Being a Professional in Schools and Universities: limits, purposes and possibilities for development

Abstract

This paper, an edited version of the Lawrence Stenhouse Memorial Lecture, argues that if the kinds of emancipation and empowerment envisaged by Stenhouse for students in schools are to be practised, educators in universities and other educational organisations must recognise and assert that they are a part of rather than apart from a broader social, economic and political dialogue in which teachers, teachers’ associations, parents, governors, local education authorities and policymakers in other places are engaged. As professional researcher‐developers still with ‘room to manoeuvre’ within and without politically driven policy agendas, they have a legitimate voice, a contribution to make, alongside others, to the development and critique of educational policy at strategic levels and to developments in schools and classrooms. Within this broad theme four related topics are addressed: (1) lifelong learning; (2) knowledge of professional development and change; (3) the limits and possibilities of educational research; and (4) dilemmas in being a professional: moral purposes and roles of academics in continuing professional development.