Hi Jill and all
Thank you for your paper, which was interesting to read. You are clearly advocates of living theory, and I don't think that anyone would reach the end of your paper without knowing you had all been very positively influenced by the principles and values of living theory, and that you had found the experience of working together rewarding and productive. There is good evidence also that the work you did as a group had a positive influence on those with whom you were in educational relationships.
However, what I was not sure about was what your individual living theories were that you were each developing with the support of each other. I felt there were many generalised statements of the work you were involved in; and you talk a considerable amount about the transformative influence of your work, and of your collaborative action research. You describe in detail what living theory is, using mainly Jack and Jean's work as reference; and you talk about doing it; but if I were new to living theory, I would come to the end of your paper not really knowing what it meant in practice to develop a living educational theory.
What I would have liked to see then, are some specific examples of what your living theories were; for at least one or two of you to describe in detail how you came to create your living theory, what the values were that were informing what you did, and what was a concern or issue you responded to as a consequence of engaging with your living theory.
It should then be possible to describe and analyse the influence of the collaborative research group in supporting you in your inquiry - to understand specifically how the collective impacted on the individual, and vice versa. It would also be good to give a more detailed picture of what 'transformation' actually meant in reality. The word transform, transformation or similar occurs 30 times in your script and is clearly a key concept - but I came to the end not knowing what this actually meant in practice. I normally understand transformation to be a 'shift in consciousness that is irreversible' - so if you accept that, I would like to see at least one or two specific examples of what that 'shift in consciousness' was, how it occurred, and what impact it had.
I would agree with Marie that there would be benefit in knowing more about the group members / co-authors, and the specific contexts in which they were developing their own living theories.
If you were to adress these points, and look at including examples of your living theories in more detail and depth, then link the evaluative comments to these examples, I think this would make reading the paper a more meaningful experience. It is really not that in my view there is anything particularly wrong with what you have written - but because there tends to be a lot of content which is very generalised, I am left at the end feeling that the account is rather thin....
As an additional unrelated point - I am also very uncertain about your differentiation between practical action research and critical action research. You write:
Practical action research enables us to frame and explain action research within the context of our own enquiries thus providing a rationale for us to defend our professional values that embrace our living educational theories (Whitehead & McNiff, 2006). Critical action research is “research for education”I'm afraid I don't really understand that perspective, it is not a differentiation I have encountered. For example, I think all action research involves the cyclical process, not just critical action research as you suggest.....
I hope this doesn't sound too negative. Like Marie, this is my first time of reviewing, so it would be good for me also to gain your responses to my comments! Also having met you, Jill, and really enjoying your company, I know how energetic you are, and could feel much of that coming through the script. So I hope you understand the points I make. But do feel free to come back and challenge the challenges!!
I look forward to your responses.
Joan
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