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Constructing Living Educational Theories From Action Research With Others

In Enquiries Of The Kind, ‘How do I improve what I am doing?’

Jack Whitehead

Year of posting: 2006

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Abstract:

I am writing this for teachers who are exploring the implications for themselves and others of questions of the kind, ‘How do I improve what I am doing?’ I am writing this for those who believe that the profession of education needs educational theories that can explain their educational influences in their own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of the social formations in which we live and work.

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Study

The idea of living educational theory emerged from my recognition in 1971, after some five years teaching and four years study of educational theory, that the dominant form of educational theory known as the ‘disciplines’ approach was mistaken. In this view, educational theory was believed to be constituted by the disciplines of education, of the history, philosophy, psychology and sociology of education. My experience of the mistake in this approach was that no explanation, generated by any of these disciplines either individually or in any combination could produce an adequate explanation for my educational influences in my own learning, in the learning of others or in the learning of the social formations in which I lived and worked. I came to the University of Bath as a Lecturer in Education in 1973 with the purpose of contributing to the creation of forms of educational theory that could produce valid explanations for such educational influences in learning.

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