Summary of Living Educational Theory Research
1. Why do Living Educational Theory Research?
Living Educational Theory Research is focussed by a professional practitioner on researching their practice to understand and improve it, and generate a valid account of their living-educational-theory. A living-educational-theory (Whitehead, 1989) is a professional practitioner's explanation for their educational influence in the learning of the social formation that is the context of the practice, the learning of others who comprise it, and in their own learning with values that carry hope for human flourishing. It responds to deceptively simple questions of the form: "How can I improve what I'm doing?"
2. What is Living Educational Theory Research?
Living Educational Theory Research (with upper case) is a form of values-led professional practitioner educational research. It can be conceptualised as the procedure that a professional practitioner engages in to create their own living-educational-theory (with lower case, hyphenated).
A living-educational-theory is an professional practitioner's descriptions and explanations of their educational influence in their own learning, the learning of others and the learning of social formations – as they explore questions of the sort "How do I improve what I'm doing?"
- It is living because it is based on the lived experience of professional practitioners as they try to improve the quality of their professional practice.
- It is educational because it offers guidance for the improvement of educational practice.
- It offers educational theory to other educational researchers that can be used to inform their own educational enquiries.
Living Educational Theory Research is routinely carried out world-wide in countries as diverse as Nepal, South Africa, the UK, the USA the Philippines and Canada. As a distinct research paradigm, it is academically rigorous and regularly features in national and international conferences. Living Educational Theory Researchers form a world-wide collaborative community. By means of this international reach, its principal intent is to make a contribution to the flourishing of Humanity in all its manifestations.
3. What is your interest?
If your interest is being drawn towards this distinctive form of educational research, then it is likely that you have already developed a particular perspective on your professional practice. For example, while you may or may not be a member of a professional body, it is likely that:
- you accept your responsibilities as a professional practitioner, which include holding yourself to account by researching your practice to better understand it and to improve it
- you wish the outcome of your research to itself be educational for all those involved in it, including those who read your scholarly accounts of your research enquiries
- you wish yourself and those you work with and those in the wider world to flourish as human beings – to grow and develop in a healthy and vigorous way and to help others do so too
- you hold distinctive values – principles, standards, or qualities you identify as significant, worthwhile and desirable – that guide your actions as a professional practitioner.
A significant aspect of Living Educational Theory Research is that it gives prominence to the values that inform and are expressed in professional practice. This emphasis makes this research paradigm unique.
The professional practitioner's values are identified and clarified as they emerge in the course of the research. They are used as:
- the explanatory principles that form the basis and structure of the account
- the practical standards of judgement to support claims, also publicly validated, to have improved educational practice
- epistemological standards of judgment, also publicly validated, to evaluate the validity of knowledge-claims.