Ania Lian (ania@lingua.arts.uq.edu.au)
Tue, 26 Oct 1999 15:42:32 +1000 (EST)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 15:42:32 +1000 (EST) From: Ania Lian <ania@lingua.arts.uq.edu.au> Subject: theory vs practice divide, or?
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On Fri, 22 Oct 1999, Martin Owen wrote:
> The divide that depresses me is not theory and practice. The very
> opposite.
> My greatest interest is people theorising about practice, as part
> of their practice.
right. So, if we mean here that the focus of educational research does not
serve the learner in the world of practices/dicourses i.e. theirs' and not
its own point of view, we are talking about the same thing.
> The divide that worries me is the division between the
> practice of educational research (and the practice of learning
> technologists for that matter) and practitioners of education. This is why
> I try to research what I do.
The divide is reinforced in:
(a) theory being defocused. In my own study, I do claim that there is no
such a field as that of second language education. How many people
will believe? Very few, but maybe Martin's dissatisfaction may
make him see that there is a chance that I have a point.
(b) educational courses, way of their teaching, way of integrating
teachers in the community of well-focused research.
(c) expectations of the system where the understanding that teachers do
and thinkers think prevent chnages to take place.
> There is a role for a spectrum of activity , including those who operate at
> a meta or theoretical level. However it "could" be their role to enter into
> dialogue with communities of practice. One role of such researchers is to
> hold up a mirror to practitioners. In turn practitioners can hold up
> mirrors to the theoreticians so that they can reflect upon their analytical
> frameworks. Of course I understand that these mirrors can have all the
> distortion of the fairground variety.
In my field, theoreticians who hold the monoploy on what is right and
wrong will tell you what is wrong with the practitioner, but when it
comes to what is right, well, that's when answers as below appear:
- if you expect me to tell you what to do in a classroom, in your
teaching, I cannot tell you, or
- teachers know their students best (???) so they know best what to do
- do an eclectical approach. What that is I ain't got a clue! but it may
mean just do it all.
As for the practitioners' mirror, we all know that they do not know. And
they truly do not know because Academia has done nothing for them to know.
Ever wondered that on the teachers' discussion lists, there never are any
academics?
Ania Lian
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