Call for Papers - Action Learning : Research & Practice LO30150

From: Rick Parkany (rparkany@borg.com)
Date: 04/30/03


For those of us who understand that action learning/research is a form of
inquiry whereby meaning is made and individuated from the interpretation
of situated knowledge (the more radical among us *know* there is no other
such), I send along this opportunity for finding and sharing within a
nexus of like-minded Folks the inspirations gleened from your own living
research (see End-of-Post).

But, first: what IS the relationship between Knowledge, Meaning, and
Wisdom? are the latter merely *fluff*, the stuff of religion and
*inaccessible philosophers*, as some positivists among us have it? or is
there some organicity among these moments in the life of the flesh?

What is the *purpose* for growing some hypothesized Universal
Knowledge-base (of the human being), anyway? if purposive, what IS the
entelechy? wherefore Its teleology? where IS the Moral Ground for It's
roots? do we as real beings groom this Tree of Knowledge for some
abstraction we call *humanity*? is it ever harvested? does it bear fruit
that mortals can eat? or is this Knowledge more like a fungus, a mold that
grows beneath the ground insinuating itself amid the muck sliding between
our toes whose function is more one of composting rather than growth?

And for what reason do we cultivate this Tree of Knowledge when we live,
as sylphs and dryads, amid a resplendent forest, each inhabiting our own
Tree of Life? wherefore and why do we erect this totem to Wodan amid the
horizon and clearing amid us we call *Care*?

We must, as did Scorsese's Christ in his *Last Temptation*, chop down this
Tree of Knowledge in our own Wilderness, tempted we be by its fruit for
immortality! and at the expense of our own flesh?

Grab an axe to chop! choose a glade for reflection! or cast your
fragrences amidst the dawn's dew! cultivate our natural setting! away with
this artifice we call Objectivity in the Science of the Human Being and
its mispent effort at *Subjugating* the flesh. For we be not *subjects*,
but beings for whom our own existence is, itself, an issue--we are the
nymphs of what is real, all else is fictive and loss...to *objectify* is,
at once, to *subject* the flesh to strictures that stifle and smoother
what is sought to be *learnt*.

[Note: the most radical of action researchers among us discount action
research in favor of action learning, believing that learning only occurs
in individual organisms and there being no organism of *the group*. The
more socially and culturally oriented will accept action learning
(single-loop learning after Agyris & Schoen) as a moment in action
research (dual-loop learning afterIan Hughes) and not be so worried about
incorporating (reducing?) meaning into a larger corpus of action (see Bob
Dick's description, below, to which I adhere, for more on this
distinction).

But whatever your perspective, DO plan to partake in this peer-reviewed
action learning opportunity by submitting a proposal to this CfP... ;-}
rap.

**************************************************
Bob Dick on the distinction between action learning/action
research:
http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/arp/actlearn.html#a_al_cf
     A comparison

     I used to think that action research was the umbrella term,
and action learning was an application of it. Some of my
colleagues, I found, argue that action learning is the umbrella
term. On reflection, I don't think it's worth debating.

     As they were previously practised, I think a useful
distinction could be made. In action learning, each participants
drew different learning from different experience. In action
research a team of people drew collective learning from a
collective experience.

     More recently, the advent of in-company action learning
programs has begun to change this. The use of a team with a
common project or problem leads to an action learning program
which looks remarkably like action research.

     There were also some differences, on average, in field of
application. Action learning was more often used in
organisational settings. Action research more common in
community and educational settings. This distinction, too, is
beginning to blur.

     I now wonder if the distinction is worth preserving.
**************************************************
The following announcements were posted to the H-Net web site
between 2003-04-29 and 2003-04-30.

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# Category: Call for Papers
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   Title: Call for Papers - Action Learning : Research & Practice

   Description: New journal - April 2004 launch Call for Papers
      Volume 1, 2004, 2 issues per year Print ISSN 1476-7333
Online
      ISSN 1476-7341 Action Learning : Research & Practice will
      publish articleswhich advance knowledge and assist the
      development ofpractice through the processes of action
      learning.ISSN 1476-73 ...
   URL: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/calr_cfp.pdf
   Announcement ID: 133516
   http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/announce/show.cgi?ID=133516

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-- 
"Dein Wachstum sei feste und lache vor Lust!
Deines Herzens Trefflichkeit
Hat dir selbst das Feld bereit',
Auf dem du bluehen musst." JS Bach: Bauern Kantata
Richard A. Parkany: SUNY@Albany
Prometheus Educational Services
http://www.borg.com/~rparkany/
Upper Hudson & Mohawk Valleys; New York State, USA

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