The Living Educational Theories of Workers as Action Researchers and Lifelong Learners

 

A web-based keynote address to the Work-based Learning Network Conference 25th April, 2006, University of Northampton.

 

 

This web-based address draws on evidence from a 33 year research programme into the nature of educational theory that is seeking to fulfil the mission of the University of Bath. The University has a mission that includes a distinct academic approach to the education of professional practitioners. Here are the ideas and evidence from the living educational theories of workers as action researchers and lifelong learner that I believe are making a contribution to this mission.

 

This address is organised into four sections.

 

An introduction to the ideas about action research and living educational theory that have both guided and emerged from my research programme.

 

The evidence from some 21 living theory higher degrees of individuals who have studied their lifelong learning in their workplace practices in enquiries of the

kind, 'How do I improve what I am doing?'

 

Some ontological, epistemological, methodological and political implications of validating living theories in the workplace and legitimating living theories in the academy.

 

Some sociocultural implications of enhancing the flow of living theories, with their values that carry hope for the future of humanity, through the interconnecting and branching channels of communication of web-space.

 

An introduction to the ideas about action research and living educational theory that have both guided and emerged from my research programme.

 

The frontpage of http://www.actionresearch.net is directly linked to:

 

a)                                                                   Jean McNiff's webpage with the booklet 'Action research for professional development: Concise advice for new action researchers: a celebration of 21 years of collaboration with Jack Whitehead http://www.jeanmcniff.com/booklet1.html

b)                                                                  The 1989 paper on creating a living educational theory from questions of the kind, 'How do I improve my practice?' http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/writings/livtheory.html

c)                                                                   Five Volumes of Passion in Professional Practice that are constituted by the action research and living theories from the workplace practices of educators and other professionals in Ontario supported by Jacqueline Delong.

http://schools.gedsb.net/ar/passion/index.html

 

 See also Whitehead, J. & Mcniff, J. (2006) Action Research Living Theory, London; Sage.

 

The evidence from some 21 living theory higher degrees of individuals who have studied their lifelong learning in their workplace practices in enquiries of the

kind, 'How do I improve what I am doing?'

 

Eames, K. (1995) How do I, as a teacher and educational action-researcher, describe and explain the nature of my professional knowledge? Ph.D. Thesis, University of Bath. Retrieved 19 February 2004 from http://www.actionresearch.net/kevin.shtml

 

Evans, M. (1995) An action research enquiry into reflection in action as part of my role as a deputy headteacher. Ph.D. Thesis, Kingston University. Retrieved 19 February 2004 from http://www.actionresearch.net/moyra.shtml

 

Laidlaw, M. (1996) How can I create my own living educational theory as I offer you an account of my educational development? Ph.D. thesis, University of Bath. Retrieved 19 February 2004 from http://www.actionresearch.net/moira2.shmtl

 

Holley, E. (1997) 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? M.Phil., University of Bath. Retrieved 19 February 2004 from http://www.actionresearch.net/erica.shtml

 

 D'Arcy, P. (1998) The Whole Story..... Ph.D. Thesis, University of Bath. Retrieved 19 February 2004 from http://www.actionresearch.net/pat.shtml

 

 Loftus, J. (1999) An action enquiry into the marketing of an established first school in its transition to full primary status. Ph.D. thesis, Kingston University. Retrieved 19 February 2004 from http://www.actionresearch.net/loftus.shmtl

 

Whitehead, J. (1999) How do I improve my practice?  Creating a discipline of education through educational enquiry. Ph.D. University of Bath. Retrieved 19 February 2004 from http://www.actionresearch.net/jack.shtml

 

Cunningham, B. (1999) How do I come to know my spirituality as I create my own living educational theory? Ph.D. Thesis, University of Bath. Retrieved 19 February 2004 from http://www.actionresearch.net/ben.shtml

 

Adler-Collins, J. (2000) A Scholarship of Enquiry, M.A. dissertation, University of Bath. Retrieved 19 February 2004 from http://www.actionresearch.net/jekan.shtml

 

Finnegan, (2000) How do I create my own educational theory in my educative relations as an action researcher and as a teacher? Ph.D. submission, University of Bath. Retrieved 19 February 2004 from http://www.actionresearch.net/fin.shtml

 

Austin, T. (2001) Treasures in the Snow: What do I know and how do I know it through my educational inquiry into my practice of community? Ph.D. Thesis, University of Bath. Retrieved 19 February 2004 from http://www.actionresearch.net/austin.shtml

 

Mead, G. (2001) Unlatching the Gate: Realising the Scholarship of my Living Inquiry. Ph.D. University of Bath (CARPP). Retrieved 19 February 2004 from http://www.actionresearch.net/mead.shtml

 

Bosher, M. (2001) 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? Ph.D. University of Bath. Retrieved 19 February 2004 from http://www.actionresearch.net/bosher.shtml

 

Delong, J. (2002) How Can I Improve My Practice As A Superintendent of Schools and Create My Own Living Educational Theory? Ph.D. University of Bath. Retrieved 19 February 2004 from http://www.actionresearch.net/delong.shtml

 

Scholes-Rhodes, J. (2002) From the Inside Out: Learning to presence my aesthetic and spiritual being through the emergent form of a creative art of inquiry. Ph.D. University of Bath (CARPP). Retrieved 19 February 2004 from http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/rhodes.shtml

 

Roberts, P. (2003) Emerging Selves in Practice: How do I and others create my practice and how does my practice shape me and influence others? Ph.D. University of Bath (CARPP). Retrieved 19 August 2004 from http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/roberts.shtml

 

Punia, R. (2004) My CV is My Curriculum: The Making of an International Educator with Spiritual Values. Ed.D. University of Bath. Retrieved 19 August 2004 from http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/punia.shtml

 

Hartog, M. (2004) A Self Study Of A Higher Education Tutor: How Can I Improve My Practice? Ph.D. University of Bath (CARPP). Retrieved 19 August 2004 from http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/hartog.shtml

 

Church, M. (2004) Creating an uncompromised place to belong: Why do I find myself in networks? Ph.D. University of Bath (CARPP). Retrieved 24 May 2005 from  http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/church.shtml

 

Naidoo, M. (2005) I am Because We Are. (My never-ending story) The emergence of a living theory of inclusional and responsive practice. Ph.D. University of Bath. Retrieved 2 April 2006 from

http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/naidoo.shtml

 

Farren, M. (2005) How can I create a pedagogy of the unique through a web of betweenness? Ph.D. University of Bath. Retrieved 2 April 2006 from http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/farren.shtml

 

The Doctorates of Mead, Roberts, Scholes-Rhodes, Hartog and Church were also supported by colleagues in the Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice (CARPP) at the University of Bath. This Centre is Directed by Peter Reason and you can access details of the CARPP from http://www.bath.ac.uk/carpp/

 This web-site is an excellent resource for the publications of my colleagues in CARPP, Peter Reason http://www.bath.ac.uk/~mnspwr/ and Judi Marshall http://www.bath.ac.uk/carpp/judimarshall/paperslist.htm



Some ontological, epistemological, methodological and political implications of validating living theories in the workplace and legitimating living theories in the academy.

 

The ontological implications I have in mind are focused on the implications for each individual of seeking to live as fully as they can the values that they use to account to themselves for their own lives and that they believe carry hope for the future of humanity.

 

The epistemological implications flow from enquiring into how to live one's values as fully as one can and accounting for oneself in terms of the values, skills and understandings one needs to do this. I am thinking of these accounts as living educational theories in that they include explanations for one's own workplace learning as a lifelong learner. In particular I am thinking of the use of one's own embodied values as the living standards of judgement one uses in accounting for one's life and learning. I am taking these living standards of judgement to be epistemological standards in the sense that they can be used to evaluate the validity of one's claims to know one's own learning.

 

The methodogical implications are focused on the action research processes through which one clarifies the meanings of one's values in the course of their emergence in practice and transforms them from being embodied values into being publicly communicable living standards of judgement.

 

Political implications in the workplace flow from the processes of democratic evaluation established by action researchers in the workplace to evaluate the validity of evidence-based claims to have explained one's learning in enquiries of the kind, 'how do I improve what I am doing?' The power relations in many organisations influence what counts as valid knowledge in a particular context. Democratic evaluation stresses the importance of an openness to debate and discussion with an emphasis on the power of an argument to influence what counts as knowledge, rather than an emphasis on the truth of power.

 

Political implications also flow from seeking academic legitimation in the Academy for living educational theories. The dominant logic in discourses in Academic Journals about theory conforms to the Aristotelean Laws of Contradiction and Excluded Middle. Contradictions between mutually exclusive statements, such as I am free/I am not free, are excluded by the Law as being capable of being true simultaneously. The Law of Excluded Middle with its requirement that everything is either A or not-A, excludes the possibility that something can be both A and not-A. Legitimating the living educational theories of workers as action researchers in lifelong learning requires a change in the standards of judgement used in the Academy to evaluate what counts as educational theory and knowledge. Where present University regulations only permit the submission of continuous prose in the theses of researchers they need changing to permit the submission of e-media that include video-narratives. Such narratives, as Naidoo (2005 http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/naidoo.shtml

) and Farren (2005 http://www.bath.ac.uk/~edsajw/farren.shtml

) have demonstrated, can, from an inclusional awareness of space and boundaries, create inclusional and responsive living theories that have been validated and legitimated with new living standards of judgement with the existing power relations of the Academy.

 

Some sociocultural implications of enhancing the flow of living theories, with their values that carry hope for the future of humanity, through the interconnection and branching channels of communication of web-space.

 

I have just explored some of these implications at the Invisible College Conference in San Francisco as follows:

 

"v) The inclusion of an understanding of this globalizing culture of enquiry within sociocultural theory could serve to revitalize this theory and rehabilitate it from the deadening and crippling addiction to a logic that excludes living contradictions and the living logics and values of inclusionality from its explanations.

 

Drawing on Polanyi's point about the crippling mutilations in thinking produced by the imposition of objectivist frameworks I want to point to the kind of addiction to the logic of such frameworks that supports such crippling mutilations. For example, in his analysis of sociocultural theory Sawyer points out that socioculturalists are divided on two of the foundational theoretical claims of the paradigm: a process ontology of the social world; and the inseparability of the individual and the group. In his review of sociocultural theorists he claims that there is agreement that the individual and group cannot be studied in isolation but only in situated practice and that the individual and the group are inextricably linked:

 

"The theoretical differences relate to analytic, or methodological separability, and there are two possible positions on this issue: either individual properties and group properties of situated practice can be analytically distinguished, or the cannot. If they are inseparable, then theoretical consistency with a process ontology is assured; however, one is prevented from any form of empirical study that presumes that properties of specific individuals can be isolated, even when they are studied in context" (Sawyer, p. 300, 2002)

 

Drawing on Rayner's idea of inclusionality as a relationally dynamic awareness of space and boundaries there is a third possibility in addition to the two that Sawyer shows that he is aware of. The third possibility of inclusionality works with a both/and logic and can remain connected to the severing implications of the law of excluded middle that states that everything is either A or not-A and the Law of Contradiction that holds that two mutually exclusive statements cannot both be true simultaneously. For Rayner's demonstration of the severing influence of the law of excluded middle and his advocacy of inclusional see the cultural artefact:

http://www.jackwhitehead.com/rayner1sor.mov (36.89 Mb)

 

Cultural artefacts, showing this third possibility in action, in the form of inclusional living theories are now flowing through web-space (Delong, 2002; Hartog, 2004; Church, 2004; Naidoo, 2005). What I am suggesting is that the flow through web-space of living theories, such as Delong's, are cultural artefacts that are now available for others who have access to the appropriate technology, to use in giving a form to their own lives and learning. Others could contribute to this flow of cultural artefacts by making their living educational theories available through the flow of web-space. I am thinking of these cultural artefacts as the evidence-based explanations of individuals who are accounting for their lives and educational influences in learning in terms of the values, skills and understandings that they believe carry hope for the future of humanity and their own.

 

In emphasising the role of the living educational theories of individuals as cultural artefacts in social transformations through education I am aware of accepting Burkitt's point about the work of Seve on personality. Burkitt says that one of the greatest contributions that Seve made to the debate about the social formation of selves, is demonstrating how the personality is a moment in the totality of social relations (Burkitt, p. 135, 1991). I also agree with Burkitt's point that Seve concentrated on the capacities learned in social labour and omitted the capacities developed in individuals through culture:

 

If we ignore cultural capacities formed in the social habitus as a whole, we tend to reduce human experience to a one-dimensional framework, just like the structuralists and post-structuralists who saw individuals as the product of discursive structures and ignored the social relations and activities of individuals through which the real world is transformed. (ibid,)

 

 By enhancing the flow through web-space of cultural artefacts in the form of living educational theories it might be possible to transform the social habitus so that the values, skills and understandings that carry hope for the future of humanity can become even more powerful in individual and social transformations through education.  As I write this I am wondering about the potential transformatory power of the African indigenous knowledge of Ubuntu (Bhengu, 1996; NCSL, 2004; Hopkins, 2005, Whitehead, 2004b, 2006) to transform the global social habitus. Ubuntu stresses the vital communications in relational ways of being in community in such translations as 'I am because we are'. 

 

I am aware of the dangers of colonising ideas from other cultures in a way that distorts their meaning. I am thinking here of Bhengu's (1996, p. 54) point that there is every danger of Ubuntu being hijacked and trivialised. I am also aware of the dangers of inappropriately imposing such ideas as explanatory principles for my own educational influences and for the educational influences of others. To help me avoid such dangers I bear in mind the work of Madeline Church (2004) and Margaret Farren (2005). I bear Church's ideas in mind because of the way she demonstrates an awareness of the colonising dangers of bullying as she responds in way that contributes to making space for individuals and communities to flourish:

 

Through this research I am developing new ways of knowing about what we are doing as reflective practitioners, and by what standards we can invite others to judge our work. I am, through my practice, making space for us to flourish, as individuals and communities. In this way I use the energy released by my response to bullying in the service of transformation. (Church, 2004)

 

I bear Farren's (2005) ideas in mind because of the way she shows how to exercise 'power with' rather than 'power over' in the creation of a pedagogy of the unique through a web of betweenness:

 

I clarify the meaning of my embodied values in the course of their emergence in my practice-based research. My values have been transformed into living standards of judgement that include a 'web of betweenness' and a 'pedagogy of the unique'. The 'web of betweenness' refers to how we learn in relation to one another and also how ICT can enable us to get closer to communicating the meanings of our embodied values. I see it as a way of expressing my understanding of education as 'power with', rather than 'power over', others. It is this 'power with' that I have tried to embrace as I attempt to create a learning environment in which I, and practitioner-researchers, can grow personally and professionally. A 'pedagogy of the unique' respects the unique constellation of values and standards of judgement that each practitioner-researcher contributes to a knowledge base of practice. 
(Farren, 2005)

 

It is my contention that the world would be a better place to be if the values, skills and understandings flowing through web-space in the living educational theories, were being realized more fully in a globalised social habitus. These living educational theories are socio-cultural artefacts produced through activities and enquiries of the kind, 'How do I improve what I am doing?' They been legitimated in the Academy as valid forms of educational knowledge and theory. Whether they extend their contributions to sociocultural transformations depends on their use-value in supporting the creating and sharing of your own living educational theories as  you account to yourself for the lives you are living and share your explanations for your educational influences in your learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of social formations."

<Whitehead, J. & Delong, J. (2006) Researching connections between the systemic influences of an educational leader and the explanations of teacher-researchers of their educational influences in learning. Presented at the annual conference of the Invisible College, Moscone Centre, San Francisco, 6th April 2006. Retrieved 19 April 2006 from http://www.jackwhitehead.com/aera06/jdcontinvisible06jointC.htm >