Information for the Monday group and an invitation to
colleagues:
5.00-7.00 1WN 3.8. Monday 23 May 2005.
After we have caught up with each others' news from the week
we will have the opportunity of a conversation with Maggie Farren from Dublin
City University on her doctoral research. Maggie's Abstract is below together
with four urls. These take you into the most exciting web-pages on the use of
Information and Communication Technology in Education that I have seen. Do have
a look at the sections on e-portfolios, research-based practice and Masters
Dissertations with their Living Educational Theory action research enquiries.
Do e-mail in your news if you can't be here. News already in
from this week:
Jean has accepted an invitation to organise a five day
workshop on action research in South Africa. Branko has accepted a position on
the Study of Pedagogy at the Philosophic Faculty in Osijek, Croatia and will be
continuing with his doctoral enquiry into
"How can I help teachers to obtain new professional role of action
researcher through e-learning and network cooperation." Moira is working
this week with VSO staff in the Beijing office on how to collect data together
and individually, so as to enable judgements to be made about effectiveness in
fulfilling goals. Jackie's latest book, edited with colleagues, including
Cheryl, is almost ready for the printers and I should have details to share
next week.
Paulus has updated his web-site at http://www.rac.ac.uk/~paul_murray/default.htm
This contains details of his doctoral enquiry on, Performing The Meaningful: unfolding my personal
epistemology: A mixed-race educator's story of his practice.
The front page contains the
following welcome and hope:
Welcome to my multiracial and inclusive Postcolonial
Living Education Theory - practice, research and becoming.
By visiting, I hope to share with you some of my
passion and spirit in Ubuntu - "Umuntu ngumuntu nagabantu" ~ 'A
person is a person because of other people'
And live urls to the following:
My Teaching
My conversational-agency practice in organizations
Educational Research for me: Teacher as Researcher
What Action Research means to me
Autobiography and my Embodied ~ Emergent Values
Diversity and Inclusion
My PhD Inquiry
Alan, Maggie, Marian, Paulus, Je Kan – with having our
BERA Symposium on the programme for the September Conference we all need to
register for the Conference by 1st June. You need to go into:
https://www.delegatebookings.co.uk/inconference/beraconference2005.htm
accept the terms and conditions and access the registration
form – details on how to obtain the forms for a Student or Teacher Bursaries are on the registration form.
Details of the contexts which Ken and Stefan will be working
in during their November visit with the Bereaved Parents/Family Forums of
Palestinian and Israeli parents and relatives can be viewed at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/prius/parttwo/story/0,14195,1214886,00.html
Details of
Professor Sami Adwan's work from
Bethlehem University can be viewed at:
http://www.theparentscircle.com/NewsMain.asp?id=33
Here is Maggie's Abstract and the live urls for her
web-site for Monday:
Abstract
This thesis explores the growth of my educational
knowledge, as higher education educator, over six years of self-study. I
develop what I refer to as a 'pedagogy of the unique' by using a living
educational action research approach, that allows me to develop my own living
educational theory, as I research into how I can improve my practice. The
context of my research is in collaboration with practitioners on an award
bearing MSc in Computer Applications for Education and MSc in ICT in Education and Training
Management.
I have clarified the meaning of my values in the course
of their emergence in my enquiry-based practice. I articulate these ontological
values that have emerged and that have become stabilised as a constellation of
values in my practice. In the context of my thesis, these values have become
epistemological standards of judgement.
One of my stable standards of judgement, 'the web of
betweenness', respects the unique constellation of values that I, and other
practitioners, understood as teacher researchers, can contribute to a knowledge
base of practice. The 'web of betweenness'
is a metaphor that conveys that we learn in relation to one another and it also
relates to how we make use of ICT to bring this about. This reflects my belief that education
is dialogic in nature. It also
reflects 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
both I and my practitioners can grow personally and professionally. I
appreciate that each person has a unique contribution to make in the
construction of knowledge. The 'web of betweenness' has been generated and
sustained through a spirit of community, which values each human being.
As a researcher, I have supported practitioners in
bringing their embodied values and expertise into the public domain as they
design, develop and evaluate multimedia and web based artefacts for use in
their own practice contexts. This has also involved the supervision of Master
degree action research enquiries. This is a professional journey that has
involved risks, courage and challenge, but I have learned that in creating my
pedagogy of the unique, I learn and grow, recognising the contribution I myself
make as an individual, and also recognising the contribution dialogue and
collaboration with others achieves.
http://webpages.dcu.ie/~farrenm/
http://webpages.dcu.ie/~farrenm/currentwork.html
http://webpages.dcu.ie/~farrenm/research.html
http://webpages.dcu.ie/~farrenm/dissertations.html
One of the ideas that has emerged for me in conversations and correspondence with Paulus Murray is
the importance of learning how to contribute to the evolution of a postcolonial social formation (these are my words) through loyalty to humanity. An idea that
Paulus introduced me to was being a 'traitor to whiteness'. I have come to understand 'whiteness' as
power relations that sustain white supremacy and white privilege. Do please read the short article by Noel Ignatiev below with its heading
on the top right hand corner of the page RACE TRAITOR - treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity.
Ignatiev, N. (1997) The Point Is Not To Interpret Whiteness But To To Abolish It. Retrieved 17 May 2005 from
http://racetraitor.org/abolishthepoint.html
Do please also read the reflections of Major W Cox following the first conference on whiteness at Berkeley in 1997.
Cox. M. W. (1997) Time to Dismantle Whiteness. Retrieved 18 May 2005 from
http://www.majorcox.com/columns/whitenes.htm
Love Jack.