How do I contribute to the education of myself and others through ...

Sequence 1 Values in Educationintention (a human goal) to produce something valued which is not yet inexistence.’ (Whitehead, 1993, p. 80)This reflects the dialogue between me and Mark as we continue to explore oureducational development. The notion of living theory is something that I can engagewith, particularly in terms of my understanding of living myself through others, where Idefine living as something that is in process. Essentially, this thesis is an example ofliving educational theory as it attempts to explain my own educational developmentthrough past reflection and future projection.I would argue that this type of dialogue as illustrated in the email above with Mark isan example of the life affirming force and energy (Whitehead, 2005) that is presentwithin teacher-research. This reflects Evans’ (1995) thoughts in her thesis, where shecomments:‘I believe that through the support of action research methodology,particularly, the support of the community of action researchers and thedialogue these communities promote, teachers can become effectiveresearchers of their practice and contribute to both educational researchmethodology and epistemology, not in the form of ‘critical theory’ but in thesense of ‘living educational theory’.’ (Evans, 1995)Again, as I exchange dialogue with Mark I am aware of the support and challengewe are providing for each other as we wrestle with our understandings of our valuesand practice. Through these dialogues, we are developing the epistemology and alsocontributing to a living methodology that is responding to the nature of therelationship that we have. We are seeking to promote our epistemologies as theyemerge from within our practice.Kincheloe (2003) further reflects this notion in his vision of teacher-research andreflects Whitehead’s (1993) comments of the need for experiential learning andreflection within education, commenting:‘In such a new democratised culture teacher scholars begin to understand thepower implications of technical standards. In this context they appreciate thebenefits of research, especially as they relate to understanding the forcesshaping education that fall outside their immediate experience andperception. As these insights are constructed, teachers begin to understandwhat they know from experience. With this in mind they gain heightenedawareness of how they can contribute to the research on education. Indeed,38