350
ɪf this is the case then what counts as relevant educational theory
should itself be open to debate and modification» But of more impor-
tance is the consideration of the place of the theory within the
⅛
practices of staff and of students. Stones illustrates how far this
applied in his own work.
books have a limited
potential for the building
up of
concepts ..... (Stones 1984 Pi38)
In the research on -the Alternative Course it was apparent that the
links
between the personal and the political needed to be explored.
Students needed to be able to work with both in such a way as to
inform and illuminate their own classroom practice. If this could
be achieved then critical areas of debate, decision and action could
be accepted as personal and professional matters for all teachers.
The process of theorising
knowledge
knowledge
can be possessed by
must
rely
on being
itself ,
tacitly
understood and applied. Hence all knowledge is
either tacit or rooted in tacit knowledge. A wholly
explicit knowledge is unthinkable (Polanyi ’64).
This statement perhaps more
than any other represents the position
of the Alternative Course in
relation to reflection and theorising.
It underlines the problematic
and provisional nature of the relation-
ship between theory and practice and accords a central place to the
active process of theorising.
It may have been the lack of explicit
on those previously adopted which constantly underlined the high
value placed on theory and theorising. On the one hand what was
central was the student’s own practice and their reflection on it