Hi Marie,
We have been reflecting on your comments since you posted them and were wondering how best to respond seeing that not all of our members are available at this time. However, Jennie and I thought that we should at least begin the process. First we want to specifically respond to your queries then to Joan's. In this case, some of what we include for you will also help Joan with further clarification. We hope that you will be able to connect the missing dots as you review our paper.
Introduction of Authors
Jill and Sam are Professors who teach courses in the doctoral program. Natasha, Jennie and Dan (now deceased) were students enrolled in the program.
Context
During one of our doctoral classes, "Research and Policy Trends, where we were introduced to Jack & Jean's text "Living Theory", Natasha raised the question; "As educators and doctoral students, can we influence each other's learning?" This stimulated much discussion and by the end of the session we decided that this could be an interesting topic to explore further. Jill encouraged Natasha to email Jack, who replied! This subsequently gave birth to our research project which included various types of data, such as regular group meetings, individuaul journaling, F2F and electronic dialogues, many of which were collected via mulitmedia. We can certainly make some of the sessions available to you and Joan.
As our small group convened to plan the way forward, we realized that if our research was to be successful we would have to relinquish some of the formalities existing between Professor and students and assume a more informal and collegial relationship (e.g. addressing each other by first names), and making connections with Buber's I-Thou relationship. The idea of Transcending Boundaries and Borders became the the focus of our research title as we work together to understand how we were influencing each other's learning through our free flow of information Simultaneously, we explored and connected Jack Whitehead and Jean McNiff's "Living Theory" because we thought that this enables us to individually and collectively reflect on our own living theory throughout the process in order to document what we were doing.
The excerpts that are in the paper provide some of the thoughts that were generated as we met as a group. They represent the connections we were making with all of the readings and theoretical background that we discussed during the initial course. At any point in our meetings depending on the focus of our dialogue we would make connections with what we espouse as our 'living theory/theories". These theories guided the quality of our interdependence and collaborative relationships. You might have deduced from the paper our strong and collective inclination towards Nodding's "Pedagogy of Care", Buber's I-Thou Relationship, and the idea of transformation. Transformation in this sense is similar to Joan's perspective where we were elevated in our philosophical views of what teaching and learning should be. We also realized that at any given point during our collaboration there was that "aha" moment as we reflected on how and what classroom practice should look like. This was possible because we realized our interdependence as educators and practitioners.
We hope that we have cleared up some of the confusion you alluded to in your review. At this point in time, Jennie and I are anxious to revise the paper and see it move forward, as our work together continues to evolve.
Thanks for your insightful comments and your support thus far. We look forward to continuing our dialogue with you.
Jill and Jennie