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This is a book of conversations with researchers working across Europe, the USA and Africa. It aims to illuminate the lived reality of educational research on a wide variety of topics, including family life in rural South Africa, support for self-harming students in the UK, character development in the USA and Korea, educational leadership in the UK and China, philosophical analysis of education policy, and much more.
The book is for and about researchers and is built around a set of conversations with the author - a fellow researcher. Researchers work at the frontiers of our knowledge and understanding of the world, and frontiers can be dangerous places. How are the researchers' personal qualities - virtues such as courage, honesty and kindness - tested and exemplified in their work? The conversations presented here explore the experience of research and ask what qualities are needed, or wished for, in order to successfully face its challenges. There are many books that include lists of what to do and what not to do when carrying out research. Here, in contrast, we find out what really happens and why - and what it takes to keep going.
List of contents
Contents: Remembering Virtue - Introduction: From Ethics to Virtues - Starting the Conversation - Conversation in Philosophy: The Rational and the Reasonable - Philosophy in Action: A Conversation with Morwenna Griffiths - Producing Better People: A Conversation with Nel Noddings - Integrity and Sincerity - Competing Moral Principles: A Conversation with Ron Best - Thinking Myself Into the World: A Conversation with Helen Lees - Inside Out: Orthodoxy and its Alternatives in Educational Research - Am I Just Hiding Behind a Tradition?: A Conversation with Mario D'Souza - A Bit of a Nomad: A Conversation with Anne Pirrie - Building Relationships - It's Not Therapy, But ... - The Evidence Should Provoke Some Kind of Feelings in People: A Conversation with Mike Bottery - I Wanted to Keep on Learning: A Conversation with Lander Calvelhe - Just Work: Professing as Professor and as Professional - I Call it Work: A Conversation with Jean McNiff - To Build Relationships: A Conversation with Jacqui Akhurst - Taking Time: Prudence and Pacing - We Intervene Too Soon: A Conversation with Shanaaz Hoosain - Learning to Live With Difference: A Conversation with Sr Agnes Wilkins - Sustainable Researchers - Courage Enough: The Need to Support and Be Supported - Part of my Being: A Conversation with Lasma Latsone - Research is Messy: A Conversation with Lynne Gabriel - 99 Per Cent Perspiration: The Virtues of Hard Work - Re-Imagining the Way we See Children: A Conversation with Chris Sink - You Should Not be Too Practical or Nice: A Conversation with Fedor Kozyrev - A Curious Life: Research as Legacy - Time is my Worst Enemy: A Conversation with Ginger MacDonald - I've Had to be Very Brave: A Conversation with Helen Gunter - Facing the Future of Educational Research - Portraits of Researchers - Conclusion: Educational Research in Learning Communities.
About the author
Julian Stern is Professor of Education and Religion at York St John University. After fourteen years as a school teacher, he worked at the UCL Institute of Education, the Open University, Brunel University and the University of Hull prior to his current position. He has published twelve books and numerous articles, covering topics as diverse as homework, spirituality, pedagogy and the involvement of parents in schooling. He is also General Secretary of ISREV, the International Seminar on Religious Education and Values, as well as Secretary of the John Macmurray Fellowship and a Director and Trustee of the Centre for Global Education, York.
