Five chapters in Search of a Thesis - reflecting on a research journey

Practising my ResearchResearching my Practice

Dr Elyssebeth Leigh

The Nature of my Practice

• Adult education– Trainers– Learning and development specialists– Community and Aboriginal educators

• Games and simulations for learning– Playing to learn– Learning to play

• Action learning projects– Change management– Manager development in workplaces

Myself in context

I am

– An educator of

adult educators

– A designer and user of games and simulations

– A challenger of ‘taken for granted’ norms

– A teacher of Organisational Learning theory

BOTH practitioner AND researcher

Nasrudin stood up in the market-place to address the throng.

‘O people! Do you want knowledge without difficulties, truth without falsehood, attainment without effort, progress without sacrifice?’Soon a large crowd gathered, everyone shouting

‘Yes, yes!’

‘Excellent!’ said the Mulla. ‘I only wanted to know. You may rely upon me to tell you all about it if ever I discover any such thing.’

Does it become easier?

Understanding knowledge

Knowledge is permeable, its orderings are provisional, the dialectic of knowledge is closure and openness Bernstein

Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. Betrand Russell

Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors T.H. Huxley

‘It stands to reason’ is a formula that gives its user the unfair advantage of at once invoking reason and refusing to listen to it.

H.W. Fowler

There are things children have to know, if they are to have any power over their lives or find any pleasure in them.There are things student teachers must know if they are to cope in the classroom.

On the other hand - we learn little by being told answers to questions we have not asked.

Learning originates in the actions of the learner, not those of the teacher.

Educating Psyche Bernie NevilleCollins Dove Melbourne.1989

Educating - a Paradox

My Five Chapters which went in Search of a Thesis

Simulations and Games1 Structure and history2 Classification and typology

Chaos theory3 Its relevance for learning and teaching

Case Study4 A simulation as ‘chaordic learning context’5 Facilitating learning in such a context

Who is to be Our Teacher?

Before [the Buddha] could discover that he needed no teacher, he first had to exhaust his longing for others to take charge of his life. So too with . . . every one of us. Unwilling to tolerate life’s ambiguity, its unresolvability, we search for certainty, demanding that someone else must provide it. Stubbornly, relentlessly we seek someone else to show the way.

Sheldon Kopp

KNOTS R D Laing

There is something I don’t knowthat I am supposed to know.I don’t know what it is I don’t know,and yet am supposed to know,and I feel I look stupidif I seem not to knowand not to know what it is I don’t know.Therefore I pretend I know it.This is nerve wrackingsince I don’t know what I must pretend to know.Therefore I pretend to know everything.

I feel you know what I am supposed to knowbut you can’t tell me what it isbecause you don’t know that I don’t know what it is.

You may know what I don’t know, but notthat I don’t know it,and I can’t tell you. So you will have to tell me everything.

Seeking A Methodology

Adult educators often suggest that competent performance is a matter of familiarising oneself with theories and then of putting [them] into practice as relevant occasions ariseThough an understanding of theoretical constructions is important it is more useful to think in terms of engaging thoughtfully with theory and then, putting ourselves into practicerather than putting theory into practice.

Michael Collins

I start with my personal life .. pay attention to my physical feelings, thoughts and emotions ... ‘systematic sociological introspection’ and emotional recall to try and understand an experience I’ve lived through. Then I write my experience as a story. By exploring a particular life I hope to understand a way of life

Ellis and BochnerStarting with my life - and drawing on my experiences to explore the knowledge, beliefs and values that underlie my practice - led me into avenues of teaching practice deviating further and further from the conventional.

Autoethnography

My use of simulations and my pragmatic approach to research developed together.

The act of writing about their relationship enabled me to articulate the PractitionerResearcher concept as a way of describing the ‘interconnectedness’ of theory and practice in my work.

Ellis and Bochner suggest, in this regard, that ‘the goal is to use your life experience to generalise to a larger group or culture’.

Finding My Own Way

PRACTITONER FOCUS uriosity

Driven by task needs - not ‘need to know’

uestions‘How to act?’ not ‘How to create new knowledge?’

erifiabilityQuick access / application of information

ime perspectiveimmediate returns on effort

rimary orientationCompleting work tasks, achieving immediate goals. Research

only if relevant to practice

RESEARCHER FOCUS

uriositydriven by ‘need to know’, not practical applications

uestionsgenerating new knowledge from research

erifiabilityof research methods and findings

ime perspectivelong time frames, complex projects, general ‘trends’

implications of research results

rimary orientationQuestions worthy of research; insights into results of practice;

create new knowledge

ResearcherPractitioner

uriosity

work needs + ‘need to know’; unifying approach

uestionshow to generate/apply knowledge from within practice

erifiability usability of knowledge; research supports practice

ime perspectiveresearch for long-term change & current understanding

rimary orientation

First practice then research, integrating the two.Broader than practice, more practical than research.

CHAPTER ONEI walk down the street,

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.I fall in.

I am lost . . . I am helplessIt isn’t my fault

It takes forever to find a way out.

CHAPTER TWOI walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.I pretend I do not see it.

I fall in again.I can’t believe I am in this same place.

But it isn’t my fault.It still takes a long time to get out.

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters

CHAPTER THREEI walk down the same street.There is a deep hole in the

sidewalk.I see it is there.

I fall in . . .it is a habit . . butMy eyes are open.I know where I am.

It is my fault.I get out immediately.

CHAPTER FOURI walk down the same street.There is a deep hole in the

sidewalk.I walk around it.

CHAPTER FIVEI walk down a different street.

1993 Portia NelsonFrom There’s a Hole in the Sidewalk

Beyond words Publishing, Inc