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Experiments in knowledge creation
Arthur Male, Institute of Education
Context/situation/challenge
The context is doctoral education at the Institute of Education (IOE), University of London. I am conducting research for my doctoral thesis. The challenge is described in the research proposal I submitted when I was accepted as a doctoral student: to assess the traditional hierarchic model of education and create an alternative model of education. I determine that in order to understand the traditional model of education, I will conduct collaborative conversations with staff and student colleagues at IOE. The conversations address recent and historical issues pertaining to education and modalities of practice. Evaluating the products of knowledge creation in institutional contexts, I open up the dialogue in this area of learning by setting up events and experiencing my methodology. I involve myself in the life of the IOE community.
What were the particular characteristics of the situation that engaged you in an immersive story?
·Lifetime involvement with educational provision mostly in social services settings, where learning occurred in the context of an experiment in knowledge creation
·Personal and professional engagement with widening participation in the traditional, hierarchic education system successively approximating new understandings of educational experience
·Determination to contribute to the development of an alternative model of education through my doctoral research project
·Evidence that when human beings base their educational decision-making process on their personal learning paradigms, they utilise precise, specific, coherent, quantifiable educational methodology
·Belief in egalitarian, trans-positive educational relationships
What forms of learning / personal development / change emerged from the situation?
The research project required a methodology collaborating with staff and student colleagues in the learning environment in which I was studying, IOE. I learned how individuals construct their own changing perspectives in learning situations. I was able to construct educational experiences utilising collaborative conversations. I provided evidence that changed my understanding and the understanding of staff and student colleagues concerning the notion that someone has to be in charge of what is going on in learning situations. The experiments in knowledge creation inspired transformative exchange connecting conversation curricula, criteria and meanings. Analytical engagement exploring the relationship between language and thought in these contexts has not been done before.
What words/concepts/feelings would you use to describe the immersive experience?
Staff and student colleagues have a passionate interest in engaging their personal learning paradigm. There are barriers to engaging in collaborative inquiries. Some of the barriers are self-imposed. Some are imposed by the education system. Because the preponderance of people’s educational experience is in institutional settings, individuals have a tendency to under estimate the importance of their unique, personal learning paradigms. The result seems to be for individuals to habitually respond to authority in most educational situations. Whether teaching, researching or studying, individuals are inclined to inhibit their learner-self and their creative abilities even when those skills are needed. The problem may originate with individuals’ reluctance to risk making independent decisions in learning situations.
What principles or lessons can be drawn from this story?
The educational system is constructed to raise the importance of control, authority, and competition among staff and student colleagues above the common interest of making an original contribution to knowledge. Doctoral education is primarily a preparation for a university career and for carrying out research in educational settings. Staff and student colleagues have a passionate need to engage their creativity in a broader learning experience than is supported in educational institutions. I began my experience as a doctoral student with assumptions concerning: (1) What I would achieve; (2) The relationships I would develop among staff and student colleagues; and (3) The requirements for achieving a doctoral degree. I initiated collaborative conversations that became my data collection. I utilized the space provided by doctoral education to entertain notions of academic freedom within academia, to express an independent voice unattached to a school of thought and to produce an emancipatory thesis that benefits the author and the research participants. I designed educational events at IOE that became the alternative model of education
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