‘New’ Ways of Seeing and Doing: A Critical Reflection on Changes to Educational Theory and Practice

This paper documents a research journey that was initially undertaken to escape the feelings of tension and dissatisfaction that I had experienced as a secondary school teacher. The paper identifies the many influences that have guided the course of my continuing research journey. Philosophically, my research has taken me from viewing the world and my place in it from a narrow and authoritarian Western perspective through to a more inclusive and more democratic non-Western perspective. This shift in perspective initially resulted in changes to my educational theory and practice as manifested in the evolution of an environmental education program in a Melbourne secondary school. More recently my research perspective has again shifted, enabling me to pursue an opportunity to not only teach in, but more importantly also to learn in, a different cultural context. In both Melbourne and Manila, the transformations have come about by sharing ‘new’ ways of seeing and doing.