A living-theory pedagogy for postgraduate distance learning education

This paper explains my educational influence in the transformation of a distance learning MSc programme in Construction Management offered by the University of Bath. Between 2000 and 2011, I was involved in adapting the programme from a classical paper-based correspondence-style course to a cutting-edge, blended learning-programme of study. The focus moved from the delivery of teaching materials to students as recipients of knowledge to the engagement of students as active agents generating their own practice-based understanding. Key to this transformation was the establish-ment of the overarching unit Consolidating Theory and Practice that provides the vehicle for students to develop skills as reflective practitioners and to generate explanations of their educational influences in their own learning. However, the core of this paper centres on an archeology of my values, starting from their roots in the lives of my grandparents. I trace the evolution of those values through my parents and on to me. Using extracts from my M.A. dissertation, I describe how I carried out a significant reassessment of how I hold knowledge and the evolution of my values during that process. I show how my values were expressed in the course of recasting the Construction Management programme, culminating in a claim to have directly influenced students to research and produce their own living-theories.