How am I creating a pedagogy of the unique through a web of betweenness with a new epistemology for educational knowledge?
Farren, Margaret (2007) How am I creating a pedagogy of the unique through a web of betweenness with a new epistemology for educational knowledge? Action Research Expeditions, December 2007 . ISSN 1557-9719
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In this paper, I report on my Doctoral research. My PhD thesis examines the growth of my educational knowledge and development of my practice, as higher education educator, over six years of self-study. I demonstrate how I am contributing to a knowledge base of practice by creating my ‘living educational theory’. Whitehead (1989,2004a) claims that values are embodied in our educational practice and their meanings can be communicated in the course of their emergence in practice. He encourages us to account for our own educational development through the creation of our ‘living educational theory’ and using our values as living standards of judgement we can judge the validity of our claims to educational knowledge.
I clarify the meaning of my educational 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 Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can enable us to get closer to communicating the meanings of our embodied values. 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.
My research is timely as there is now a growing interest in applied and practice-based research. In a UK discussion document entitled ‘Assessing Quality in Applied and
Practice-based Educational Research’, Furlong and Oancea, (2005, p. 8) suggest that “action research and reflective practice are models that offer arguments against the idea that applied research is only focused on use and that it does not and cannot contribute to more theoretical knowledge production while at the same time achieving
changed practice” (ibid).
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