The adulthood of Buddhahood: Buddhism,lifelong learning and the education of desire

This paper analyses Buddhism as a philosophy of education as opposed to a religion to offer an alternative model of lifelong education. The three trainings of Buddhism ‐‐ ethics, meditative stabilization and special wisdom ‐‐ are described and their implications for education are considered. The special case of Tantric Buddhism offers a further development in Buddhist discourse on the education of desire, a critical new area of educational inquiry required if we are seriously to address the current environmental crisis. The paper presents Octavio Paz's ideas concerning the differential development of Asian Buddhist culture and Western Protestant culture in terms of their relations to the signs ‘body’ and ‘non‐body’, and concludes with his Utopian vision of the future.     

Finding a voice – thinking with others: a conception of action research

The main theme of this article is that action research is about seeking a voice with which to speak one's experience and one's ability to learn from that experience. It is also about helping others (our students, our patients, our clients) to find their own voices. Action research is decentralising the production of knowledge. To begin with, the theme is given a historical context by presenting a general contrast between pluralism and managerialism, and the next section articulates the nature of action research by contrasting ‘participatory’ with ‘hierarchical’ structures of knowledge. The next phase of the argument is that an ‘educational’ model of action research (emphasizing continuous self-questioning) does not mean that action research lacks ‘criteria’. The final section makes some suggestions about action research’s inherent criteria by showing how the overall purpose of ‘finding a voice’ and of ‘thinking with others’ requires a particular formulation of the main phases of the inquiry process.     

黄河三角洲佛教造像的组合形式与布局装饰

近年来,位于黄河三角洲的博兴、惠民、无棣、阳信、高青、广饶等县境内,出土了大批佛教造像,这些佛教造像组合形式众多,布局匀称合理,装饰纷繁华丽,既具备山东地区北朝时期佛教造像的一般特征,又具有黄河三角洲的地域特色,皆以具体可观的形式展示佛学教义和佛家旨理。     

Doing qualitative research: the craft of naturalistic inquiry

Certain aspects of Thai Buddhism offer interesting support for some key concepts in action research. In particular, Buddhist notions of ‘insight’ and ‘mindfulness’ are helpful in clarifying the ‘reflection’ phase in the well-known action research ‘spiral’, and the concept of ‘Dependent Origination’ can be seen as embodying the whole action research cycle.     

Buddhism and Autonomy‐Facilitating Education

This article argues that Buddhists can consistently support autonomy as an educational ideal. The article defines autonomy as a matter of thinking and acting according to principles that one has oneself endorsed, showing the relationship between this ideal and the possession of an enduring self. Three central Buddhist doctrines of conditioned arising, impermanence and anatman are examined, showing a prima facie conflict between autonomy and Buddhist philosophy. Drawing on the ‘two truths’ theory of Nagarjuna, it is then shown that the prima facie conflict can be defused by noting that the self has reality at one level, but is a fiction at another level. This approach allows us a new way of seeing autonomy as an extrinsic value—as a step in the journey towards nirvana, but of no value once one has achieved nirvana.     

Improving Practice through Reflective Enquiry: confessions of a first‐time action researcher

A number of key constructs underpin educational action research. This paper focuses on the concept of ‘truth’ and by doing so hopes to highlight some debate in this area. In reflecting upon what ‘truth’ might mean to those involved in action research, I shall critically evaluate Thorndike's ‘Law of Effect’ and Bruner's ‘Three Forms of Representation’, and explain how these perspectives might help us find ‘the truth’ of an area under study and how they might inform the methodology of research. I shall close by suggesting that teacher‐researchers should allow for a constructivist approach in their action research methodology in order to help them in their sense‐making process.     

Action,an ‘encompassing ethic’ and academics in the midst of the climate crisis

In the midst of a crisis like the climate crisis and calls for ‘all hands on deck’, what do academics, as a microcosm of humanity, see? In Hannah Arendt’s terms, an ‘abyss of freedom’ to act or a paralysing ‘abyss of nothingness’? Some from the academy themselves, including Tamboukou, Apple and Bourdieu, make judgements more akin to the latter and mount arguments to urge action. This paper joins their call and theorises ethical and demonstrably plausible resources as a potentially generative heuristic for political action by academics in the face of ‘dark times’. I develop these resources by initially drawing on Arendt’s ethical, but limited, action process. Then, through interpreting and expanding her unfinished theory of judging and echoing Karl Jaspers' concept The Encompassing, I propose the notion of an ‘encompassing ethic’. This ethic, synthesised with Arendt’s action process, ameliorates action’s limitations and suggests the idea of ‘encompassing action’. The paper concludes by bringing these conceptual resources to life through two inspiring historical examples of such action involving academics.     

Theory and Passion in Action Research

The starting point for this article is Polanyi's insight that learning involves the personal participation of the knower in taking possession of knowledge, and that this process ‘takes place within a flow of passion’. Somekh pays tribute to Elliott's role in her own intellectual development, as her tutor while she was still a teacher, and later as her colleague. The article focuses on the contribution of the articles published in Educational Action Research, during its first 10 years, under the title of ‘Theoretical Resources’. The contested nature of this title is discussed and illuminated through an exploration of Elliott's writing about teachers' knowledge and the role of both theory and practice in theory generation. Somekh argues for the importance of intellectual engagement with ideas and theories through passionate participation within a ‘personalised and contextualised reality’ – she sees this process as akin to Elliott's notion of action research as a process which ‘problematises the ideas of theorists’.     

Action research for english teaching: ideology,pedagogy and personal growth

This article takes as its starting point the notion that the extent to which action research is accepted or rejected as a valid means of enquiry and professional development is largely determined by occupational culture and the ideology of individuals who corporately constitute that culture (Adlam, 1999; Li et al, 1999). Here, the view that the values and ideologies of teachers cannot be separated from their teaching or research into their teaching (Day, 1998) is illustrated in relation to a politically significant and strategically placed group of teachers. With the advent of the National Literacy Strategy in high (secondary) schools in the United Kingdom, there is a need for English teachers to reevaluate the nature of the subject they teach, which is being redefined, as well as their pedagogy. The beliefs of this distinct group of practitioners are explored, and it is suggested that they are positioned, ideologically, culturally and politically to be receptive to and benefit from action research. As the current emphasis on literacy and therefore on the ‘adult needs’ and ‘crosscurricular’ models of their subject contrasts sharply with this group's timehonoured valorisation of the ‘personal growth’ model of English characterised by imagination and creativity, action research is seen to provide an opportunity for these practitioners to reflect on their ‘conscious and unconscious doings’ (Altrichter et al, 1993, p. 6). Throughout this article, reference is made to the author's experience of conducting a 3-year longitudinal action research project as a high (secondary) school teacher of English funded by the ESRC (Pike, 2000a,b,c,d, e), although the intention in this article is to explore the degree of epistemological and ideological congruence between the values and beliefs of English teachers, and some prevalent features of action research     

Complexity science and educational action research: toward a pragmatics of transformation

In this article, the authors extend Phelps & Hase's (2002) explorations of the theoretical and methodological connections of complexity theory and action research by emphasizing complexity science as the study of learning systems. By emphasizing the importance of ‘complexity thinking’, an argument is made for conceptualizing action research as a ‘pragmatics of transformation’ that explicitly aims to bring together the self-interests of autonomous agents into grander collective possibilities. In addition, the authors offer pragmatic advice that is relevant for the ‘educational’ and ‘learning’ aspects of educational action research by describing a number of conditions that need to be in place in order for complex learning systems to develop and thrive.     

Mind the gap: Dewey on educational bridge‐building

This is the first of four commentaries discussing John Dewey's short essay, ‘Education as engineering’. The essay provides a fascinating model of how the example of engineering could guide the interaction between educational research and practice. It has much in common with Herbart's ideas on how ‘pedagogical tact’ bridges the gap between theory and practice. Re‐introducing both Dewey and Herbart's ideas could help to overcome the current naivity of ‘evidence‐based’ school improvement.     

Carr and Kemmis's Reflections

Reflective practice in general, and the views of Carr and Kemmis on ‘action research’ in particular, have become the settled orthodoxy of much educational thinking, but can they take the load that they are being asked to bear? An analysis of ‘reflection’ is offered, which reveals what can be achieved by the operation and what cannot. This is then used to assess the coherence of Kemmis's views on the concept—the basis of Carr and Kemmis's widely‐cited theoretical proposals, which they use to justify their approach to action research. I then turn to an examination of the adequacy of these proposals themselves.     

Reviews

The authors' experiences of observing teaching and learning in schools have led them to become concerned at the dominant paradigm of a ‘pedagogy of poverty' at the expense of a ‘pedagogy of plenty’. Bernstein's theory of power and control of education knowledge is overtly practised in classrooms globally. This is evidenced in the narrowing of the curriculum in response to the ‘No Child Left Behind’ initiative in the USA and the centrally imposed National Strategies and Standards agenda in the UK. Bernstein's theory is still a means of clarifying the relationships between social class, family income and the education process. It introduced the concept of ‘restricted and elaborated codes’, which has been labelled by its critics as a deficit model for the working-class population. The authors contest that expectations for this new meritocracy have failed to materialise and the expectations for equity have been reduced by the prevailing metric. This ‘pedagogy of poverty’ is now practised in the current ‘one size fits all’ model of teaching and learning operating within narrow accountability based on a ‘testocracy’. This case study demonstrates one teacher using guided group work as a potential strategy for a ‘pedagogy of plenty’.     

Dissidence,difference and diversity in action research

This article served two purposes. First and foremost, it gave the author an opportunity to re-visit, and acknowledge, some ways in which her professional relationship with John Elliott and other professional friends influenced her work in action research. Second, it enabled the author to revisit current ideas held in two areas of interest that have, over the years, grown out of departure from, as well as identification with, John's own work. The first relates to the personal and emotional dimensions of theory in action research and the second, to issues of methodological creativity. In re-visiting these two areas of interest, the author tries to synthesise them in a new way in order to explore the connections between the personal, the emotional and the innovative in action research methodology. In this, the article attempts to link issues related to the ‘I’ of the action researcher with the ‘we’ of the collaborative research group. It is argued that our ‘self’ is implicated deeply in action research methodology, whatever form that might take. The emotional and social climate in which the ‘I’ operates is consequential. This means that we need to take a holistic view of the action researcher as person, and of collaborative colleagues as enablers and supporters, if we are to optimise the powers that can be brought to the process of enquiry and change. The article also tries to be ‘true’ to the notion that one's ideas, theories and work are shaped by what Wayne Booth calls ‘the company we keep’.     

Using Film Text to Support Reluctant Writers

This article is the result of working with several schools concerned with improving achievement in boys' writing. It begins by describing a range of effective teaching and learning strategies, observed in my role as a Literacy Consultant, which had a positive influence on writers especially boys. The article goes on to explore how a small group of boys, described by their teacher as ‘reluctant writers’, were encouraged by the use of film text to make the most of their preferences for action‐driven narratives to improve story writing. It suggests that ‘slowing down’ this action in the author's eye gives pupils, and boys in particular, an opportunity to consider detail to enhance composition in the same way that a film director uses camera angles to capture the viewer's attention.     

Should the Cambridge primary review be wedded to Vygotsky?

The Cambridge Primary Review's (CPR) preference for a Vygotskian model of schools learners and learning rather than a Piagetian is queried. There are weaknesses and uncertainties with major Vygotskian ideas such as the ‘zone of proximal development’, ‘internalisation’, ‘joint construction’, ‘language mediation’ and educational acculturation, relative to the Piagetian, while human scientific research with babies suggesting inherited capability thrust humans forearmed into physical and social worlds gives some succour to Piaget's cause. The Vygotskian and CPR premise that teachers can push learners beyond developmentally set limits is not unadulterated good news, depending on how we judge education's acculturation purposes and depending on the kind of learners we want within our educational system.     

‘Experience is Our Great and Only Teacher’: A Peircean Reading of Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire

Wim Wenders' film Wings of Desire tells the story of an angel who wishes to become mortal in order to know the simple joy of human life. Told from the angel's point of view, the film is shot in black and white. But at the very instant the angel perceives the realities of human experience, the film blossoms into colour. In this article, I use this film to illustrate and explore Peirce's notion of experience and his claim that ‘experience is our great and only teacher’. In his 1903 Harvard lectures, Peirce placed phenomenology at the heart of his philosophy, while outlining a notion of ‘experience’ that clearly integrates his semiotics, phenomenology and pragmatism. To Peirce, experience is a ‘brutally produced conscious effect’ that comes ‘out of practice’ and is a ‘forcible modification of our ways of thinking’. But as this modification is generated by the actions and flows of signs, it is pertinent to read Peirce's notion of experience in relation to his notion of semiosis. Consequently, a Peircean reading of Wings of Desire not only helps to explore how experience teaches, but also the ways in which the rudeness of experience cannot be fully understood without considering the sign's action.     

Developing a Theoretical Framework for Response: Creative Writing as Response in the Year 6 Primary Classroom

Focusing on the creative writing of Year 6 boys as they make the transition to Year 7, this article establishes a theoretical model for creative writing as response. In line with Bakhtin's notion of utterances as ‘interpersonal’ (1986), the model demonstrates the complexity of creative writing – the text is influencing of and influenced by an author's participation in ‘figured worlds’ (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner and Cain 1998), but also influencing of and influenced by future respondents. This article suggests that ‘weaker framing’ (Bernstein 2000) in creative writing pedagogy has the potential to alter boys' identities and refigure their worlds.     

试论李觏佛教观的双重性

李觏佛教观具有双重性，既有排佛的一面，也有容佛的一面。李觏排佛主要表现在两个领域：一是以经济建设、财富积累和社会秩序为内容的物质领域，一是儒家礼治伦理领域。而容佛主要表现在对佛教某些教义、佛教教化功能的肯定。李觏佛教观的双重性特征是极富启示的。     

Teacher Education and European Community Policy

There is no policy of the European Community specifically labelled ‘teacher education’. However, policies which do exist at Community level have clear implications for teacher education. This can be seen from a study of the policy model developed within the Community; teacher education becomes a ‘dimension’ of policy in relation to objectives and as a sphere of action. The article illustrates these points and refers also to the currently ‘blocked’ policy dossiers of the Community.

Il n'existe aucune politique pour la formation des enseignants dans la Communauté Européenne. Cependant, les politiques qui existent dans le cadre de la Communauté ont une certaine portée sur la formation des enseignants. Ceci ressort d'une étude sur le modèle politique qui a été développée à l'intérieur de la Communauté; dans cette perspective, la formation des enseignants devient une dimension de la politique par rapport aux objectifs de cette politique et en tant que domaine d'action. L'article illustre ces point et fait aussi référence aux dossiers de politique actuellement ‘bloqués’ de la Communauté.