the unique' is characterized in the recognition that each
individual has a particular and different constellation of values that
motivates his/her enquiry, as well as being situated in a distinctive context
within which the enquiry develops.
Masters degree
multimedia accounts
Participants on the
M.Sc programmes have made use of multimedia accounts of learning in developing
their own 'living educational theory'. I wish to point to Yvonne Crotty's
abstract from her Master's dissertation that shows how she made use of
multimedia accounts to express and communicate her living standards of
judgement.
How
Do I Create A Visual Narrative That Contributes To My Learning And The Learning
Of Others?
Yvonne
Crotty
Abstract
The focus of my research is the
development of a video artefact that represents the non-national students in my
school. A recent survey carried
out in the school reported traces of racism among the staff and students. My
rationale for developing the video was to provide the opportunity for
non-national students to communicate and share their culture to a wider
audience. The unique features of video gave the student the opportunity to
reflect and improve on her own performances. In my enquiry, I trace the developments in my own
learning as I plan, produce and edit the visual narrative 'A Picture Paints a
Thousand Words', in collaboration with the students. Through being a
participant myself in the process of learning, I was able to encourage and
support student learning. My research consists of two action research cycles.
In cycle one, I demonstrate how I guide and encourage each student to present
herself, through the use of video. In cycle two, I provide evidence to show how
the video has influenced the learning of a wider audience. My educational
values of creating a safe environment where students feel valued, appreciating
the different forms of intelligences and using music as a way of breaking down barriers
have been lived out through the production of this visual narrative.
Validation meeting: From left: Yvonne Crotty, Miriam Fitzpatrick, Hazel Mullen, Patricia White.
During a validation
meeting, Yvonne had the opportunity to present her research to peers. I am conscious of the need for participants to have the space to
develop their own voice. I try to provide space, both in the classroom and
online, where people can create knowledge in collaboration with one another. I believe that dialogue is fundamental to the learning
process. It is a way of opening up to questions and assumptions rather than
accepting ready-made solutions. It
is about mutual participation. Bohm's view of dialogue is relevant here. In
defining dialogue, Bohm refers to the Greek word dialogos. Logos means 'the word' and dia means 'through' - it doesn't mean 'two'. A dialogue can be among any number of
people not just two. Dialogue is not just about repeating what someone else has
said. "Thus in a dialogue, each person does not attempt to make common
certain ideas or items of information that are already known to him. Rather, it
may be said that the two people are making something in common, i.e., creating
something new together".
I hope that my
influence is seen in the opportunities I provide to participants to critically
reflect on their learning through peer validation meetings. I have endeavoured to
involve participants in dialogue with myself, one another and others. Through the supervision process, I clarified my values of
collaboration and dialogue and I also showed the meanings of my own embodied
values through use of video clips. These values have now been transformed into
communicable standards of judgement. Evidence of my influence in the education
of a wider social formation is shown by the fact that research using a 'living
educational theory' is now firmly established as an accepted form of research
in DCU http://webpages.dcu.ie/~farrenm/dissertations.html
Section
Two – Joan Whitehead
The contribution of ICT to the
development of trainee teachers and the use of video to record teaching is by
no means new. Examples exist from a wide range of contexts (Sharpe, 2003;
Shulman, 2002; Stones, 1992).Replaying video footage provides trainee teachers
with opportunities to analyse their practice and engage in a process of
self-study to inform subsequent professional action and help shape professional
identity and knowledge.
Learning how to so engage is often taken
for granted. It is largely assumed that trainees learn by observation and
through dialogue with mentors rather than through involvement in the process of
their mentor's self study and learning. In fact the use of video by mentors to
record and analyse their own teaching and learning with trainees is much less
common. Still less common is the use by mentors of this video record to engage
in dialogue with pupils in order to learn whether their own teaching is
experienced as aiding pupils' learning.
These activities, involving the use of
technology, have implications for social relations and help participants
reinterpret their roles. They for example reposition mentors in relation to
trainees and pupils as each becomes a resource for the learning of the other
and mentors, previously regarded as pedagogical experts, demonstrate their own
growth as learners as they come to better understand their practices with
trainees and pupils. Furthermore, the previously excluded voices of trainees
and pupils become included in the construction of 'a living standard of
judgement' (Whitehead 2005) about effective mentoring.
This section of the paper describes the
role of technology in these dual processes of self-study and draws on the work
undertaken by myself and colleagues from a university Faculty of Education
working with school-based mentors, trainees and pupils in a Training School
Partnership where secondary Post Graduate Certificate of Education students
spend 24 weeks of their programme (Whitehead and Fitzgerald, 2006 ).
My own involvement and that of Faculty
staff, particularly the university English tutor, was underpinned by a desire
to help support a form of mentoring practice which was more attuned to our own
ontological commitments to inclusionality shared by our school partners. By
this I mean a democratic form of social practice and relations, characterised
by openness to reflective inquiry and respecting the knowledge creating
potential of all participants, ie school-based mentors, trainees and university
staff. It was informed by Bernstein's (2000) view of an effective democracy, a
belief that all 'have a stake' in the profession and its knowledge base, that
all help constitute it and what it becomes.
What helped motivate us to act differently
was what Whitehead (1989, p.41) has described as experiencing ourselves as
'living contradiction[s]'. We had become increasingly aware that the way we
were acting with our school –based partners was conflicting with our
ontological commitments in that we were insufficiently open to the depth of
professional knowledge and practical wisdom mentors could bring to their work
with trainees. We recognised too that the existing form of mentoring was
marginalising rather than embracing the understandings brought to the process by the
trainees whose actions and values we saw as integral to the formation of their
professional identities, knowledge and competences. What we therefore sought
was a more open and democratic form of teacher education and mentoring, able to
sustain trainees, mentors and ourselves as reflective enquiring professionals
in an ever changing complex society and also more responsive to the needs of
pupils.
We sought to reconcile this conflict by
encouraging and supporting mentors to maximise with trainees the possibilities
afforded by reflective practice and to engage in action research cycles as
articulated in the work of McNiff et al (1996) and McNiff (1984, 2002).
Below is a diagrammatic representation of
the action research cycles undertaken with groups of trainees and mentors in
three subjects specialisms over a period of four years and with references to
the literature which helped inform our thinking and commitments.
Table 1
|
Stage
One |
Stage
Two |
Stage
Three |
|
Before lesson |
During lesson |
After Lesson |
|
Mentor and trainee plan lesson together
for situated learning |
Mentor teaches a video recorded lesson
and reflects whilst she teaches |
Mentor and trainee deconstruct and
evaluate effectiveness of mentor's teaching whilst watching the video of her
lesson. Mentor models reflective practice |
|
Mentor and trainee's reflection prior to
action Shulman |
Mentor's reflection-in-action (invisible,
implicit) Sch�n |
Reflection-on-action Reflection-in-action (post hoc, transparent, explicit) Sch�n Open mindedness Dewey |
|
Stage
six |
Stage
five |
Stage
four |
|
After the lesson |
During the lesson |
After the lesson |
|
As in stage three except it is the
trainee's teaching which is deconstructed and related to other professional
knowledge |
Trainee's reflection-in-action |
Informed by stage three, mentor and
trainee revise lesson plan for trainee to teach a parallel class |
During the project, data were collected
annually on the reflective dialogue between school mentors and pairs of
trainees as well as from university tutors. These
data enabled all participants to evaluate experiences and thus illuminate their
learning and the process of knowledge generation. The collection of data
included semi-structured interviews and questionnaires as well as video
recordings of mentors' lessons and those of trainees which were explored during
weekly mentoring sessions. These learning conversations were also
video-recorded to provide further data on which to base future action. Data
from these conversations enabled us to see the extent to which our aspiration
for a more inclusional form of social practice and relations were being
evidenced.
The use of video proved to be seminal to
the learning which for mentors was conscious rather than incidental and for
trainees about both content and process, the latter being metacognitive and
arguably transferable.
The following statement from a mentor is
evidence of this:
"– having the opportunity to sit
and watch one's own practice is rare and actually having to comment on the
reasons for including certain activities , the choices you made--- is actually
complex, forcing you to acknowledge at a conscious level why you do certain
things and whether they are effective or not."
Whilst a trainee commented : " we weren't
just getting a lesson on a lesson : we were getting a lesson on reflection as
well" and another claimed that the process had enabled her "definitely to see
deeper."
These understandings of practice were
able to be extended or confirmed through the inputs we as teacher educators
were to make to enable both mentors and trainees 'to form a bridge for
themselves between their own practical experience and other forms of
professional knowledge' (Furlong, 2000, p.14).
At this stage in the research, what was,
however, omitted from these understandings was data from pupils on their perceptions
about the effectiveness of mentors' teaching in supporting their learning.
Mentors initially saw accessing this data as potentially "challenging", an
understandable response in what Rudduck and Flutter (2004, p.75) point out is
'the present judgmental climate' where 'teachers are anxious lest consulting
pupils means unlocking a barrage of criticism of them and their teaching.'
Reflecting subsequently on her willingness to initiate the use of video of her
teaching with her pupils, the English mentor, a former PGCE trainee at the
university and the lead mentor in the school, stated:
"to hear what (pupils) think, what they
know, what they understand about how you teach them..... there's a need to know
and that's why it became okay."
This 'need to know' resonates with
Feldman's (2003, p.27) view that we need to 'make sure that we are not blinded
or fooled by the ways that we construct our stories of being teacher educators'
and that we seek multiple sources of data as well as recognise the moral dimension
inherent in seeking to improve our practice.
The insights afforded through this
process were confirmed by another mentor who although she had previously
analysed the video of a lesson with a trainee concluded that when pupils gave
feedback, she then "noticed completely different things". Thus, extending self
study to involve learning conversations with pupils and provide opportunities
for their voices to be heard, led to "reflective learning on (my)part and new
and innovative approaches to difficult topic areas."
A similar conclusion was made by another
mentor that observations offered by her pupils had added "a whole different
dimension to (my) ability to reflect on (my) own teaching .. a different aspect
to evaluate."
This use of video at the various stages
of the mentoring process as referred to Table 1, helped develop mentoring
practice from an initial restricted approach to what emerged as a generative
approach based on self-study. This proved to be more in keeping with our
ontological values of inclusionality in a climate of greater openness and trust
between participants and has some similarity with Farren's ( 2005c) ideas of 'a
web of betweenness.' The key characteristics of these two approaches to
mentoring are outlined below in Table 2.
|
The initial restricted approach to
mentoring |
The new generative approach to
mentoring based on self study |
|
The mentor: an experienced practitioner
who transmits knowledge to trainees and pupils |
The mentor: an experienced practitioner
who is involved in the generation of professional knowledge and is a
co-learner with trainees and pupils. |
|
The mentor: a guide and commentator on
trainees' lesson planning, giving feedback and assisting in post-hoc lesson
analysis and evaluation |
The mentor: through co-planning and the co-analysis
of video footage of their own lessons and those of the trainees, the mentor
contributes to trainees' learning whilst advancing her own knowledge and
understanding |
|
The post lesson analysis by the mentor
with trainees focuses solely on the trainee's teaching and provides no
opportunity to model the way the mentor reflects on and learns about her own
developing practice as a teacher. |
Using video as a tool, the mentor models
how she reflects on her own teaching drawing on feedback from trainees and
pupils. Reflection is openly modelled as a key skill in the professional
repertoire of the mentor and is replicated in the practice of trainees. |
|
Trainees' learning from mentors is at
surface level; learning for mentors is incidental. |
Trainees and mentors learn from the
process of joint deconstruction of lessons. Learning is at a deeper level and
acknowledges the contribution pupils can make to the development of situated
professional knowledge as well as to their own knowledge creation. |
|
The mentoring process involves an ongoing
commitment to the improvement of the trainee's practice as a teacher and is
supported by the principles of enquiry and reflection. There is a greater
emphasis on the trainee's teaching than on the pupils' learning |
Mentor and trainee are involved in a
systematic enquiry process that is committed not only to the learning of the
trainee but also to that of pupils, the mentor and the school as a learning
community. Via a website and other means of dissemination, the process is
public and accountable. |
|
The relationship between mentor and
trainee is a hierarchical one. The mentor's role is clearly defined in the
terms of a tutor; clear role boundaries of mentor-trainee are maintained. Pupils are recipients of professional
practice rather than partners in the generation and validation of
professional knowledge. |
The mentor's role is defined more
loosely, with each mentor working as both guide and co-learner with the
trainee. There is a greater reciprocity and interdependence in the relationship
between mentor and trainee. Pupils play a role in validating professional
knowledge and in the transformation of professional practice. |
Participation as a critical friend in this
development took forward my own thinking helping me to appreciate more deeply
than previously the nature of practitioner knowledge as situated knowledge as
new understandings emerge from within practice. Lighthall's (2004, p.224))
description of teacher education seemed particularly apposite in understanding
the relationship between mentors and trainees:
'... ineluctably caught in particulars- in
particular contexts of particular places and cultures taking particular actions
with particular people who, in turn, are coping with their own particular
situations, skills, capacities and problems."
It resonated too with Farren's ( 2005a)
notion of 'the pedagogy of the unique' enabling mentors and trainees to
constitute and re-constitute their professional identities through co-learning.
It provided them with 'the paradox of being formed as situated social selves,
emerging persons in emerging social worlds, patterned by history but open to
movement as present interaction'( Shaw, 2002, p.173).
The use of video and making the Training
School data available on a website http://edu.projects.uwe.ac.uk/trainingschool/
enabled aspects to be available for public examination thereby helping move
these developments from situated 'practitioner knowledge' (Hiebert et al, 2002)
to become professional knowledge shared with other teachers, open to public
examination and available as a living standard of judgement of mentoring
practice.
Section
Three – Jack Whitehead
'How can I racialise my educational conversations with whiteness
in a way that doesn't damagingly scarify myself and others?'
As this enquiry evolves in the
course of writing this text I move, below, into a multi-media presentation with
colleagues in China's Experimental Centre for Educational Action Research in
Foreign Languages Teaching (CECEARFLT) in the development of an explanation of
how I think that I am racialising my educational conversations with whiteness
in a way that doesn't damagingly scarify myself and others.
Through my desire to live a
productive life I have focused on the generation and evaluation of living
educational theories that carry hope for the future of humanity and my own.
This hope is connected with the values, skills and understandings that have
developed in the course of my research programme into the nature of living
educational theories. What I mean by a living educational theory is an
individual's explanation, for their educational influence in their own
learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of social formations,
that emerges from an educational enquiry that includes questions of the kind,
'How do I improve what I am doing?' (McNiff & Whitehead, 2005, 2006;
Whitehead & McNiff, 2006)
My reason for stressing the
importance of living educational theories is that they are ways in which
individuals can provide accounts of their lives and their educational
influences in their learning, in relation to the values, skills and
understandings they believe carry hope for the future of humanity. By sharing
these accounts, within processes of democratic evaluation, it is my belief that
individuals from different cultures, races, genders, classes, religions,
spiritualities and ideological beliefs can live to learn together in enhancing
the flow of values, skills and understandings they believe carry this hope and,
in learning to work together, to resist constraints and violations to this
flow.
In answering my question I have
learnt much from four doctoral students of the University of Bath, Cathy Aymer,
Judith Ryde, Yaqub (Al Kindy)-Murray and Eden Charles and from colleagues in
China's Experimental Centre for Educational Action Research in Foreign
Languages Teaching. When I asked Cathy Aymer in the course of her enquiry
into Seeking Knowledge for Black Cultural Renewal, if there was anything I could do
to help her she said, 'Just bear me in mind'. Watching Cathy graduate
with her doctorate (Aymer, 2005)
from the University of Bath in December 2005, and having examined her
thesis, I felt that I understood the relational values of humanity and
life-affirming energy that Cathy communicated in, 'bearing me in mind' and in
her seeking knowledge for black cultural renewal. I am thinking in particular
of her living expression of the relational African cosmology of Ubuntu, 'I am
because we are'.
In examining Judith Ryde's (2005)
thesis on Exploring White Racial Identity And Its Impact On Psychotherapy
and Psychotherapy Organisations, I could appreciate her originality in making
'whiteness' visible with white psychotherapists and the significance of
exploring guilt and shame experienced by white people in the context of
psychotherapy.
In my enquiry I am conscious of the
dynamic boundaries of interconnecting and branching channels of communications
between people, that can flip into a disabling vortex fuelled by anger, guilt
and shame. I am thinking of disabling vortices that close down discourse and
educational conversations. I seek to resist being sucked into such disabling
vortices. Without in any way seeking to diminish the authenticity of the pain
of those who have such an influence I am aware of the empancipatory influences
of the pleasurable release of my own life-affirming energy, often through
laughter, that seems to ensure
that my own responses to life, flow with hope and this life-affirming
energy. I want to emphasise that the release of this energy through humour
does not diminish the pain, suffering and cruelty, inflicted by some human
beings on others. I am simply acknowledging that my capacity to experience the
pleasurable flow of energy released by laughter has helped to sustain me in my
most trying times and circumstances.
My desire to enhance my educational
influence flows with a life-affirming energy and love of what I do in
education. I intend to express this desire without losing my awareness of the
need for an appropriate response to many different kinds of conflict in the
world that inflict pain, sap life affirming energies, and destroy opportunities
for enhancing the well being of individuals and their communities. Hence, I am
enquiring into how I enhance my educational influence with life-affirming
energy, love and hope through racialising discourses of whiteness in living
educational theories.
The third doctoral researcher at
the University of Bath to influence my enquiry is Yaqub (Al Kindy)-Murray. As a
self-designating mixed race, mixed heritage educator, undertaking a doctoral
research programme, Yaqub has helped to focus my attention on the significance
of identity in enhancing educational influences through racialising discourses
with whiteness. When I began my supervision Yaqub (Al Kindy)-Murray would
identify with the name Paul Murray. I produced a joint paper with Paul Murray
for AERA 2000 on White and Black with White Identities in Self-Studies of
Teacher Education Practices (Murray and Whitehead, 2000). Paul Murray moved on to Paulus Murray to
Yaqub Paul Murray (2005) and to Yaqub (Al Kindy)- Murray (personal
correspondence 11/1/06). Yaqub also helped me, by accident, to develop my
awareness of the importance of scarification in severing educational
conversations. He also helped me to understand the educational significance of
scarification in cutting oneself off from the possibility of the other.
I began to develop my understanding
of the significance of scarification when I made a mistake in my understanding
of the use of the word by Yaqub. He had intended its horticultural use -
scratching the surface of soil and seeds to hasten germination. I had
mistakenly thought, when I looked for the meaning of scarification in the
dictionary, that he had meant wounding through harsh and abusive criticism! The
idea of scarifying by wounding through abusive criticism has stayed with me as
I seek to understand how educational conversations can be sustained in the face
of scarifying responses, to one's ideas, work and being. Yaqub has also been
inspirational in the way he has engaged with and shared responses to his
readings of postcolonial literature (Murray, 2006).
Eden Charles, is the fourth
doctoral researcher at the University of Bath to influence my enquiry into the
educational desirability of racialising with whiteness, living educational
theories, in a way that avoids scarifying myself and others. In his
doctorate Eden is researching his educational influences in his learning as a
black father, a black educator at the Sankofa Centre in London and as a black
management consultant in national and international contexts, in a relationship
with African cosmology. Three of the following images are from Eden's web-site
and the fourth from an i-chat conversation with me.
Speaking to an audience
(international
From i-chat conversation with Jack
Management
consultant)
11/01/06.
Listening to a student's experience Listening to a parent's
experience
At the Sankofa Centre in London. at the
Sankofa Centre in London.
What I have learnt from Eden is
that it is possible, and desirable, to learn to live in a way that enhances the
flow of values that carry hope for the future of humanity in the face of the
most dehumanising of experiences.
What I would like you to bear in
mind as I continue with an answer to my question, is the flow of life-affirming
energy, pleasure and hope I experience, through my understandings of Eden's
enquiry. I know that within particular groups certain ways of feeling,
thinking and behaving often become normalised. I mean this in the sense that
they become taken for granted and not problematised in the discourses of
individuals within the group. For example, in my experience of groups of
educational researchers who are wholly or mostly white, individual researchers
have rarely racialised their academic discourse by addressing their racial characteristics
of being white and by addressing the power relations that support white
privilege and supremacy known as 'whiteness'. For example, as Enora Brown,
writing about the decentering of dominant discourses in education with a
self-study on the (In) visibility of Race, says:
"I observed that race was
relatively insignificant in the personal narratives of European American
pre-service teachers and that concomitantly, whiteness was normalized in
traditional textbooks within the discipline of Human Development." (Brown,
2005, p.65)
Brown's writings were published in
a collection of research papers, edited by Francoise Bodone on What
difference Does Research Make and for Whom? The collection was born out of an interactive
symposium at the 2002 American Educational Research Association in New Orleans
on Capturing Whom for the Sake of What? What difference does research make?
And for Whom?
In her contribution to the
collection, Wattsjohnson focuses on articulating knowledge for transformation
in a way that includes an enquiry into her existence as a black women
encountering racism with a group of white woman:
"Using narrative inquiry, I
succeed in a discovery of self and an understanding of the constructed
community in which I exist that surpasses conventional modes of knowing, to
explain what it means for me to exist as a black women at a white
institution."
(Wattsjohnson, 2005, p. 193)
In an earlier publication
Wattsjohnson (2003) emphasises the need to end white silence. I am
hopeful that my own acknowledgement of the educational influence of whiteness
as a set of power relations that sustain white privilege and supremacy,
emphasises the importance of this need. I believe that the experience of these
power relations by those subjected to them, scarifies, in the sense of wounding
and potentially disabling, by undermining the legitimate sense of identity of
accepting one's racial characteristics as no better or no worse than those of
others; our racial characteristics are given to us at conception.
At an AERA interactive symposium in
2002, Dalmau was the discussant and provided, along with Bodone, the concluding
chapter to an edited collection of papers stimulated by the symposium (Bodone
2005). Dalmau rightly points out that dealing with "I" also confronts
the person-in-action in the world (Dalmau, p.274). Dalmau and Bodone (2005)
draw on a previous collaboration to emphasise the importance of
personal/professional identity (Bodone, Gujonsdottir, & Dalmau, 2004, p. 746) in
self-study. Dalmau (2005) identifies three approaches from her research that I
seek to integrate into my own understandings. I am thinking of the need for
globalist, ecolological perspectives in mapping the terrain; ensuring that
ontological, epistemological, practical, socio-cultural and historical features
are considered in the enquiry; opening spaces for iterative and divergent
consideration of data and meaning (Dalmau, et al. 1991, Dalmau, 2002).
In emphasising my hope that living
educational theories can contribute to the future of humanity I am curious
about the educational value of explicitly acknowledging the evidence of the
capacity of human beings to violate others. In other words, I am wondering if
the explicit inclusion of a recognition and understanding of whiteness in my
living educational theory, together with the understandings of history and
present day experiences, actually serves to support nihilistic and scarifying
responses or does the inclusion of whiteness embody hope for the future of
humanity? In denouncing the injustices of the past and present, and proclaiming
the superiority of the future, do living educational theories help to save
humanity from the ultimate stupidity of holding out forever against the
emergence of new social realities? (Holloway 2005),
In my enquiry 'How can I racialise my educational conversations with whiteness
in a way that doesn't damagingly scarify myself and others?' I am interested in your responses
to my belief that I am enhancing the educational influence of living educational
theories, with racialising discourses of whiteness, with explicit
acknowledgements that such discourses have, historically, carried
predominantly, hatred and violence.
As a white man, I am wondering if,
by sharing the life-affirming energy, love, pleasure and hope I feel as I see
Eden Charles, a black man, enquiring into his parenting, his work as an
educator with black youngsters and parents and his work as a management
consultant, with an African Cosmology, I have been able to acknowledge the importance
of a racialising discourse on whiteness in a way that shows a possibility for
enhancing educational influence? I am thinking of the possibility of enhancing
the flow of values and understandings that carry hope for the future of
humanity and my/our own through the creation and development of one's own
living educational theory.
Eden's response to the final draft
of this paper seems most appropriate as an invitation to share our living
theories that flow with our common humanity in our movement beyond those
relationships defiled by 'whiteness':
This text reminds me of the
paradox to do with the way in which it feels that by bringing 'whiteness' to
the attention of inquirers you are both requiring them to be aware of the
impact of their 'whiteness' upon the power relationships in the world and you
are inviting them to move beyond ossified, essentialist notions of race and
consider the common humanity that is sometimes defiled by 'whiteness'. (Eden Charles, personal
communication, 14/01/06).
In October 2004 I was pleased to accept accreditation as visiting
professor at Guyuan Teachers College, the hosts of China's Experimental Centre
for Educational Action Research in Foreign Languages Teaching (CECEARFLT).
Collaborative living theories, that I associate with the idea of common
humanity (Gaita, 2002) are being developed in this Centre through action
research with Chinese characteristics (Tian & Laidlaw, 2005). Some of this
work is already flowing through web-space from http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/moira.shtml
(See the action research accounts of Ma Hong at http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/moira/MaHong.htm,
Tao Rui at http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/moira/taoruiardr.htm,
Gong Lixia at http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/moira/GongLixia.htm
and Liu Hui at http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/moira/liuhuiar.htm).
In my next visit to the Centre in May 2006 I hope to extend my
understandings of the possibilities
of enhancing the flow of values and understandings that carry hope for the
future of humanity and my/our own through the creation and development of one's
own and collaborative living educational theories. The multi-media technology
with the moving images and access to the video-clips and video-narratives
allows a linear video tape to be re-formed, as below, to develop the
relationally dynamic standards of judgement of living educational theories with
their webs of betweenness, pedagogies of the unique, generative approaches to
mentoring and racialising discourses with whiteness (Whitehead, 2005 http://www.jackwhitehead.com/monday/arrkey05dr1.htm). In the video narratives of my
own living educational theory I am drawing inspiration from the work of Alan
Rayner on inclusionality (Rayner, 2006)
While it isn't possible for me to put
into this web-based presentation the DVD showing the moving video-clips to
communicate my understandings of a web of betweenness, a pedagogy of the
unique, generative mentoring and racialising whiteness, the images below are
from the DVD and I intend to show an extract from the DVD in this AERA
presentation to help communicate my meanings.
Such theories, presented through
video-narratives can explain our educational influences in our own learning, in
the learning of others and in the learning of social formations. This has been
well demonstrated by Naidoo (2005) in her emerging living theory of inclusional
and responsive practice. Such
theories enable us to account for what we do and our ways of being in terms of
the meanings and purpose we give to our own lives in our loving relationships
and productive work.
The original ideas of Farren (2005c)
about the meanings of a web of betweenness and a pedagogy of the unique and of
Whitehead and Fitzgerald (2006) about a generative approach to mentoring
resonate for me with the relational meanings being developed by Charles with
his understandings of an African Cosmology, by Aymer in her relational meanings
in seeking knowledge for black cultural renewal and by Tian, Peidong and
Laidlaw in their development of collaborative living theories and action
research with Chinese characteristics.
I still have much to learn about how to racialise educational
discourses, through a postcolonial critical pedagogy (Murray, 2005) in a way
that enhances the discourse, while avoiding the damaging influences of
scarification in closing down the discourse.
As we develop the potential of our
information and communications technology in the creation and sharing of our
living educational theories, I am both passionately and cautiously optimistic
about the evolutionary power of these theories to carry hope for the future of
humanity, and our own.
Conclusion
In the context of our 'pedagogies of the
unique', dialogical processes of self-study can reflect a growing openness to
learning and relearning with others. They reveal how democratic processes of
pedagogy and evaluation in higher education can give adequate "space to each
participant to contribute to the development of new knowledge, to develop their
own voice, to make their own offerings, insights, to engage in their own
actions, as well as to create their own products" (Barnett 2000).
Self-studies of teacher education practice
can move teaching towards enquiries into educational influences in learning by gradually providing
opportunities for participants to take responsibility for their own learning
and to develop their capacity as learners in the creation of their own living
educational theories.
Self-studies of teacher-education practice can provide evidence from
collaborative enquiries to produce new living critical standards of judgement
(Coulter & Wiens, 2002 ) for evaluating the validity of the
knowledge-claims of self-study researchers. Ontological values can be clarified in the course of their
emergence in practice into communicable and living critical standards of
judgement.
S-STEP researchers can contribute to new understandings of the link
between teaching and research and how teachers can contribute to a knowledge
base of practice by revealing their living critical standards of judgement
through the use of ICT.
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