Ethics and science in emancipatory practice with young people North of England Education Conference 16 th. January 2013 Tom Billington Professor of Educational.

Ethics and science in emancipatory practice with

young people

North of England Education Conference16th. January 2013

Tom BillingtonProfessor of Educational and Child Psychology

School of EducationUniversity of Sheffield

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Contents

• Introduction and background

• Ethics

• 20th. century psychology and education

• Emerging science • Ethical and scientific principles for 21st.

century psychology and education

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1. Introduction and background

• Professional practice

- secondary teacher c. 10 yrs

- LA ed. psychologist c. 10 yrs

- court – child & family c. 10 yrs

1 (2)

• Academic - value of theory in generating critique

- the ‘evidence-base’ of practice

- the schism between knowledge and

experience

- the relationship between government and

science

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1 (3)

• Of ethics and science in research and practice

with young people

- knowledge base of practice is incomplete

- the dyad – the point of contact is itself rarely

subject to scientific scrutiny

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1 (4)

• The dyad – clinical encounter

- the site in which psychology in education

is constructed

- the site in which ethics and science are

enacted

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2. Ethics in emancipatory practice

• Responsibilities in practice and research

- to government (national, local, regulatory)

- to individuals (and self)

- to knowledge and science (the academy)

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2 (2)

• Beyond the check-list in research and practice

- ‘No codes can…solve all the ethical

issues…cannot…act as a conscience for the

individuals who are engaged in research,

teaching and clinical practice…’

(Kitchener, 1996, p.369)

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2 (3)

• Three critical (ethical and scientific) distinctions:

- between a diagnosis and a young person

- between a knowledge of young people generally and

our interpretations of the young person before us

- between any descriptions of the young person we

construct and the descriptions the young person might

potentially construct for themselves

(Billington, 2006, p.158)

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2 (4) ‘There are persons who are endeavouring to

situate their own lives in preferred stories and to embrace their own knowledge, but who are finding it difficult to do so because of the dominant and disqualifying stories or knowledges that others can have about them and their relationships.’

White, 1989, p.20

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2 (5)

• Relational psychology

- promotes a scientific interest in the ‘process of

the clinical encounter’ (Katz and Alegria, 2009,

p.1238) as a means of locating ethical

professional practice (i.e. in the dyad)

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3. 20th. century psychology in education • The language of psychology in education:

The old technologies applied to ‘difference’

- rank

- measurement

- the category

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3 (2)

• The old technologies applied to ‘difference’

- rank

- measurement

- the category

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3 (3)

•Expert Voices (in autism)

‘Marked impairments in the use of multiple, non-verbal behaviours such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures and gestures to regulate social interaction…

failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level…

a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests or achievements…

lack of social or emotional reciprocity.’

(DSM IV, 1994)

3 (4)

•Donna

‘The more I became aware of the world around me, the more I became afraid… I was frightened…My world was full of imaginary friends. They were far more magical, reliable, predictable and real than other children…Other people did not understand the symbolism I used…Trish cuddled me…I was terrified. It seemed tears were welling up from a part of me long buried and forgotten…I always paid for closeness with fear.’

(Williams, 1992)

3 (5)

• When we are working with young people

‘There is an abyss between knowledge and

experience that cannot be bridged scientifically’

(Damasio, 2000, p.308)

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4. Emerging science (technology)

• Theorizing relational psychology

- object-relations psychoanalysis

- towards social constructionist practices

- learning and experience

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4 (2)

• New technology – neuroscientific space

- ‘cognitive science is really a science of only

part of the mind…it leaves emotion out. And

minds without emotion are not really minds at

all…’

(Le Doux, 1999, p.25)

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4 (3)

• The emotional brain: - ‘emotions…are the threads that hold mental

life together.’

(LeDoux 1999 p.11)

- ‘emotion is integral to the process of reasoning

and decision-making…’

(Damasio 2000 p. 41)

4 (4)

• The social constructionist brain:

- ‘perceiving is not, therefore, something that the

brain does passively…the brain is an active

participant in constructing what we see.

Through its participation, it instils meaning into

the many signals that it receives…multiple

interpretations…’

(Zeki, 2009, p. 63)

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4 (5)

• The narrative brain

‘the narrative constructing function of the left

cortex cannot be switched off, even during

sleep…the left cortex predisposes us to create

narratives from fragments of perception and

memory…’

(Linden 2007 pp. 229-230)

4 (6)

• From brain to mind…

‘…neuroscience lets us down. Somehow, bursts of electricity in the wetware of the brain don’t seem adequate to the exquisitely structured mind that I, and you, have…’

(Tallis, 2008, p.158)

4 (7)

• Mind…

‘…is a process not a thing…’

(Damasio, 2004, p.183)

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4 (8)

• Narrative mind and the self - ‘The non-verbal narrative of such perpetually

occurring

events spontaneously portrays in the mind the fact

that there is a protagonist to whom certain events

are happening…’ (i.e. the self as other)

(Damasio, 2012, p.203)

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5. Ethical and scientific principles for 21st. century psychology and education - linearity and directionality of the causal link

between cognition and emotion are questioned

- brain is an active participant

- mind is a process

- centrality of narrative and meaning-making as unique

functions of the organism

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5 (2)

• Five critical questions for a researcher / scientist practitioner

- How do we speak of young people? - How do we speak with young people? - How do we write of young people? - How do we listen to young people? - How do we listen to ourselves [when working with young people]

(Billington, 2006, p.8)

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5 (3)

• Adjust our ethical and scientific focus

- ‘…a continuing process of considering the ethical

aspects of one’s actions’ (Small, 2001, p.391)

5 (4)

• working with difference

- ‘be aware of the idea that the other people we

encounter…should be treated as if they are

essentially the same as us…

- …go further and take as our starting point the

idea that others are not the same as us, and

there is no reason why they should be…’

(Parker, 2005, p.15)

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5 (5)

• Ethical and scientific research and practice

- ‘participants will not be left unchanged by their experience [i.e. of research / practice]…’ (Hollway and Jefferson, 2000, p.102)

- Not research or practice ON but WITH

Ethics and science in emancipatory practice with young people

North of England Education Conference16th. January 2013

Tom BillingtonProfessor of Educational and Child Psychology

School of EducationUniversity of Sheffield

[email protected]