Adapting the boundaries in primary physical education: an account of my learning,my educational influence and improved practice

In this paper I explore how I have come to theorise my work as a critical emancipatory practice as a lecturer in primary physical education (PE). I give an account of what I understand to be the epistemological foundations and practices of practitioner research and my potential educational influence in my own and other practitioner-researchers’ learning. I explain how I have generated my living educational theory of practice and discuss the changes in my learning from a propositional approach towards a dynamic epistemology of practice that is grounded in inclusional and dialogical ways of knowing. Within my paper I position myself as a professional educator and researcher, and share the exciting and transformational experiences of teaching and learning in evolving action research cycles of practice. I view my learning to date as an active act, working with the novice teachers I support to offer improvement and change in our future practice. I celebrate my reconceptualised view of education as a learner from within my practice and explain my move from knowledge transfer to knowledge co-creation. I make an original contribution to educational knowledge by explaining how I try to inspire others to research their practice and contribute to a new scholarship of educational enquiry.     

EVALUATING A TEACHER RESEARCHER'S CHOICE OF ACTION RESEARCH

In this paper I discuss my reasons for choosing educational action research in my enquiry into the process of writing, redrafting, learning and autonomy in the examination years (Eames, 1987). I look first of all at my own interests as a teacher‐researcher, and then explore my reasons for rejecting the ‘dominant research paradigms, which seemed to me inappropriate for what I was trying to do. I explain what I understand by action research, and examine objections to it, as well as considering its strengths.     

Relationships between macro and micro socio-cultural contexts: implications for the study of interactions in the mathematics classroom

In this paper I attempt to clarify how the relationship between macro and micro social contexts has been addressed in the Vygotskian and Neo-Piagetian approaches to learning. For each approach I look at how key scholars (Cole, 1977; Perret-Clermont, Perret and Bell, 1991) come to view context as central to their theories of cognitive development. In order to illustrate my review of the dominant strands of empirical research I refer to studies that focus on the uses, learning and understanding of mathematics. I start the paper with the socio-cultural Vygotskian approach. This is closely associated with my own research into the relationship between culture and learning. Not surprisingly, I find biases in this body of research in terms of the macro and micro features of contexts which were analysed. In an attempt to gain insights into alternative ways of conceptualising these relationships I explore work which has adopted a socio-psychological approach. In the final part of the paper I discuss how these insights can be used to broaden our basis for studying interactions in the mathematics classroom and conclude by relating my ideas to new developments in socio-cultural theory.This revised version was published online in September 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Developing holistic practice through reflection,action and theorising

This article outlines how I, as a primary teacher engaging with a self-study action research process, have come to a deeper understanding of my practice. It explains how I have also come to an understanding of why I work in the way I do; of how this understanding influences my work, and the significance of this new understanding. My work as a teacher frequently includes doing collaborative digital projects with my class. As I engaged in research on my practice, I initially experienced difficulties problematising this work. I struggled to achieve clarity not only with engaging in critical thinking but also with articulating my educational values. I found Mellor’s idea about ‘the struggle’ helpful as he explains how ‘the struggle’ is at the heart of the research process. My new understanding around these collaborative projects emerged in terms of holistic practice; clarifying my ontological values and learning to think critically. I am now generating an educational theory from my practice as I see my work as a process for developing spiritual and holistic approaches to learning and teaching. I conclude by outlining what I perceive to be the significance of my work and its potential implications for education.     

For Example? A Philosophical Case Study of Some Problems When Abstract Educational Theory Ignores Concrete Practice

In Philosophy of Education we frequently argue for or against different educational theories. Yet, as I illustrate in this analysis of two articles, in order to maintain the abstract theoretical distinctions, we are liable to ignore the concrete details of practice, caricature the theories we reject and make false distinctions. The two articles that I analyse, one from Golding and one from Boghossian, grapple with the pedagogical theories of transmission teaching, constructivism, pragmatism and Socratic pedagogy, in the context of dialogical philosophy teaching. As a result of my analysis, I first present three examples where the authors have rejected abstract theories based on arguments that I show to be strawmen: These theories would not or could not be adopted in practice. Then, I present two examples where the authors attempt to make distinctions between educational theories which seem sound in the abstract, but which turn out to be false distinctions if we consider the details of concrete practice. My conclusion is that, in these two articles, abstract educational theory is prone to problems when it ignores concrete practice. Although I am presenting a case study, and do not argue that my conclusion is generalisable, I do suggest some reasons why this conclusion might apply more widely to Philosophy of Education. My recommendation is that we be more discerning in our treatment of educational theories and more mindful of the educational practices that they entail. We should acknowledge the practical similarities between different abstract theories rather than forcing caricatured distinctions.     

The strength of ideas in construction projects: A teacher's window of perception

The benefits for a teacher in researching their own classroom have been well documented, but few reports have focused on how teachers make sense of what they see and hear during open-ended technology construction projects. This interpretive study has such a focus. It traces aspects of my learning trajectory as a teacher researcher in my Year Six classrooms, and aspects of improved classroom outcomes. In narrative voice I describe how my initial thinking about the building of acceptable scientific knowledge is modified through exploring the research literature and the strength of my students' ideas. My interpretation of videotape data of the collaboration process within group learning identifies the social dynamics which can influence the evolving nature of student's ideas in designing engineering structures. I describe how this research experience has influenced my planning and interaction with my students in the process of helping them to construct viable scientific knowledge.     

A critical reflection on the multiple roles required to facilitate mutual learning during service-learning in Creative Arts education

In this article, I critically reflect on my own learning during a community-based, service-learning pilot project, highlighting the multiple roles that were required of me as facilitator. I provided opportunity for student teachers in a Creative Arts module to engage with youth from a local township community. The purpose of the participatory action research was to explore how this process enhanced reciprocal learning. Data were generated through multiple qualitative methods in four cycles of interactive activities. Adapting to the challenges of community-based learning necessitated that I was flexible enough to know when to don the hat of educator or research designer and when to be less directive to promote professional development and intercultural competencies. I learned to value relational platforms, enable diverse modes of communication and find workable strategies for mutual learning. By sharing my lessons learned, I hope to provide a better understanding of the facilitator’s multiple leadership roles.     

Inhibitory associations between S and R in extinction

The associative changes that occur in extinction were investigated in four instrumental learning experiments. Experiment 1 used transfer based on a shared outcome to detect the continued presence of response-outcome (R-O) and stimulus-outcome (S-O) associations after a response had been nonreinforced in the presence of its controlling stimulus. Experiments 2–4 found that extinction resulted in the learning not to make a particular response in the presence of a particular stimulus, despite those continued R-0 and S-0 associations. These results suggest that extinction may superimpose upon those original outcome associations an inhibitory S-R association.     

Making facilitation work: the challenges on an international DBA action learning set

This account relates my experiences as facilitator of an action learning set on a DBA cohort comprising international students and myself. It outlines the reasons for my selection as facilitator and describes my initial expectations and assumptions of action learning. I chart the difficulty in separating the ‘what’ of my own research from the ‘how/why’ of the action learning set. The account discusses my experiences as a new facilitator and my attempts to engage fellow students in the set in order to gain a collective benefit. I reflect on the challenges encountered in progressing the action learning set caused by a lack of common understanding within the set of the expectations and potential benefits of an action learning approach, and also the feasibility of maintaining a successful action learning set separated by geography, time zones, and language. The account also discusses the practical, technology-supported approaches to facilitating the action learning set.     

Embracing and Harnessing the Intimate Connection Between Emotion and Cognition to Help Students Learn

Traditionally, cognition and emotion were believed to be independent systems; however, research in the cognitive and neurobiological sciences has shown that the relationship between cognition and emotion is both interdependent and extensive. This intimate connection between emotion and cognition is leading to a number of insights that have the potential to inform and transform educational practices at all levels—from the classroom to the curriculum to educational policy. The question that has been on my mind (and on my heart) is, as a teacher, how can I both embrace and harness the power of emotion to help my students’ learning be more meaningful, useful, and intrinsically motivated? In this article, I would like to share with you some of the effective practices that I have implemented in my classroom and how I have worked to intentionally embed the emotional aspect of learning into the framework of the courses I teach.     

From the voice of a ‘socratic gadfly’: a call for more academic activism in the researching of disability in postsecondary education

Abstract

In this article, I use the lens of voices and silences to frame my review of research in the field of disability and postsecondary education. I argue that we need to view research in this field as a necessarily political act that seeks to turn voices of silence into voices of change. Researchers therefore need to rethink their role in order to understand how they can use and direct their political voices. In order to persuade researchers to heed my call for more academic activism, adopt the role of a ‘socratic gadfly’ to identify six political areas of research where I argue that voices and silences need more critical examination. In discussing these six areas, I hope to illuminate the implications for ‘genuinely investigative’ research in the future.     

Weaving action learning into the fabric of manufacturing: the impact of humble inquiry and structured reflection in a cross-cultural context

This account of practice examines the implementation of and reactions to action learning through the Lean methodology in a unique, cross-cultural context. I review my time spent as a Lean coach; engaging with, training, and using action learning with employees in a garment manufacturing facility located in Bali, Indonesia. This research addresses the issue of action learning as it applies to line-level manufacturing workers in an Indonesian national culture. The paper first examines the role of action learning as it applies to the Lean methodology. Then I reflect on broad observations from my ethnographic research, before delving more deeply into the process and reflections of the action learning group. I conclude with some key learning points for the role of action learning for manufacturing work in cross-cultural environments.     

Trust: A Master Teacher's Perspective on Why It Is Important: How to Build It and Its Implications for MBE Research

Teaching is an interaction. It is a relationship between my students and myself. For successful interactions to take place there needs to be trust. In order for my students to be successful I have to be successful as well. My students and I have to have a variety of interactions. These interactions build trust, which leads to bonding. I believe these are the core components to success for myself and therefore my students. The environment that I work in also has to be about trust. I have to feel trusted to do my job in order to be successful. My experiences hopefully will lead to more research and the understanding of trust in the cognitive process of learning.     

A rejoinder to Jrène Rahm’s “Stories of learning,identity, navigations and boundary crossings in STEM in non-dominant communities: new imaginaries for research and action”

This article presents my rejoinder to Jrène Rahm’s response to my article “STEM learning research through a funds of knowledge lens.” I focus on four themes that emerged from my reading of her commentary: the importance of the histories of youth of immigrant origin; her comments on globality; the theoretical lens that she brings to my research; and the methodological issues she discusses. I highlight Rahm’s humanizing component and the need to understand the complexity of immigration. What are we doing in our global settings to build on the diversity of experiences and backgrounds among the youth as a resource towards STEM learning?     

The Ghost of Social Justice Education Future: How the words of graduates contribute to self-transformation

The aim of this self-study was to better understand and improve my practice in preparing elementary credential candidates to create positive, educative learning environments for all children, especially those in high-need urban contexts. I felt I could learn most about this question by studying how graduates were engaging in this work and how their students were responding. Thus, a second aim of the research was to investigate what the implications of studying former students might be for the methodology and practice of self-study. I observed and interviewed six graduates and gathered affective data from their children. With the help of a “critical friend,” I discovered that for the most part my graduates had much strength in this area, which helped to clarify which aspects of my practice should be continued. However, I also identified areas for improvement. Most transformative were revelations that my unconscious uncertainties about working with extreme challenges had placed limitations on these teachers' abilities in this area and that I had been giving mixed messages about the role of joy in the elementary curriculum. The power of these revelations led me to conclude that the study of graduates can play a significant role in self-study.     

Making sense of power relations in a Malaysian English-as-a-second-language academic writing classroom

The role of power in an English-as-a-second-language classroom has yet to be fully explored by an action research practitioner, especially in a Malaysian higher education setting. This study aims to contribute to this gap by working within an academic literacies perspective to teaching academic writing, which propagates the understanding of power-relational, socio-cultural and epistemological conditions for effective teaching and learning. As the teacher in this classroom, I focus on how power-relational conditions play out. To activate the power conditions, I used a teaching principle in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)-negotiated interaction to reduce power-based mismatches between participants in a teaching or learning relationship in my classroom, drawing upon Kumaravadivelu’s work on post-method pedagogy for TESOL; that is, not being bound by any specific method of teaching. In analysing the different types of power that were operational in my classroom, wider implications of power that operate beyond the classroom level and how they impacted teaching and learning decisions were found to be highly illuminating. The action research methodology used for this study enabled me to reflect critically on my detailed diary recordings and student letter and interview collections, which in turn impacted on my teaching decisions as each teaching cycle was completed. My reflections also help shape my evolving identity as a teacher-researcher throughout this ongoing Malaysian action research journey.     

Exploring pedagogies to elevate inquiry: teaching action research in the third space

ABSTRACT

This study chronicles a semester long inquiry focused on the impacts of pedagogical strategies informed by the tenets of third space theory on my own practices and understanding of students’ learning outcomes in an action research course. As I applied new instructional strategies to promote discourse and critical inquiry, I reflexively explored how these approaches enhanced my impacts on students’ learning and praxis of action research. This paper first provides a brief introduction to third space theory and then describes how I infused this framework into my course approach, the different types of data collected and analyzed to gauge the impacts of new pedagogies, and findings that emerged. These are summarized in relation to the conditions that both undergirded and elevated students’ engagement, and directions for further research to advance the praxis of action research across teacher education contexts.     

Muslim researcher researching Muslim youth: reflexive notes on critical ethnography,positionality and representation

As a Muslim researcher conducting a critical ethnography about/with/for Muslim youth and their school experiences, at this time of intensified Islamophobia and overwhelming discourses of hate against Muslims, the boundaries of the personal and the academic become blurry and confusing. This paper emerges from my subjective/academic experiences as a Muslim researcher, and my reflections on reflexivity, positionality and representation while conducting my ethnographic research in a high-school setting with Muslim youth. In this paper, I present a review of the different concepts of critical ethnography that are framing my research decisions and I highlight the complexity of the insider/outsider positionality for a Muslim researcher doing research with Muslim youth and the intersections of religion, gender, class, ethnicity and age in positioning her in the field. The paper presents different ethical dilemmas that I have encountered during the first six months of my fieldwork.     

Interreligious Hermeneutics,Prejudice, and the Problem of Testimonial Injustice

As interreligious educators we challenge our students to engage in hermeneutical self-reflection. In this article, I turn the tables, and engage in an exercise of reflective practice: I look back on my own pedagogy, consider my own religiously diverse classroom, and ask in what way the theoretical framework from which I approach interreligious learning has facilitated and hindered the learning process of my students. I especially inquire into chances and limits of the hermeneutical approach of interreligious learning, an approach with which I identify. I will first elaborate on the importance of the so-called hermeneutical approach to interreligious learning and dwell on my own appropriation of this approach. Here the French philosopher Paul Ricoeur and his hermeneutical anthropology will occupy center stage. Next, and triggered by my own experiences as an interfaith educator, I will argue that the hermeneutical approach to interreligious learning has a tendency to level relations between self and other and falls short when it comes to reckoning with unequal power relations. I will illustrate this shortcoming on the basis of a concrete case of testimonial injustice that has occurred in my classroom.     

Aesthetic Learning,Creative Writing and English Teaching

My article argues that the concept of ‘aesthetic learning’ can be helpful for English teachers on two levels. First, it can be a useful identity for English teachers and students to adopt, based upon my own experiences as a secondary English teacher, creative writer and PhD student. Second, I argue that ‘aesthetic learning’ is an effective and productive way of analysing some of the learning processes that happen in the English teacher’s classroom. In order to arrive at these conclusions, I examine my own creative writing, teaching and learning processes from which I extrapolate the notion that we are all ‘aesthetic learners’ in the sense that we learn to appreciate the qualities of the worlds we inhabit, whether these are actual or virtual. Throughout, my own writing, learning and teaching are used to illustrate my argument. In particular, the article seeks to re-position my own teaching in secondary schools within the context of ‘aesthetic learning’.