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‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?

 
 
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‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Brian Jennings - Saturday, 19 July 2014, 11:05 PM
 

Friends and colleagues,

Please find my article for your consideration and comment.

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Jacqueline Delong - Thursday, 24 July 2014, 1:04 AM
 

Hi, Brian. First, I commend your commitment to your students, to building a Christian ethics course that is practice-based and to your intentions to improve your teaching. Your narrative writing would be more engaging if you revealed more of yourself and your experiences and included some visual data. The case-study/critical incidents approach appears to have enhanced the enjoyment and deepened the learning of your students.

What appears to me to be missing is engagement with Living Theory which is a pre-requisite of publication in this journal. If you go to the home page of the journal you will see some descriptions of this theory and practice. I am unclear from the writing the nature of the difference between ethics and Christian ethics. I find that some of the data that provide evidence to support claims to know are missing or lack depth. Formatting errors can be edited. There are some repetitions that can be removed that could shorten the length of the article.

You will find that I have attached your paper with edits and comments. I cannot recommend publication of the work as it stands.

I am willing to assist in working with you to revise it. I hope that you accept my suggestions in the spirit that they are given - loving kindness.

Love, Jackie

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Brian Jennings - Monday, 28 July 2014, 2:31 PM
 

Dear Jackie,

Many thanks taking time to review, correct and comment on my paper and for your questions. I had anticipated that there would be areas for clarification and revision before publication

Before I start work on revising I would be most grateful if you could help me with a few things so I can focus my efforts with greater efficiency.

1. Engagement with Living Theory: Before writing my paper I had read very widely in Jack Whitehead and Jean McNiff's work and, indeed, read papers from the journal. My understanding of Living Theory is I examine and critique the fundamental values that had guided my own formation and learning (educational influences on me), review the manner in which I draw them together in my thinking and then explore and evidence the way that these values have guided the way I have contributed to the learning of others (my educational influence). I attempted to set out my living theory in the sections on Ontology and Epistemology and in the story of the development of my practice. Have I misunderstood this? Can you help me to a clearer understanding so that I can address your concern more adequately. Please, I am genuinely puzzled by this because I thought that I had gone to considerable lengths to present my living theory.

2. 'Ethics' and 'Christian Ethics': I do not believe that there is any 'ethics' that does not belong to a particular community. This is one of the main lessons that MacIntyre teaches us. All ethical systems are rooted the life and tradition of a particular community. And so there are Christian Ethics, Buddhist Ethics, Hindu Ethics, Taoist Ethics, etc. Moreover, within each of these major traditions there will be various sub-traditions based around living communities. The claim to universality of one moral tradition during the Enlightenment period was one of the oppressive dimensions of modernism which sought to impose a morality from above. Personally, I believe that ethical traditions tend to meet at the point of lived experience in terms of  what works for happiness. But all start from different places and even with different understandings of what counts for 'happiness'! In strict terms there is no such thing as 'ethics' only the ethics of a particular tradition. We are all situated. One of the problems of the enlightenment was to deny the situated nature of ethics.

3. Audio-Visuals. Alas, not all bandwidth is equal and uploading some materials is difficult. Moreover, I take the anonymity of my participants very seriously and posting images of my students, I feel, would compromise this.

4. My last question is more a technical point. I cite a lot of material from student papers. Given my previous comment I cannot use student names or reference numbers should it be 'Student 1 paper, p.2?

With love, Brian

 

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Brian Jennings - Monday, 28 July 2014, 10:32 PM
 

Hi Jackie,

I have begun process of correcting the paper but I suspect that the corrections I have made you will feel are insufficient. 

It would help me to move forward if you could provide me with some very specific feedback on the following items.

1. Living Theory: I feel that I have presented my living theory in terms of educational influences on me and my influence on others in my sections on ontology and epistemology and in my practice. I have I attempted to follow the framework set out by Whitehead and McNiff  (2006) very closely. Please let me know how this is inadequate.

2. Evidence of Educational Influence: Please could you elaborate on your comment that my evidence 'may not be sufficient'. I thought that I had made a strong and accumulative case of my influence through presentation and commentary both from examples of student work and from the high statistics, and I felt, strong participant statements, from my questionnaire. If anything I felt that my claims were on the modest side!

Please bear with me as I make these points as I felt that I had written a strong piece - which impression was confirmed by highly qualified and experienced colleagues to whom I had circulated it. If I did not feel that I had written a strong piece I would not have ventured to submit it. Please help me to understand your perspective on this matter more clearly.

With love, Brian

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Brian Jennings - Saturday, 10 January 2015, 3:38 PM
 

Hi Jackie,

Happy New Year! I would still be most grateful for your suggestions concerning how to move forward. Perhaps one way to do this would be to imagine that I am one of your colleagues whom you are support on their Living Theory Project What advice would you give?

Warm regards

Brian

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Brian Jennings - Tuesday, 29 July 2014, 8:38 PM
 

Friends,

Please excuse my initial reactions. It now seems to be that I am at the beginning of a journey, rather than the end and I am curious to see what I can learn.

Love, Brian

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Jack Whitehead - Monday, 11 August 2014, 5:43 PM
 

Dear Brian - I've enjoyed your exploration of the implications of asking, researching and answering your question: 

How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?

I do hope that you will continue to work on this submission to EJOLTS.  

Whilst I'm not one of your reviewers I'm an interested reader and passionate living-theorist.

What you might focus on is the idea of your living-educational-theory as your explanation of your educational influence in your own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of the social formations that influence your practice and your writings.

In your Abstract you say:

I conclude by considering how my educational influence has been demonstrated and can be improved through this approach to learning.

Your living-educational-theory will move beyond demonstrating your educational influence in an explanation your educational influence.  I hope that I'm being clear about this point, because it is a necessary condition of a living-educational-theory.

I do urge you to work on your paper so that you can explain your educational influence in terms of your

Christian values. You might find that the meanings of these values are clarified in the course of their emergence in your practice.

I hope that you find these responses helpful and encouraging in working on your submission.

Love Jack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Brian Jennings - Wednesday, 13 August 2014, 9:53 PM
 

Dear Jack, Many thanks indeed for your encouraging remarks. I have greatly enjoyed reading your work and the work of the doctoral students you have supervised. I'm greatly impressed with the learning and engagement that I read. Your approach to action research is something that I would like to embrace in my own practice and encourage and support others in similar journeys of discovery through engagement. This article is my first exploration into an articulation of my living theory and I am keen to bring it to a point where it is acceptable for publication

Reflecting on your remarks it seems to me that I may have conflated the influences that have formed my thinking and practice into my ontology - I summarised my current stage of thinking and practice with giving enough attention to the journey.

I often find it helpful to have examples to help me refine my conceptualisation. I wonder, could you recommend a text that provides a particularly good example of 'living-educational-theory as an explanation of  educational influence...' 

This would be very helpful to me as I working on revising my paper.

With much appreciation and love,

Brian

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Jack Whitehead - Friday, 5 September 2014, 3:09 PM
 

Dear Brian - I'm similar to yourself:

"I often find it helpful to have examples to help me refine my conceptualisation. I wonder, could you recommend a text that provides a particularly good example of 'living-educational-theory as an explanation of  educational influence...' "

You can access one of my published papers which includes an explanation of my educational influence in the learning of Kevin Eames, whilst supervising his doctoral research programme:

Educative Relations in a New Era

Paper published in Pedagogy, Culture & Society, Vol. 7, No.1, pp. 73-90, 1999.

at - http://www.actionresearch.net/writings/CS4.htm

I'm hoping that you find this helpful.

There are some more papers in EJOLTS that you might also find helpful:

Joy Mounter  http://ejolts.net/node/224-
 

A living theory of care-giving (pp. 40-56)

Sonia Hutchison - http://ejolts.net/node/203

The enhancement of creativity in Technical Education (pp. 57-85)

Sanja Vidović & Verica Kuharić Bučević - http://ejolts.net/node/204

 

Love Jack.

 

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Brian Jennings - Monday, 8 September 2014, 10:58 PM
 

Jack,

Many thanks for these recommendations which I will follow up with great interest.

Love,

Brian

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Brian Jennings - Wednesday, 3 September 2014, 10:38 PM
 

Friends, 

Thank you for your encouragement. I do intend to continue working on this piece to bring it to a stage where it is acceptable for publication - perhaps going into another AR cycle. At the moment I'm busy with another writing project, administrative matters for the beginning of the academic session and with preparations for a brief sabbatical of three months in the UK when I hope to do something more. In the meantime, I would be very grateful if the second reviewer, Stephen Bigger, could add some comments and if Jackie could suggest a good example of living theory that I could take as a model.

In friendship,

Brian

 

 

 

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Stephen Bigger - Friday, 5 September 2014, 1:02 PM
 

My first general comment is that the section giving a CV should be shortened. There is an undercurrent explaining what personal growth took place, which should be retained and strengthened.

Ontology.

I approach this section as an atheist, so I hope the author forgives my somewhat different approach, which I hope nevertheless is helpful.

One of the major problems with Moltmann is the tendency to describe non-Christian religions through Christian eyes, to find as it were the hidden Christ. This seems to me an imperialist project, and does not always do justice to the original religious tradition. Reference is also made to Ninian Smart, whose phenomenology emphasis encouraged bracketing out of bias so a religion could be presented on its own terms, without a reinterpretation via Christianity or other western supremist idiologies. However, Smart used Husserl’s model of “transcendental” phenomenology which took it as read that there is transcendent  truth out there to be found, as indeed do you. I am pleased however that you are developing a personal discovery approach to truth which allows the word/concept of ‘truth’ to be problematised. The anthropologist Victor Turner encouraged his students to re-enact rituals from the tribes studied to encourage them to see issues from the local point of view. One example was a cannibal feast, which illustrate that there is a chasm to be crossed in the students’ minds.

The notion of Christian ethics needs to be viewed as part of the broader field of ethics. Christianity does not have a monopoly of ethical insights, and can and does exist without 'walking any ethical talk'. Your PhD studies will help with this and presumably have some ontological significance for you. Ethics in Christian traditions presumably highlight love, but many non-Christians fully understand the importance of love for one’s fellows and implement this in their daily lives. Equally many Christians do not. So avoid generalisations.

Your use of Jesus as a sacrificing role model encouraging empowerment in others seems a useful way forward. You will presume that the Jesus story is factual, I assume it is fiction, but the idea of role model works from either direction.

 Epistemology.

A bit more thought is needed on the nature of moral knowledge. That moral knowledge is developed and perpetuated by a community (itself a bit of a loaded term) has no implications that the moral stance is wholesome. The Nazis developed a moral tradition in the 1930s. You need to have some way of distinguishing between wholesome and unwholesome morality. The notion of ‘resister’ (Zimbardo) resisting community and peer pressure might be a useful start.

 General.

Helping students to work out for themselves what is wholesome and unwholesome is clearly a key decision. Other tools will also be helpful, such as the various agendas akin to Critical Studies – social justice, anti-racism and non-othering, anti-sexism, equity, respect and so on.

 Critical incidents are part of a different tradition in health care and industry so some justification for their use more generally ought to be made. The use of critical incidents introduces a judgemental aspect (adultery, pre-marital paternity) whereas you need to have a more developmental discussion of the difference between wholesome and unwholesome. Although critical incidents could be approached from this direction, you may also need a greater variety of approaches to help you.

 Stephen Bigger.

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Stephen Bigger - Friday, 5 September 2014, 7:42 PM
 

From Stephen Bigger, Sorry I had techno probs this morning. The formal part came out before the informal bit. This is to say:

Hi Brian, Thanks for the hard work you have put into this and well done for undertaking so much CPD over the past decade, including a PhD.  You will find some of my work on African contexts in Journal for the Study of Religion in Southern Africa, an article on Bushman heritage, and another on marriage. I am writing another at the moment on the African fieldwork of Victor Turner. In the past, I taught on a Master of Theology course for Christian ministers in Oxford, and supervised a PhD there on Christian Mission. My main topic was plurality - being a Christian minister on a plural world - which seems to me close to your interests. You will see that I locate myself in this discussion as an atheist, but please do not take this to mean that I have no interest in spirituality. I edited a book long ago on the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Curriculum subtitles Teaching Values. So I look forward to our collaboration. With best wishes,  Stephen

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Brian Jennings - Monday, 8 September 2014, 11:35 PM
 

Dear Stephen,

Many thanks indeed for taking the time to review my article and for your weighty comments that I will need to take time to digest and consider. When I was looking for potential reviews I felt that you would be able provide a sympathetic critique which has proved to be the case. Just a couple of odd thoughts. I wonder how Moltmann would react to the charge of imperialism. He does critique religious ideas from a Christian, particularly trinitarian perspective but I've not noticed any search for a 'hidden Christ' in non-Christian religions, except, perhaps in Judaism. Even so in his Eschatology he does insist that all of reality will be 'reconciled in Christ' so his vision is not pluralistic - unlike Smart's 'federalism'. I think also that we construct meaning from the visions of the world that make most sense to us. I don't believe that we construct reality - that is there as the final check. That is to say that 'unwholesome' traditions ultimately became self-destructive - often with terrible effects. It is important to be able to sense these before the effects take hold. In the example that you give Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church come to mind. In the case of some of my students there were aspects of resistance build around the vision of Christ's love (which I will treat as history for the sake of argument ;-) ). However, I'm also mindful that you can only expect people to go so far - sympathy often has to precede acceptance and issues have to be addressed in a way that build progress rather than evokes rejection. In the later case little is gained.

I used the ontology and epistemology sections to articulate my formative influences. Do I need to add a further section in the conclusion in which I critique these?

Any way - many thanks for the contribution and I will chew on these issues.  

With many thanks,

Brian

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Stephen Bigger - Wednesday, 10 September 2014, 4:00 PM
 

The problem of moving jobs and retiring is the jettisoning of books. I had The Hidden Christ of Hinduism on my shelves for many years, but of course by Panikkar and not as I misremembered by Moltmann. However, in worrying about this in my reply, I reckoned that the general point of cultural imperialism still had some weight and thank you for your reasoned reply about it. Thank you also for you not taking umbrage at my very different position to yours, which I hope stimulates critical thought whatever the final outcome. Dialogue becomes difficult when a point of view becomes fixed and considered superior. The vicars on my MTheol course struggled with it but ultimately found it helpful.

There are other vignettes that might help discussion. Witchcraft, demon possession (even the murder of children deemed possessed). God and ancestor worship - where God, Adam,...Abraham etc becomes an ancestral lineage. Africa translations for God and the Devil - how appropriate? and what baggage do they bring? Lots to consider.

Yes, critique your ontology/epistemology somewhere.

Stephen

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Stephen Bigger - Tuesday, 23 September 2014, 12:43 PM
 

Further thoughts. It is important for readers and writers to be clear about their intellectual location and positioning. There is always a danger that a reader expects the writing to do something that the writer does not intend, that is that the two inhabit different world views. WHat might seem 'obvious' to one seems problematic to the other. So locating ourselves in our work is important, if misreadings are to be prevented. This is what I tried to do in my post. In the best cases, both sides can learn from each other, but in the worst cases a bad-tempered slagging match might result. You might profit from reading into the works of Paul Ricoeur, who was optimistic about the positive benefits of dialogue and addressed many theological questions. However, as we now know in Syria, dialogue is not always possible, for which see his little book 'Evil: A Challenge to Philosophy and Theology'. 

Aggressive atheism today has media spotlight and mocks theism. This is not my position and I find I can have meaningful discussions with believers of all faiths and enjoy reading scriptures (of course as examples of human literature).

The intellectual/academic paradigm is to be critical; unpacking what critical means for your work with your students is a vital starting point. Ethics invited discussion of social critique, and you could start with New Testament visions of equality (male/female, slave/free) and apply this to modern situations. Your students can be encouraged to build ethics up from fundamental (not fundamentalist!) principles such as love, equity, justice, respect, consideration, empathy. Strategies such as reflection, dialogue, discussion and problem solving are relevant. Try also metaphorical cost-benefit analysis - who bears the cost of decisions? who benefits?

Relevant to all this is the distinction between religious studies/study of religion, and theology. The former makes no assumption about 'truth', so regarding religious expression as a form of human endeavour. The latter has traditionally presumed the truth of the theological tradition, sometimes naively, sometimes with more depth,a discussion between insiders which is difficult for outsiders to penetrate. McCutcheon (2001) expressed the contrast as 'critics not caretakers'. Beginning a critical process in your students will be their first stage in deeping their understanding, moving them gradually away from naivity.  Stephen

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Brian Jennings - Saturday, 10 January 2015, 1:54 PM
 

Dear Stephen,

First of all may I wish you the very best for the New Year. I've only checked back on this recently as I've been working on another writing project and I didn't get a notification when you posted. 

Thank you again for your stimulating thoughts. I understand moral discourse and moral thinking from the perspective of MacIntyre's virtue model in which moral judgement and discourse are defined by a living tradition or 'extended argument' within a community. In the light of this moral debate, at the primary level has to take place within the the community of discourse around its own priorities and narratives. I believe that there is, or could be, or should be, a secondary level of debate that could take place between representatives of different positions. But this would need to be more of a dialogue based upon mutual understanding of each other's traditions that would focus around the coherence of different priorities and the most appropriate moral actions to realise them. I am find MacIntyre's critique of Kant very persuasive and that assertions of universal morality are indeed forms of cultural imperialism. For this reason to some extent I share Hauerwas' 'Anabaptist' position that Christian Ethics are particular to the Christian community and cannot be forced upon communities and individuals who don't identify with the Christian tradition. They can, however, be the basis for public dialogue about what constitutes the good life for human beings and the appropriate strategies for realising them (and here I possibility part company from Hauerwas). In the light of this in the context of my teaching I do work as a 'caretaker' of the tradition in that I see my role has helping my students to deepen their understanding of the moral dimensions of their own Christian faith. This also relates to my understanding of the role of an educator which is to enable my students to develop their own moral engagement through using resources from the Christian moral tradition to reflect on critical incidents drawn from their own experience. Did I move them from a position of simple dogmaticism towards more compassionate and 'helping' stances? I think so. Is there further for them to go - I know so! But they did make a beginning. If you look at the samples I present I feel that they actually do start from the perspective you suggest in terms of New Testament ideas of love. In the coming Semester I will be teaching business ethics as well as general Christian Ethics which means that I will need to broaden my scope even more. 

I do also attempt to get my students to dialogue with local moral traditions, but again, more needs to be done in this direction.

Warm regards,

Brian


  

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Re: ‘Ethical Incidents’: How Have I Extended My Educational Influence Through the Introduction of a ‘Critical Incident’ Assignment in My Introductory Christian Ethics Course?
by Stephen Bigger - Sunday, 1 February 2015, 10:43 AM
 

Happy New Year to you also Brian. I have just had an email to say your reply is awaiting reply. I had checked the site over Christmas, though not since. Your response makes a lot of sense. I also prefer dialogue to dogma, so long as dialogue is not dogma in disguise, so ends with a shouting match rather than a mature discussion. We differ I guess in that I make no presumption that the Bible contains any ethical wisdom. In may do so, but each example has to be carefully argued. I have lived through an inquisition or two when someone believed that he/she knew the truth. The human condition rather is to live with ambiguity.

When you have a refined text, let me know - do nudge me on s.bigger@worc.ac.uk so I see it quickly.

Stephen