From the language of learning to the language of educational responsibility

Abstract

How do I recognise the move from the language of learning to the language of educational responsibility?

….each practitioner researcher clarifies, in the course of their emergence, in the practice of educational enquiry, the embodied ontological values to which they hold themselves accountable in their professional practice. (Whitehead J (2005) Living inclusional values in educational standards of practice and judgement. Keynote for the Act, Reflect, Revise III Conference, Brantford Ontario, 11 November 2005. Available at: http://www.jackwhitehead.com/monday/arrkey05dr1.htm (accessed 29 August 2014).)

I have spent the last two years exploring my values and beliefs in the classroom and working with the children in my class to develop our skills and reflections as learners. As educational researchers we need to go beyond the language of learning into a language of educational responsibility; a responsibility to ourselves and the children, to generate educational explanations and evaluations of our practice as we try to live our values in our class. This paper shows how I move from the language of learning to a language of education in clarifying the meaning of the educational responsibility I feel towards the children in my care.