Chapter+4

CHAPTER FOUR DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY I would like to discuss my dissertation work in the context of other areas of learning from my doctoral studies. My doctoral program is the Educational Doctorate (Ed.D) in the school of Educational Leadership and Change at Fielding Graduate University. The emphasis of this program is the preparation of scholar practitioners who will assume leadership roles and facilitate change in the field of education. The scholar practitioner’s role is one of balance between academic theory and real world application.

I have followed two concentrations in my Fielding program, Media Studies and a research specialization in Grounded Theory Method. These areas have been influenced by perspectives gained by interactions with faculty and fellow doctoral candidates, in course work and graduate level seminars, on a variety of topics. My interest in Media Studies has been focused on new web-based media, a field that is having a profound effect on education; my interest in Grounded Theory has given me a set of tools that allows me to examine issues and propose action. More generally, the Fielding approach to doctoral education has allowed me to explore and refine my interest in technology in education and critical pedagogy. I see these two areas as complementary and relevant to my dissertation.

The Fielding emphasis on equitable, inclusive, and progressive educational practice has inspired me to look for these values in all institutional settings. Critical pedagogy is a powerful perspective for change that promotes a critical examination of existing social structures, with a view to making them more equitable and inclusive. My exposure at Fielding to the theories and practices of critical pedagogy has forever altered my understanding of the role of education and its place in society. Examination of media studies in education through the lens of critical pedagogy has provided a unique perspective on the profound changes that are occurring in institutions of learning and in society at large. What follows is my attempt to consolidate my learning at Fielding with the discoveries of my dissertation research.

The explanatory theory, //keeping your distance//, provides a theoretical foothold to control and understand the core processes and problems that people encounter in a variety of arenas. What started as an investigation of patterns of behavior among people using distance education, revealed a more general pattern of behavior. //Keeping your distance// has the necessary ‘fit and grab’ for knowledgeable laypersons in the field of distance education, although it will also be relevant beyond the substantive field and is modifiable to accommodate new data and contexts. This discussion will illustrate some of the ways that the theory can contribute to discussions in academic and applied settings.

Attempts to explain human behavior have drawn on various theoretical traditions. The grounded theory method avoids some of the limitations of traditional research and inquiry processes while still using frames of reference that will be recognizable to those with an empiricist bent. I hope that the theoretical work proposed here will provide an insight into a pattern of social behavior used by people in their daily activities. I also hope that the method used to discover this theory will provide an example of a practical process of inquiry for arenas of human activity. //Keeping your distance// fills gaps in our understanding of human social interactions and helps people to make meaning out of their experience in social settings. Previous identification of ‘distancing’ as a dysfunctional inter-personal strategy usually referred to troubled intimate relationships. A more useful interpretation, drawing from the theory of //keeping your distance//, is that this type of problematic distancing in intimate relationships is more likely ‘over-distancing’, a temporary condition requiring adjustment in the interest of achieving optimal distance. In effect, //keeping your distance// is a defensive pattern but not necessarily a negative one. If applied appropriately, strategies lead to an effective engagement with the world, allowing the individual the latitude and freedom to interact with others, while preserving a sense of safety, control, autonomy, and energy. The theory presented here provides legitimacy to the use of distance for the preservation of autonomy and energy without the negative connotations of being distant -a pejorative term, generally describing a position seen as antisocial.
 * // What Gap Does This Theory Address? //**

Polkinghorne (1988) theorized about the various realms of reality, the material, the organic and the realm of meaning. He pointed out that the techniques of inquiry that are relevant and appropriate in one realm are not necessarily appropriate in other realms. This is especially the case when applying techniques appropriate for the realms of material and organic to the realm of meaning. Conventional approaches to the understanding of human behavior have resulted in category errors in research leading to confusion (Freeman, 1997). An example of this is the effort to use animal research to attempt to meaningfully explain human behavior. Neuro-psychology relies heavily on the concepts of behaviorism and animal substrates of human behavior. The utility of the conclusions drawn from the most rigorous empirical research is limited if the starting point of the investigation, the theoretical perspective, is questionable. We love scientific explanations although most people do not have the background to understand the findings or ramifications. (Skolnick et al, 2008) The process of grounding theory in the action of the participants reduces the confusion of realms of meaning.

While mechanistic interpretations of human behavior are problematic, the terminology can still be meaningful for understanding complex human behavior when used as metaphor. In the theory of //keeping your distance//, the concept of algorithm has been used to describe the fine adjustments and discrimination that people make when determining their response in a given circumstance. The algorithm involved in //keeping your distance// is not so much a mathematical construct as it is a metaphor.

The pattern of behavior identified in //keeping your distance// may be related to theoretical propositions of behavioral economics such as risk aversion. Risk aversion is the reluctance of a person to accept a bargain with an uncertain payoff rather than another bargain with a more certain, but possibly lower, expected payoff. Parallels extend to the use of coefficients that attenuate a calculus of social interaction and behavioral effects, such as the Arrow-Pratt coefficient of risk aversion (Arrow, 1971).

//Keeping your distance// corresponds to concepts from the field of evolutionary psychology (Stenstrom et al, 2008). The ability to manage physical distance has always had a survival function for humans. Proximity to resources and avoidance of physical threat is a critical function for people living in groups, who have developed many strategies to maintain physical distance. In densely populated societies where physical distance is not easily accomplished, various methods have evolved to give people the necessary personal space for living and sense of control.

//Keeping your distance// can contribute to the understanding of the theory of emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1997). People who are highly intelligent in many conventional senses can still suffer a world of woe through problematic relationships and interactions. Those who have developed effective strategies for maintaining optimal distance may demonstrate a high degree of emotional intelligence.

Limitations of this Study The theory of //keeping your distance// is not exclusively related to distance education but is a general theory of a basic social pattern. Although data collection for this study began in the substantive area of distance education, it is by no means a theory only about education, distance or otherwise. People may choose distance education as part of a personal //keeping your distance// strategy set that allows them to resolve other concerns or problems. By design, grounded theory is a method that allows for emergent theories that are dynamic and modifiable. The theory of //keeping your distance// presented here is a snapshot of the theory at the time of completion. It is likely that additional aspects will be revealed with time. Again, analysis conducted using the grounded theory method produces an integrated set of theoretical concepts and not a proof. Further systematic investigation will determine the validity and scope of the theory of //keeping your distance//.

In the development of the theory of //keeping your distance// I have been conscious of a need to determine its place in the epistemology of human social behavior. In attempting to determine the fit of //keeping your distance// I have considered the possible ranges of theory, low, middle or high level, and the general area where its application could have the most impact (Merton, 1968). Grounded theory method is recognized as a method for generating mid-range theories, meaning that it does not generate purely substantive theory with limited application to the specific area. //Keeping your distance// has application for the area of education, and specifically computer-mediated distance education, but it applies to multiple other contexts as well.

The mid-range niche also means that a theory generated with grounded theory method does not claim to be a grand theory that offers a comprehensive explanation for all human behavior. Such a theory may not even comprehensively explain all behaviors that appear to be dedicated to control of personal circumstance. Implications of Keeping Your Distance Human relationships can be joyful, rewarding and essential to mental, emotional, and spiritual health. At the same time, they can cause the most agonizing pain, resentment and conflict. Many times the difficulty is based on a misunderstanding of the motivations of others. We misinterpret patterns of behavior in others or fail to recognize and accept those patterns in ourselves. //Keeping your distance// explains a pattern of behavior that is frequently misinterpreted in relationships. Awareness of this basic social process can be an uncomfortable realization but provides a coherent explanation for the actions of others and provides a starting point for conflict resolution and for the construction of mutually acceptable solutions.

Institutional marketers and policy planners are often concerned with the affinity that people demonstrate for their institutions. The pattern of social behavior represented by the theory of //keeping your distance// predicts that people will want to maintain and control optimal distance from other people and institutions. Efforts to draw people closer through enticement or coercion often has the paradoxical effect of driving them further away or forcing engagement with institutions for reasons of utility rather than affinity. Institutions and policies that allow people to manage and control their distance will create greater affinity. This paradoxical finding explains part of the attraction of virtual worlds where people have increased options to control their presence to others.

Critical Theory and Keeping Your Distance Educational institutions based in an industrial production model have been the subject of much scrutiny and analysis from a critical perspective. Criticism focuses on the dominance of powerful elites and the dehumanizing and alienating effects of the loss of personal control on the part of individuals and communities. The detrimental effect on civil society as a whole is the major concern. Major critiques point out that educational structures are dedicated to the service of a specific capitalist agenda: "Society can be destroyed when further growth of mass production renders the milieu hostile, when it extinguishes the free use of the natural abilities of society’s members, when it isolates people from each other and locks them into a man-made shell, when it undermines the texture of community by promoting extreme social polarization and splintering specialization, or when cancerous acceleration enforces social change at a rate that rules out legal, cultural, and political precedents as formal guidelines to present behavior. Corporate endeavors which thus threaten society cannot be tolerated. At this point it becomes irrelevant whether an enterprise is nominally owned by individuals, corporations, or the slate, because no form of management can make such fundamental destruction serve a social purpose." (Illich, 1971) As Western societies and economies move into post-industrial modes, inevitable conflicts arise as adjustments are made to include alternative epistemological and pedagogical systems. //Keeping your distance// suggests that, given a choice, people will choose to engage with institutions in a way that supports their desire for autonomy and personal control. Technology will change, but basic behavioral patterns in society will not, adjusting to new modes. Basic impulses such as //keeping your distance// will remain in effect and guide interactions.

One major concern for educational institutions is a commitment to equity. A growing awareness of the detrimental impact of historical colonialism has generated an interest in restructuring institutions to redress inequalities. One of the great difficulties with this endeavor is the reification and ossification of colonialist values. Existing structures are taken for granted and the original influences are unrecognized. Alternative perspectives exist but official historical accounts are highly subjective, favoring a specific class. Similar problems are apparent when reified attitudes and hegemonic practices impede individuals or groups on the basis of gender, sexual preference or race.

Critical pedagogy is a movement intended to consider all aspects of education with the aim of exposing and redressing the domination that limits full participation of all members of society. Colonialist ideas and traditions reified into the educational practices and institutions of Western society express and perpetuate the dominance of a particular view point or tradition, typically the Christian, Caucasian, male, heterosexual viewpoints and the implicit and explicit exclusion of other groups.

The effort to decolonialize epistemologies is ongoing but many members of society who may have been subject to the damaging effects of colonization or hegemony have retreated from contact with educational institutions. They have learned to //keep their distance//, to preserve autonomy, to preserve emotional control and to preserve effort. Reformulations of education will have to consider real changes that make access and content respond to the needs of marginalized groups. Distance education can play a significant role in this redress if properly deployed in collaboration with such groups, respecting their need to maintain optimal distance.

Historical colonialism remains problematic, however, a new version of colonialization has appeared with the development of large corporate learning management systems (LMS) (Lane, 2008).Corporate LMSs have endeavored to capture the education market through strategies reminiscent of colonialists of earlier centuries. They have developed proprietary systems that exercise enormous control over online education practices at all levels. Systems are heavily marketed and contracts are sustained by aggressive practices. Through copyright and patent legislation, vendors of LMSs have co-opted the work of many pioneers of computer-mediated education and through aggressive legal action have staked a questionable claim to the new universe of web-based learning (Feldstein, 2009)

To serve society fully and to emancipate those who have had restricted access to educational opportunities, institutions must use a critical perspective to examine the reality of the everyday life of people with aspirations to higher education. Examination must be guided by theories that are not part of the reified colonialist and industrial perspective. One of the major advantages of the grounded theory approach is that it is possible to examine patterns and generate theories not completely influenced by a dominant mindset. For example, it is possible to use grounded theory to examine data provided by individuals, representative of groups that have experienced the effects of hegemony, and incorporate these into explanatory theories.

Gibson (2008) described the use of critical theory in connection with grounded theory method: "The term theoretical sensitivity in grounded theory reflects the awareness that there is a multiplicity of theoretical accounts available in sociology and beyond. It recognizes that these are equally legitimate for the purpose of researching what exists. The difference between grounded theory and critical theory is that rather than try and integrate many of those theoretical accounts into one large theoretical superstructure, grounded theory aims to use the most appropriate method of observing for the purposes of generating a theory and reporting it. Rather than attempting to achieve the superiority of the critic, grounded theory promotes sensitivity and fit. This is grounded theory's pragmatism. This pragmatism provides great potential for accommodating critical theory." (Gibson, 2008)

//Keeping your distance// is of use to those using a critical approach to pedagogy. A major concern of critical pedagogy is that the industrial approach to education forces people into social arrangements that support institutional imperatives rather than the natural learning and teaching needs of people. //Keeping your distance// suggests that rearrangement will be in the best interests of learners and institutions alike.

Implications for Distance Education What value does //keeping your distance// have as a theory that could be applied to the field of distance education? Glaser (1978) pointed out that theories must be relevant to the "man in the know", the person intimately involved in the substantive arena and that person wants to be able to use “…what he knows with some increment of control and understanding in his area of action" (p. 13) This analysis began by examining the way that people used distance education. It is likely that the distinction between distance education and face-to-face education will become less important as technology becomes more of a feature of the latter. People are increasingly recognizing that it is not necessary to be physically present to learn and that the complicated social interactions of face-to-face learning may actually impede or distract from learning in many respects (Usher & Pajares, 2008). These and other realizations will have profound impact on existing models of education, with some suggesting that the university as an institution will be eventually be subjected to the same forces for change that have radically altered many other institutions (Carey, 2009).

People operating in the field of distance education know that managing distance is a critical operation. A destructive tension is created where institutions attempt to bind students and students resist. Institutions that want to have a successful technology-mediated program must be aware of the desire of people to maintain a distance and to arrange activities giving students a sense of autonomy and freedom. They avoid exposing learners to unnecessary drains on time and emotional resources. Students armed with the //keeping your distance// theory know that they are justified in insisting on measures that allow them to maintain and control personal distance from instructors, fellow students, and administration. This will have a profound effect on the traditional place-based, time-bound systems of education as they currently exist.

Current theory about distance education is divided on the issue of the importance of social contact in learning. Usher and Pajares (2008) pointed out that self-efficacy may be enhanced when people do not have to compare their learning progress with others. The use of the term ‘distance’ has been politicized in the discussion of computer-mediated, web-based approaches to education. Proponents of online education rarely use the term ‘distance’ to avoid the connotations of distance as alienation, more often using the term ‘distributed education’. Those that support the status quo of face-to-face, place-bound institutional education use the term distance to evoke the notion of ‘distance’ as alienation (CMEC, 2009).

People are motivated by their personal //keeping your distance// strategies to choose a learning system that reduces negative or downward self-comparisons. The features of distance education that allow people to preserve their distance fit well with the natural tendency to //keep your distance//. This would suggest that rather than trying to reduce the sense of physical and emotional distance in educational settings, institutions may better serve the cause of learning by allowing people the maximum latitude for self-efficacy through independent study, up to and including no physical interaction with others in the educational setting.

People need to be given the opportunity to //keep their distance// according to their personal comfort levels, which may change throughout a program or even a course of study. ICT applications have the potential to allow individuals to have greater personal control over their learning process. Educational institutions interested in attracting learners and retaining student enrolments should consider the pattern of social behavior explained by //keeping your distance// to guide policy and procedures. Incorporating web-based social media would give learners much more control and autonomy in their learning. As the industrial education model wanes, people are looking for more than an electronic version of the bricks and mortar institutions that formed the industrial education complex. People who use technology and web-based social networking are looking to construct personal learning environments that support their learning aspirations beyond the particular learning experience offered by any one institution.

Institutions attempting to capitalize on the trend toward online learning will need to recognize that there is a new deal. They can no longer claim ownership of knowledge or learning. At best, they own a credential that they can sell if they can convince others that it has value. Institutions of higher learning may be able to find a new value proposition by selling connections and conversations with other learners and faculty, engaged through new systems of knowledge creation. Institutions that force students through a pay-gate will find themselves increasingly irrelevant if they are not able to offer anything more than access to information that they have locked away or a credential that is of arbitrary value. With things being equal, people will figure out a way to //keep their distance// from those types of learning environments that arbitrarily restrict autonomy. Learning institutions that deliver on the promise of latitude will emerge as the most successful.

It is important for institutions to realize that the incorporation of web-based social media involves more than pasting new media practice into existing industrial education infrastructure. Next generation learners, already sophisticated users of social media, are sensitive to implementations that purport to allow learners more control but are merely hollow manipulations. The concept of a "creepy tree house" has been put forward to describe institutions that attempt to attract learners with promise of control but actually distort social media tools to support a corporate agenda of control and monetization of education (Stein, 2008).

Similarly, for faculty recruitment and retention, the institution that offers faculty the greatest latitude in their teaching practice will be most successful. Many educators recognize the arbitrary and ineffective models of industrial education policy that have become reified in practice. The 50 minute lecture, the 20 page term paper, the standardized test are practices without any particular pedagogical superiority and have turned academics into factory workers and students into products.

Kevin Carey argues that traditional educational institutions must adapt to changing realities brought about by technology: "Some people will argue that the best traditional college courses are superior to any online offering, and they're often right. There is no substitute for a live teacher and student, meeting minds. But remember, that's far from the experience of the lower-division undergraduate sitting in the back row of a lecture hall. All she's getting is a live version of what iTunes University offers free, minus the ability to pause, rewind, and fast forward at a time and place of her choosing." (Carey, 2009) Technologically sophisticated students are choosing the option that allows them to keep their distance from inefficient practices and conserves their personal resources and energy.

The incorporation of technology into the learning enterprise must be done properly. The move to computer-mediated instruction inside of proprietary content management systems have further entrenched poor pedagogy described as “fluorescent lighted space of the learning management system”(EDUPUNK, 2009). The comodification of education by corporations has opened the possibility of another form of colonialization of the new universe of technology-mediated learning. Still, as the theory of //keeping your distance// would suggest, people will mitigate and adjust their strategies for optimal outcomes. They may be willing to endure the limitations of a LMS rather than be drawn into a costly and inefficient physical attendance at an institution.

Faculty, long concerned that they would be replaced by technology, were remonstrated to change their teaching styles and to foster learning as a process rather than purvey content. Many found that ICT fostered learning but also freed them of some of the more onerous aspects of working in an institution. Faculty no longer must be physically present and can meet their obligations to mentor, teach, and research from a physical location of their choosing. Institutions that respect faculty //keeping your distance// strategies will be successful in attracting the personnel that are needed to transform education for the new economic and social realities of a post-industrial society (Illich, 1973). For education to become part of the system of convivial tools that Illich envisioned, it must respect the tendency for people to //keep their distance//.

The intention of this research is to develop explanatory theory from data gathered from the lived experience of people. Further inquiry could more clearly delineate the dimensions of //keeping your distance// for technology-mediated education. Many institutions are introducing elements of technology into their practices. It will be interesting to compare institutions that restructure and demonstrate a respect for autonomy and personal empowerment for students with those that use technology to support the status quo of institutional control. It would also be interesting to restructure education practices based on the //keeping your distance// theory and test the concept empirically. The mechanisms that are used to study, theorize and direct action will require the most responsive and effective system (Houghton et al, 2009) The grounded theory method offers one such responsive and effective system.
 * Implications for Further Research **

Future Directions for Keeping Your Distance. Steubins (1992) proposed a longitudinal process of concatenation where various middle range GT theories are compared to see if broader categories can be observed. //Keeping your distance// could contribute to a concatenated system of grounded theories such as those articulated by Stillman (2007), Urell (2005) and others. Such aggregated theories would have a synergistic explanatory impact.

Changing Notions of Distance It will also be interesting to use the perspective offered by this theory as social patterns change with the increasing use of the Internet and social networks. Our understanding of distance as a concept has changed with the introduction of communication systems that allow instantaneous, multimedia communication with people in all parts of the world. The emergence of the Internet and World Wide Web has resulted in a technology-meditated reality that is having a profound impact on human social relationships. Information and communication technology has made it possible to have very intimate and personal relationships independent of physical presence. Current technology is limited for replicating all dimensions of human experience, however, unceasing developments in artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality continue. Recent neuroscience discoveries with respect to the attribution of physical sensation demonstrate that virtual experiences can replicate many real life experiences (Petkova &Ehrsson, 2008). One of the persistent features in computer-mediated environments is the enhanced ability to keep your distance.

Online affordances and social networking systems incorporate the capacity to //keep your distance//. The recent phenomenon of micro-blogging has attracted significant interest as a communication medium. Participants in micro-blogging networks can customize their experience by ‘following’ other participants who materially contribute on a vast array of topics. Other social networks use the term ‘friending’ to instantiate the same behavioral mechanisms. There is a large element of choice in constructing personal social networking systems or micro-blogging networks and one of the important features is the ability to keep your distance by ‘unfollowing’ or ‘unfriending’ other participants. Many micro-blogging contributors modify their participation by monitoring incidents of ‘unfollowing’ and use this data to shape their behavior to attract their preferred connections and avoid others. The basic social process of //keeping your distance// persists in these contexts.

Real-time, two-way video communications over the Internet offers a finer control over the experience of distance. Parties to such conversations may be separated by a continent but still have the experience of seeing and speaking to others. The comedian George Burns quipped that “happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city.” While a video call will not replace a hug from a grandchild, it does allow for an experience of presence at a distance. People use technology to keep their distance for autonomy. The use of personal web-identities, mobile communication devices all serve as a means of individuation. Technology also offers a way to mitigate the response. If one is not able to create adequate physical distance they can use technology to create a proxy space for themselves. This may be particularly the case in densely populated countries. Throughout the period of time I have been conducting my data collection, analysis, and writing this dissertation, I have been reflecting on the process that I have followed and the major milestones and obstacles I have faced. While grounded theory is a highly structured and systematic process, each analyst develops a personalized approach. In the interest of producing a grounded theory, I attempted to follow the letter and spirit of the process as laid out by Glaser, drawing on two works in particular, //The Discovery of Grounded Theory// (1967) and //Theoretical Sensitivity// (1978). These works were supplemented by various other writings by Glaser and others using the classic grounded theory approach. I am pleased that I have been able to use this method to make a contribution as a scholar practitioner to the understanding of patterns of social behavior. I started my dissertation research at a time when I was working as an administrator in the field of distance education. I began my inquiry with the people who were in front of me and those people at the time were people engaged in technology-mediated education. I asked them simply to describe their experience with distance education. Consistent with the grounded theory method, I began my analysis as soon as I completed the first interview and by the third interview, a pattern began to form. It appeared that people used distance education to accomplish personal educational goals in a format that was convenient, cost-effective, and efficient. Other motivations seemed to be involved as well. Whether people chose distance education because of their personal inclinations or, upon using distance education, discovered practical and personal advantages, wasn't immediately clear. After analysis of the sixth interview of this type, the pattern of //keeping your distance// was apparent. At that point, my interview strategy shifted to people who were not directly involved as participants in distance education. The data collected at this stage were compared to earlier data to round out the theoretical concepts of //keeping your distance//. At the same time, I began to collect data from other sources including online media, various forms of literature, conference proceedings, institutional reports, and policy documents. Data were collected from collegial conversations with others who were familiar with the grounded theory method and the analysis of basic patterns of social behavior. The theory of //keeping your distance// has emerged through at least three distinct levels of conceptual abstraction. I expect, consistent with previous experience reported with theories extracted with this method, that there will be additional reformulations as the implications and precepts are tested against further experience. Grounded theory method analysis revealed a pattern of problem solving behavior. A theory of this basic social process emerged around the core variable "//Keeping Your Distance//". The theory of //keeping your distance// is an integrated set of concepts referring to the conscious and unconscious strategies that people use to regulate distance, physical and representative, in their everyday lives. Strategies are used to control physical, emotional and psychological realities and to conserve personal energy in interactions with individuals and/or institutions. The theory of //keeping your distance// follows a conditions/consequences model with covariance. Various conditions evoke a system of strategic response patterns which result in consequences. Responses and their consequences change conditions and result in additional adjustments, made on an ongoing basis. For all social interactions, people use an algorithm of engagement to mitigate strategies intended to maintain optimal distance. Variation occurs but calculations are weighted in the direction of greater distance. The theory of //keeping your distance// also provides a theoretical foothold for considerations of the changing notions of distance in the face of new developments in the field of ICT and social networking. The theory of //keeping your distance// will aid policy makers and institutional planners in their efforts to design successful and respectful learning environments. The grounded theory method promises to provide insights into a number of other areas of personal and professional interest. I hope to be able to make a contribution to the advancement and dissemination of this method as a robust and accurate means of understanding and addressing the everyday concerns of everyday people.
 * Summary**