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Transcript of Ethics and science in emancipatory practice with young people North of England Education Conference...
Ethics and science in emancipatory practice with
young people
North of England Education Conference16th. January 2013
Tom BillingtonProfessor of Educational and Child Psychology
School of EducationUniversity of Sheffield
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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Contents
• Introduction and background
• Ethics
• 20th. century psychology and education
• Emerging science • Ethical and scientific principles for 21st.
century psychology and education
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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1. Introduction and background
• Professional practice
- secondary teacher c. 10 yrs
- LA ed. psychologist c. 10 yrs
- court – child & family c. 10 yrs
1 (2)
• Academic - value of theory in generating critique
- the ‘evidence-base’ of practice
- the schism between knowledge and
experience
- the relationship between government and
science
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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1 (3)
• Of ethics and science in research and practice
with young people
- knowledge base of practice is incomplete
- the dyad – the point of contact is itself rarely
subject to scientific scrutiny
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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1 (4)
• The dyad – clinical encounter
- the site in which psychology in education
is constructed
- the site in which ethics and science are
enacted
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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2. Ethics in emancipatory practice
• Responsibilities in practice and research
- to government (national, local, regulatory)
- to individuals (and self)
- to knowledge and science (the academy)
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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2 (2)
• Beyond the check-list in research and practice
- ‘No codes can…solve all the ethical
issues…cannot…act as a conscience for the
individuals who are engaged in research,
teaching and clinical practice…’
(Kitchener, 1996, p.369)
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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2 (3)
• Three critical (ethical and scientific) distinctions:
- between a diagnosis and a young person
- between a knowledge of young people generally and
our interpretations of the young person before us
- between any descriptions of the young person we
construct and the descriptions the young person might
potentially construct for themselves
(Billington, 2006, p.158)
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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2 (4) ‘There are persons who are endeavouring to
situate their own lives in preferred stories and to embrace their own knowledge, but who are finding it difficult to do so because of the dominant and disqualifying stories or knowledges that others can have about them and their relationships.’
White, 1989, p.20
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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2 (5)
• Relational psychology
- promotes a scientific interest in the ‘process of
the clinical encounter’ (Katz and Alegria, 2009,
p.1238) as a means of locating ethical
professional practice (i.e. in the dyad)
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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3. 20th. century psychology in education • The language of psychology in education:
The old technologies applied to ‘difference’
- rank
- measurement
- the category
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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3 (2)
• The old technologies applied to ‘difference’
- rank
- measurement
- the category
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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3 (3)
•Expert Voices (in autism)
‘Marked impairments in the use of multiple, non-verbal behaviours such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures and gestures to regulate social interaction…
failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level…
a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests or achievements…
lack of social or emotional reciprocity.’
(DSM IV, 1994)
3 (4)
•Donna
‘The more I became aware of the world around me, the more I became afraid… I was frightened…My world was full of imaginary friends. They were far more magical, reliable, predictable and real than other children…Other people did not understand the symbolism I used…Trish cuddled me…I was terrified. It seemed tears were welling up from a part of me long buried and forgotten…I always paid for closeness with fear.’
(Williams, 1992)
3 (5)
• When we are working with young people
‘There is an abyss between knowledge and
experience that cannot be bridged scientifically’
(Damasio, 2000, p.308)
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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4. Emerging science (technology)
• Theorizing relational psychology
- object-relations psychoanalysis
- towards social constructionist practices
- learning and experience
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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4 (2)
• New technology – neuroscientific space
- ‘cognitive science is really a science of only
part of the mind…it leaves emotion out. And
minds without emotion are not really minds at
all…’
(Le Doux, 1999, p.25)
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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4 (3)
• The emotional brain: - ‘emotions…are the threads that hold mental
life together.’
(LeDoux 1999 p.11)
- ‘emotion is integral to the process of reasoning
and decision-making…’
(Damasio 2000 p. 41)
4 (4)
• The social constructionist brain:
- ‘perceiving is not, therefore, something that the
brain does passively…the brain is an active
participant in constructing what we see.
Through its participation, it instils meaning into
the many signals that it receives…multiple
interpretations…’
(Zeki, 2009, p. 63)
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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4 (5)
• The narrative brain
‘the narrative constructing function of the left
cortex cannot be switched off, even during
sleep…the left cortex predisposes us to create
narratives from fragments of perception and
memory…’
(Linden 2007 pp. 229-230)
4 (6)
• From brain to mind…
‘…neuroscience lets us down. Somehow, bursts of electricity in the wetware of the brain don’t seem adequate to the exquisitely structured mind that I, and you, have…’
(Tallis, 2008, p.158)
4 (7)
• Mind…
‘…is a process not a thing…’
(Damasio, 2004, p.183)
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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4 (8)
• Narrative mind and the self - ‘The non-verbal narrative of such perpetually
occurring
events spontaneously portrays in the mind the fact
that there is a protagonist to whom certain events
are happening…’ (i.e. the self as other)
(Damasio, 2012, p.203)
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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5. Ethical and scientific principles for 21st. century psychology and education - linearity and directionality of the causal link
between cognition and emotion are questioned
- brain is an active participant
- mind is a process
- centrality of narrative and meaning-making as unique
functions of the organism
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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5 (2)
• Five critical questions for a researcher / scientist practitioner
- How do we speak of young people? - How do we speak with young people? - How do we write of young people? - How do we listen to young people? - How do we listen to ourselves [when working with young people]
(Billington, 2006, p.8)
04/20/23
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5 (3)
• Adjust our ethical and scientific focus
- ‘…a continuing process of considering the ethical
aspects of one’s actions’ (Small, 2001, p.391)
5 (4)
• working with difference
- ‘be aware of the idea that the other people we
encounter…should be treated as if they are
essentially the same as us…
- …go further and take as our starting point the
idea that others are not the same as us, and
there is no reason why they should be…’
(Parker, 2005, p.15)
04/20/23 © The University of Sheffield
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04/20/23
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5 (5)
• Ethical and scientific research and practice
- ‘participants will not be left unchanged by their experience [i.e. of research / practice]…’ (Hollway and Jefferson, 2000, p.102)
- Not research or practice ON but WITH
Ethics and science in emancipatory practice with young people
North of England Education Conference16th. January 2013
Tom BillingtonProfessor of Educational and Child Psychology
School of EducationUniversity of Sheffield