In Sharon's and my doctoral seminar this week, we were privileged to welcome and converse with Dr. Stephen Kemmis, distinguished scholar who is internationally recognized for his work on innovation and change in education via action research. In a lively hour of conversation, doctoral students asked Dr. Kemmis many questions related to their research and interests, and he was masterful, generous and humble in response. Dr. Kemmis mentioned his latest book, Transforming Practices: Changing the World with the Theory of Practice Architectures, that I look forward to reading.
Thank you, Stephen, for accepting our invitation and spending this time with us! It is such a privilege to work with talented doctoral students who are doing research across a spectrum of educational research methodologies. Your insights and comments tonight have invited us all to reflect deeply on our actions in research, the use of evidence to address research questions, and resisting the urge to settle on what is easy to manage or convenient. You have reminded us to push the boundaries, while also keeping our research practical, so that we can get something meaningful happening as we change education through our research.
Through the course of the conversation, Sharon mentioned the work of Nobel Laureate Poet, Wislawa Szymborska, in relation to the act of asking questions being what keeps the pulse of the human alive. Here is an excerpt from Szymborska's acceptance speech:
"When I’m asked about [inspiration] on occasion, I hedge the question, too. But my answer is this: inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists generally. There is, has been, and will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It’s made up of all those who’ve consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. It may include doctors, teachers, gardeners – and I could list a hundred more professions. Their work becomes one continuous adventure as long as they manage to keep discovering new challenges in it. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it’s born from a continuous “I don’t know.”
... All sorts of torturers, dictators, fanatics, and demagogues struggling for power by way of a few loudly shouted slogans also enjoy their jobs, and they too perform their duties with inventive fervor. Well, yes, but they “know.” They know, and whatever they know is enough for them once and for all. They don’t want to find out about anything else, since that might diminish their arguments’ force. And any knowledge that doesn’t lead to new questions quickly dies out: it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life.... This is why I value that little phrase “I don’t know” so highly. It’s small, but it flies on mighty wings. It expands our lives to include the spaces within us as well as those outer expanses in which our tiny Earth hangs suspended".
I appreciate Sharon's insight and the opportunity to reflect on my work as a professor, a calling that involves asking new questions and discovering new challenges, approaching knowledge with I don't know -- which has led to a lifelong adventure that is rarely, if ever, boring.
Wisława Szymborska – Nobel Lecture. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2022. Wed. 23 Mar 2022. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1996/szymborska/lecture/
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