Dear Peter,

Many thanks for all your insightful comments that will strengthen the account and  bring the reader closer to the actual dynamics of the paper. From our conversations;  I am wondering if the focus in sign posting the paper should be around the way we engage with multimedia papers? The media is not clearly articulated to the readers as being a foundational level of evidence. One that needs to be engaged with by the reader.  I am hesitant to be proscriptive about what the reader shall see, which is why I used the metaphor of the window.  I am conscious that I live a very different life to many people and that some of my thinking and values are not a good fit for many.  I am hoping that people can engage with the visual story through their own filters without my telling them. Hope that makes sense?

 I will flag up in the abstract that there is a need to engage with the visuals.. but I am not comfortable with this being  too over emphasised. The spoken word is never the received word, as I ground my words in the values actions and emotions of my context in its living.  I do take the position that I am what I am through the power and authority of my own being.  It is a fundamental belief to be. I do not seek the approval of any one to be me; I have had a lifetime of people telling me who and what I should me.  So I claim myself , offering values with transparency and love,  but will not be changing them any time quickly as it cost to much to  deconstruct the junk around what I was told I am,  to what I know I am.  I truly know that I do not know.  This frees me from trying to be anything else other than myself.

This is the transparency of the account , it can be believed or disbelieved by the reader as is their right. The trust ability of the account lies in the relationship the narrative forms with the reader. The rigour of the account lies in the evidence of scholarship in Schon sense of a new form of scholarship.

The attraction I have always had to living education theory is through its generation in lived praxis is that the text, when authentic, is not a clear signed posted way of being, as all well know.  It is chaotic.

 I do not want the reader to enter the text thinking that they know me, or where I am going,  rather I wish them to explore the process that allowed me to share my journey as a construction of a fluid sense of self and that I dedicate this self to the service of others, where ever it takes me. If this has not been able to conveyed in the media, then to my thinking, I have not achieved what I planned.

 Is the reader safe within my text, yes I think so.. I have made every effort not to ambush them.

Is the reader comfortable, properly not?  Should I make the reader comfortable? Definitely not.

What will the reader take away form my text? I have no idea. This is the paradox of trying to explore how to read living action research accounts as visual and textual narratives.  But it is fun...smile.

Dear Jacqueline, It is a pleasure to hear from you after so long. I hope that this response finds you well and rested. I have responded to Peter and accept fully that there was no abstract. I will work on that asap.

I enjoyed that point that you felt that there were two papers , there are not! However, t there are interwove thread of the interconnectedness of narrative strands, woven together they form a dynamic web of wholeness. Shifting in its complexity, framing and re framing the boundaries and the fluid dynamic of my conscious understandings, hopes, loves and fears.  The multimedia links were designed to provide another level of framing for the author to explore. . I see my life as lived in many different dimensions at the same time. I also am deeply conscious of my context in which I write  I am required to write for an official, academic  level of hierarchy, I am ground and have to operate within the cultural and legal boundaries of my contract. In many senses I am a bought product that has to produce an outcome on one level and this in many ways silence the voice that is bounded by lived experience.   I came  to Oman to be involved with exciting task of working with the development of a new Ministry of Health programme. Something that gives me the chances to use the academic training I was given in Bath in Teaching and research. However, I still need to understand the culture and the needs. I am deeply conscious of the  possibility that I can colonise the students  and it keeps me awake some times as I have to deal with many different educational models of  a mix of sometimes conflicting values. I want to be true to my values of service but at the same time  I cannot stop people from have the right to fall down . It is part of grounding and evolving them through your own values in experience. Tell students that this course of action is not always easy. Students may not realise they are taking life changing decisions as their choice do and will have consequences. Offering advice and having enough courage to hold a loving space that does not judge is the supreme challenge. What is not said can be as or more important as what is. Palmer's, the courage to teach, springs to mind.

Your question about what is the role of the reader is most interesting and links into my response to Peter. Are the roles of the reader and reviewer different? How should we inform the reader of how to read or engage with a multimedia account?  I do not see the reader of having any role nor is the text written with reader roles in mind. Telling the story is the job of the story teller. I wish to share a story but have no expectations that story will be understood in its telling.   I will need to meditate on your question more. This is why,  as the years have moved on I have stopped writing as much as I used to.  I asked myself; What is the point? Why do I write? Will it make me a better person.. Yes, if grounded in my reflections and actions where I recorded my changing and modifications my actions. Do I need to publish?? Huuuum , not so sure.

In respect to your last point. I hope I have answered that as much as I can in a public domain..smile.

Thanks for a truly thought provoking review. Looking forward to your reply.

Hi Je Kan - looking forward to seeing your paper revised with the reviewers responses in mind here as soon as you can, If you have a problem uploading send it to me and I will put it here - Marie