Abstract:

Working with collaborative projects: my living theory of a holistic educational practice

Máirín Glenn

This thesis is the narrative account of my research programme that has enabled me to make my original claim to have developed a living epistemology of practice that is grounded in dialogical, holistic and creative ways of knowing. From my belief that each individual is capable of developing their potential for learning and knowledge creation, I have come to see the interconnectedness of people and their environments as a locus of learning which may be embraced through technology.

Through my research I have developed my capacity for critical engagement, especially in relation to critiquing many normative practices in dominant forms of education; specifically in terms of their underpinning technical rational ontologies and epistemologies of fragmentation. My original contributions to knowledge are to do with how I show that I can account for how I have transformed my own erstwhile fragmented epistemologies into holistic and inclusional forms of knowing and practice. From the grounds of my research-based practice, I am able to make my original claim that I have developed my living theory of a holistic educational practice, through collaborative multimedia projects, and I ground my evidence in the multimedia narrative of my research account.

A distinctive feature of my research account is my articulation of how my ontological values of love and care have transformed into my living critical epistemological standards of judgement, as I produce my multimedia evidence-based living theory of a holistic educational practice. Through working with collaborative multimedia projects, I explain how I have developed an epistemology of practice that enables me to account for my educational influence in learning.

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Introduction

Chapter One What were my concerns? Examining the background and contexts of the research

Chapter Two Why was I concerned? Examining my understanding of my practice as I clarifies my ontological values

Chapter Three What could I do about my concerns? Examining issues around methodology

Chapter Four What did I do about my concerns? Developing key insights around my research in terms of am emergent understanding of my practice

Chapter Five How do I use technology to enhance a dialogical and inclusional epistemology? Examining how technology and holistic approaches to education can merge

Chapter Six Developing epistemological justification - demonstrating validity

Chapter Seven How do I contribute to new practices and theory and to the education of social formations? Examining how I show the significance and potentials of my work

Bibliography

Appendices