Jack Whitehead

University of Cumbria · Faculty of Education

In the 2005 BERA Presidential Address Whitty (2005) highlights the importance of making a clear distinction between education and educational research. Furlong and Oancea (2005) have highlighted the importance of developing a clear understanding of appropriate standards of judgment for evaluating the quality of practice and practice-based research....

Continuing professional development (CPD) living educational theory offers an approach to CPD that enables educators to enhance their own professional practice and enable them to offer as gifts the knowledge, expertise and talents they develop to extend the knowledge base of the profession. In this paper we briefly introduce living theory research...

For over 30 years, literacy has been recognized as a key concern in Special Education Needs (SEN) and especially in Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) education. No different in Mauritius, these children struggle to get passing marks in French language at elementary level. Addressing this concern, literature has been reviewed in the context of games fo...

What educational practitioners have in common is the intention of contributing to the learning of communities and those who comprise them, to live values of human flourishing, and to help other people and communities to do so too. Professional educational-practitioner researchers can contribute to communities creating positive futures locally and g...

What educational practitioners have in common is the intention of contributing to the learning of communities and those who comprise them, to live values of human flourishing, and to help other people and communities to do so too. Professional educational-practitioner researchers can contribute to communities creating positive futures locally and g...

An argument for adopting a Living Educational Theory Research approach to the processof continuing educational, professional development is presented. A living-educational-theory(a term coined by Whitehead by 1989) is the valid, values-laden and evidence-based explanation of the practitioner for their educational influence in their own learning, in...

Yearly in Mauritius, only a few Special Educational Needs (SEN) and especially Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) students manage to get a passing mark in French language at elementary level. As at date, literature suggests that there is hardly any French language learning tools connected with pedagogical knowledge and technological tools suitable for...

The last 20 years have seen a growing interest in researching pedagogy in Higher Education with action researchers playing a part in this growth. However, there are few studies that analyse the educational influences in learning of the action researcher in their own pedagogy in Higher Education. Hence the focus of this paper on enhancing educationa...

The article’s authors continually ask and attempt to answer questions, such as, ‘How do I improve what I am doing?’ and ‘How do we improve what we are doing?’ by researching their practice and making public what knowledge they create along the way. Here they describe Living Theory research and explain why this has enabled them to improve their prac...

In the contemporary world, technology creates instant access to information and communication, and social life is increasingly impacted by global economic forces. This chapter seeks to present interpretations of ways that action research can provide the means for an enterprise. Ernie Stringer uses a developmental framework to describe how levels of...

This chapter analysis the underlying importance of context and voice in action research based on some 50 years of professional engagement in education and educational research. In recognizing and understanding sociohistorical and sociocultural influences in different contexts of action research, the author draws on the ideas of de Sousa Santos and...

Although action research has been widely recognized as an appropriate methodology for promoting the democratization of knowledge, it is not always conducted from an emancipatory and transformative paradigm. Using AR in a technical way, renders it no more than a researcher-driven, problem-solving heuristic that perpetuates the intellectual colonizat...

This chapter analyzes the role of theory in action research from the perspective that practitioner-researchers are knowledge-creators with the capacity to generate valid explanations of their educational influences in their own learning, in the learning of others, and in the learning of the social formations that influence ideas and practice. Actio...

This themed issue comprises articles by educators who successfully completed the Master’s units tutored by Marie Huxtable and Jack Whitehead, and they were accredited by the University of Bath (UK) between 2008 and 2010. Their articles show how, even after years of a straight-jacket in the form of targets and a UK national curriculum and years of t...

In our last paper in GEI we presented an argument for teachers to engage in Living Educational Theory research as Continuing Professional Development. In this paper we extend our analysis to show how this can empower educators to improve their practice and, by offering as a gift the knowledge they generate in the process, contribute to the creation...

Addressing the debate around what makes a good citizen, this work proposes a new form of post-colonial citizenship education which can be applied in any cultural setting. International educational partnerships provide the opportunity for participants to live out values such as cultural empathy and thus demonstrate their right to citizenship. © Stev...

An academic framework for living-global-citizenship has emerged from the creation by individuals of their living-educational-theories as they engage with enquiries of the kind, ‘How do I improve what I am doing?’ and engage with the ideas of others. The evolution of living-global-citizenship from notions of living-theory has emerged from a 45-year...

Embodied living-global-citizenship is a significant and original contribution to both knowledge and knowledge production and operates as a standard of judgement for evaluating the validity of the contributions to knowledge. The notions of living-global-citizenship emerge as a synthesis of the research approach adopted and the actions of the partici...

In this chapter we first deconstruct current notions of citizenship education and explore how it is regarded and delivered in various educational settings. We then go on to deconstruct contemporary UK ideas about the ‘Big Society’ and cultural education. From this position we then construct our own alternative pedagogy for the delivery of effective...

In Chapter 4 we gave some examples as Living Legacies of Living Global Citizenship partnerships. In the same way that we have presented these multimedia narratives concerning participation in the partnership, we want to encourage others to do the same. These should be multimedia accounts and should be put into the public domain for sharing, debatin...

Each of the authors present their own living narrative of how they are engaged in a Living Global Citizenship project within which they are living out their values and contributing to improving their own lives and the lives of others. In addition, there are narratives of values- based activities from others that demonstrate the contribution that in...

In this first chapter we establish the origins of the idea of ‘Living Global Citizenship’ and we represent it as three transformations in thinking that have taken place over the past 12 years as we have engaged in discussions about the nature of international educational development and learning through partnerships. We set it in the context of the...

In the previous chapter we outlined several projects which continue to demonstrate the participants living out their values as global citizens through partnerships. We called these Living Cases. In this chapter we attempt to draw together the key elements in each of these projects, thereby identifying the key design features of a Living Global Citi...

Gifts, Talents and Education: A Living Theory Approach is a practical guide for teachers on how to help all their pupils to enhance their gifts and talents in the classroom. Examples reveal how teachers can transform the way education is understood in schools, by relating stories of how they learned about their own gifts and talents. The book expla...

Natural Inclusion - from Adversity with Love by Alan Rayner

Action Planning in Creating your Living Educational Theory: Exploring the Implications of Asking, Researching and Answering ‘How Do I Improve what I am Doing?’

Recognising Learners as Creators of KnowledgeBringing into Presence the Uniqueness of the IndividualEducational Relationships and ResponsibilitiesCollecting Data of the Influence We Want to be Using VideoThe Educator's Role in Supporting Children and Young People Researching their Own Lives, Recognising Their Own Values and Living Standards of Judg...

Creating Living Educational TheoriesFlows of Life-Affirming Energy with ValuesLiving Logics in Educational EnquiriesEducational Enquiry and Acknowledging a Mistake in my Early Educational TheoryUsing new Technologies in Producing Visual Narratives with Living Standards of Judgment

Generative-Transformational (G-T)Contradictory/Dialectical (C)Relational (RE)Activity-Oriented (A)Temporal/Social (TE)

How Amongst the Impositions and Demands can We Recognise, Create and Maintain an Educational Space?How Do We Know We are Making a Difference and Communicate that to Others Imbued with the Traditional Social Science Perspectives?How Can We Improve our Educational Influence in the Learning of Our Colleagues and the Learning of Our School and other Co...

The paper explains how individuals can generate their living theories from action research as explanations for their educational influences in learning. The epistemological significance of these explanations is explored in terms of the energy and values that are expressed in explanatory principles of learning in enquiries of the kind, `How do I imp...

Summary The paper explores how the gifts and talents of all pupils can be engaged and enhanced in improving the quality of learning by moving beyond attempts to define and categorize people in terms of an objective measure or judgment of gift and talent. A living educational theory approach is used to show how, inclusive and inclusional practices c...

The authors consider the ways that the field of gifted education might benefit from adopting Whitehead’s Living Educational Theory Research approach. The book offers values, skills and understanding as concepts that retain a direct connection with practice. Gifts, Talents and Education: A Living Theory Approach is a practical guide for professional...

The enquiry process of Thinking Actively in a Social Context (TASC) is influencing the creation of new forms of educational theory that can explain an individual's educational influence in their own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of social formations. Evidence of this influence is provided from self-studies of practitioner-...

MICHAEL FIELDING (Ed.), 2001 London: RoutledgeFalmer ISBN 0 415 25210 5, £19.99

This book gives practical guidance on doing an action research project. Written for practitioners across professions who are studying on award-bearing courses, this book is packed full of useful advice and takes the reader through the various stages of a project, including: Starting your action research project Monitoring and documenting the action...

This paper is a response to Schon's (1995) call to reflective practitioners for the development of an epistemology of practice. It grounds the epistemology in the experience of 'I', as a living contradiction in the question, 'How do I improve my practice?'. It focuses on four epistemological implications, for the creation of a discipline of educati...

The authors have worked together in different ways in relation to an educational action research PhD – ‘Action planning and assessment in guidance contexts: how do I understand and support these processes whilst working with colleagues in Further Education Colleges and a Careers Service?’ (Hughes, 1996). In this article they intend to share their o...

The A. feels sure that Newby's review of Jean McNiff's book Teaching as Learning will help to stimulate philosophers of education to contribute to debate about the nature of the educational knowledge and the logic(s) of the educational theories being produced by educational action researchers. The A. shares his commitment to clarify of thinking in...

Action research approaches to professional development have had a greater influence in education and health care than in business management. This paper describes and analyses a joint initiative between a university school of education and a school of management to offer a programme of participatory action research to assist senior, local authority...

This contribution follows the order of the Abstract and Summary in the AERA 2005 on-line Conference Programme and will focus on educational influences in my learning from the 31 year research programme into a reconstruction of educational theory described in the Abstract. The contribution is focused on relating my learning, from my s-step research,...

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 stu...