Jack Whitehead

International Educational Development and Learning through Sustainable Partnerships

1. Transforming International Educational Development Through Living Global Citizenship 2. Pedagogy for Effective Citizenship Education 3. Living Theory Transformed into Living Global Citizenship 4. Living Legacies: Living Global Citizenship in Action 5. Designing a Living Global Citizenship Project 6. Propositions for Living Global Citizenship Projects 7. Living Global Citizenship: Lessons for Humanity

Living Educational Theory Research as Transformational Continuing Professional Development.

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 and the international CPD project, ‘Living Values Improving Practice Cooperatively’, that began in the process of supporting educators through a Master’s programme.

Being self-study researchers in a digital world

The contributors to ‘Being Self-Study Researchers in a Digital World’ are all from individuals who have made important contributions to the Self-Study movement since its inauguration at the Self-St...

How are action researchers contributing to knowledge democracy? A global perspective

ABSTRACT 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 colonization of local knowledge. This begs the question: how can action researchers work in ways that are contextually and culturally relevant, and generate knowledge that enables people to take control of improving their own lives as they see fit? This paper presents a thematic analysis of the narrative reports from seven participatory workshops held around the world for the purpose of dialoging around this and related questions. Findings indicate that, generally, action researchers are indeed facing challenges on many personal, institutional and epistemic levels as they endeavor to promote knowledge derived from the principles of authentic participation and dialogue with those whom it is intended to benefit. However, the analysis also reveals creative responses of practitioners to these challenges. In keeping with the special issue theme, we offer this analysis as a starting point for further discussion around how we can mobilize knowledge for equitable social progress.

Practice and Theory in Action Research: Living-Theories as Frameworks for Action

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. Action researchers improve practice and generate knowledge with insights drawn from a range of theories from different disciplines. The notion of a living-theory, as an individual’s explanation of their educational influences in learning, avoids the duality of practice-theory relationships. The issues and challenges in this approach include responses to questions about objectivity, validity, rigor, and generalizability in living-theory accounts from across Europe, the USA, Canada, South Africa, China, Japan, and Malaysia.

Educators creating a knowledge-base of a profession of educators

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 teachers being trained to ‘deliver’ content, there are educators who have the courage and confidence to reflect, research their understanding of their professional educational praxis, make informed changes and contribute their evolving knowledge as a gift to create a professional body of educators.

Creating a Profession of Educators with the Living-Theories of Master and Doctor Educators.

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 of a profession of educators. The extension is grounded in the idea of enhancing professionalism in education through recognising and accrediting accounts of living-educational-theories as knowledge generated by professional practitioners as master and doctor educators. We distinguish Living Educational Theory research from a living-educational-theory. Living Educational Theory research refers to the conceptual principles that distinguish the research approach. A living-educational-theory is a values-based explanation offered by an individual of their educational influence in their own learning, the learning of others and the learning of social formations. It is argued that for this knowledge to be legitimated by universities, in the form of accredited awards, an extension and transformation will be required in the dominating forms of knowledge. It is also argued that educators teaching in continuing professional development programmes need to develop their talents, knowledge and expertise by researching their own practice in the same way as the teachers they are supporting. In doing so they exemplify an educational pedagogy appropriate to providing gifted education internationally for students of any age.

Living Global Citizenship

The originality of my research lies in clarifying and explaining what it means for me to have an educational entrepreneurial spirit and the values I hold that demonstrate this spirit in an explanation of educational influence in learning. This explanation includes a responsibility for students and acknowledging my values of passion and care (‘love’ of what I do), safety, creativity and excellence within my practice. The unit of appraisal in a living theory methodology is the explanation of the influence in my own learning, the learning of others and in the learning of social formations. The methodological inventiveness, particular to the Living Educational Theory methodology, has afforded me an opportunity to express who I really am; body, mind and spirit. I use multimodal forms to communicate and express the nature of the knowledge that I am generating. I can now claim that my values have become living standards of judgement.

Transforming International Educational Development through Living Global Citizenship

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 discourse regarding partnerships between the Global South and the Global North, arguing that it is consistent with a postcolonial perspective that seeks to address issues of injustice and unequal power relations. We also position it in terms of the debate regarding educational cosmopolitanism and universal values and suggest that such notions ignore the importance of learning from difference, whereby difference is to be celebrated as a cultural asset. Finally, we suggest that Living Global Citizenship, by putting values at the heart of partnerships, can be regarded as an antidote to the prevalent ideas of de-skilling, de-moralisation and de-valuation inherent in contemporary economic rationalism.

Pedagogy for Effective Citizenship Education

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 citizenship education within any cultural setting, thereby creating a new meaning for the term ‘cultural education’.