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Inclusional thinkingAlan Rayner created the notion of Inclusionality. You can access his work from Alan's own site and the one he inspired Inclusional Research Forum.Alan has also generously allowed me to put some of his thinking on inclusive and inclusional gifted and talented educational theory and practice on this site. These papers were also offered in the BERA practitioner e-seminar 2008 Rayner, A. (2008) Why Competition is a Big Myth Take Rayner, A. (2008) Looking the Gift Horse of Nature in the Mouth – How Objective Evaluation Breeds Resentment Alan posted this on the 5.5.08 Dear Dianne, Marie, Jack and All,
As ever, the philosophical context is crucial to understanding the implications of the language use. The meanings of the same word or phrase can transform radically when the underlying thinking changes. So there is always the need - as in 'cognitive behavioural therapy' - to enquire into the 'core belief or thought' that lies behind our behaviour and utterances and to question its grounding in evidence and sound reasoning.
We have for the most part been brought up in a positivistic, capitalist culture whose logical underpinning is rationalistic (and hence partial, lacking both evidence and consistency) and so treats people as if they are independent performing objects in competition with one another to succeed or fail. Within such a context the question 'How can I improve what I am doing?' could well be interpreted as 'How can I be more competitive?', and suggests an underlying deficit model whereby 'not being good enough' is the motivation for 'getting better all the time'. Within that context the 'I' is a narcissistic singular object/subject that does things to others (and has things done to it) in the process of ensuring its own furtherance, and the 'need to improve' can seem to stand as an admission of weakness. Being a 'learner' in this context is hence a source of shameful deficiency, which is why novice drivers are so keen to abandon the 'L' plates that advertise their 'not yet good enoughness' to the world. There is no joy in being a learner, only a compulsion to get past this stage as fast as possible in order to be able to get on and do things, especially if it involves making money and/or gaining status. The upshot is the widespread pseudocompetence of brilliant bullshitters who feel they cannot afford the 'time', let alone humility to learn deeply, so channel their energies into doing what's necessary to pass examinations. I'm attaching a short piece written for Barry, Marie and Jack's forthcoming book on 'gifts and talents in education' describing my own experience of being expected to learn too fast - indeed not to have to learn at all because I ought to know it all to begin with - to illustrate the unkind of problems that can arise.
Within this culture 'positive' comes to stand for 'good' and negative comes to stand for 'bad'. Everyone strives to 'feel good' by denying the 'bad', to celebrate their 'achievements' and disregard their 'frailties' and resultant 'neediness'. To my mind it is a very sick culture, which nevertheless receives continual reinforcement in our our education (not educational) systems and standard curricula.
Where the philosophical context transforms to what I have called 'inclusional', the emphasis switches from 'learning to be good enough' to 'being good enough to learn'. This is because we no longer see ourselves as independent objects in competition with one another, but as co-creative, receptive and responsive inclusions of a dynamic evolutionary neighbourhood in which our self-identity includes and is included by what rationalism regards as 'other'. The receptivity to other which comes with our vulnerability and mortality is no longer regarded as deficiency, i.e. as 'neediness' - but as 'needfulness' a vital capacity through which we can lovingly and carefully accept and pass on the gift of life that comes from our inclusion in natural energy flow. Our 'I' is no longer a positivistic singularity that negates negativity, but a transfigured self, a true '+', which opens itself to inclusion of other through its needfulness. In this context, 'How do I improve my practice' translates into 'How do I continue to learn, and hence deepen my ability to attune and evolve with and in my ever-transforming dynamic neighbourhood'. We shift from being 'drivers', imposing our willful intent upon what surrounds us, to 'pilots' enhancing, through experience, our skills of receptive-response to the fluid dynamics of our natural neighbourhood, which inescapably includes us. And as we learn, we pass on the gift of our dynamically embodied knowledge, i.e. the benefit of our learning experience, to others. That, for me is what the deeply inclusional and truly evolutionary meaning of 'living educational theory and practice' implies. And this is what shifts the idea of 'improvement' from the judgmental 'correction of deficiency' to 'energising relationship'. Learning becomes a pleasure, not a compulsion.
Warmest
Alan
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