ABSTRACT
I will end with a suggestion for a later conference. It may well be that at this stage, while the group is still developing a consensus about what kinds of activity are to be included in self-study, a conference should be like this one, wideranging rather than focused. This conference has clearly been of great value to many participants for whom it has been timely and appropriate to share values, engage in mutually supportive discussion and to find from others what their experience of taking part in action research of this kind has been. For many the culmination of the conference was the decision to make new commitments to self-study in spite of the risks. However, I predict that one day a sharpening of focus will be felt to be necessary, and then a policy-forming conference will be needed. I suggest that it should take this form. There should be invited speakers on the central topics, and the majority of the time-perhaps not more than two days-spent in working parties whose task would be to formulate and agree statements of policy. The outcome would be a written document that could be voted upon section by section. On the basis of the present conference I would suggest as topics the following:
1 The preconditions of successful self-study 2 The meaning of validity in self-study 3 The processes of self-study
Of course, the future may bring other important concerns. The purpose would be to produce an explicit framework for future conferences, based on the ‘case law’ assembled in the course of other open conferences like this one.
