Sostenibilidad Es Eficiencia

1
Sustainability of the Fitting – bringing the philosophical principles of
natural inclusion into the educational enrichment of our human
neighbourhood
Written in preparation for the opening keynote address at the 8th World
Congress on Action Learning and Action Research, September 6th-9th, 2010 in
Melbourne, Australia www.alara.net.au/worldcongress/2010/objectives
By Alan Rayner
Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, U.K.
Abstract
Learning is an evolutionary process that enables us to develop the abilities necessary
to sustain our lives in a complex, changing world. The way that educators understand
this process is liable to affect their practice in very fundamental ways. Where they
follow an ‘adaptive’ evolutionary model, their practice is likely to be highly
prescriptive, with specific ‘aims’ and ‘objectives’ defined by fixed standards and
criteria for ‘success’ and ‘failure’. Such practice is, however, likely only to prepare
learners instrumentally, for success in the short term, whilst imposing sharp
restrictions upon the inspirational qualities needed to nurture their capacity for
imaginative and coherent thought, curiosity and natural creativity for the long run.
Moreover, it is liable to instill and reinforce a competitive, intolerant and materialistic
ethos that militates both against any feeling of community belonging and against
acceptance of individual or collective diversity and vulnerability. By contrast, a
natural inclusional evolutionary understanding reveals scope for a more
comprehensive, less hard-line improvisational educational practice, through
recognition of the continuous, receptive presence of space everywhere. This practice
effectively combines directional focus with all-round circumspection. It is both
instrumental and inspirational in encouraging co-creative learning in diverse
communities with fluidly tolerant and versatile qualitative and quantitative guidelines
for evaluation of open-ended learning processes.