Values and Virtues in Higher Education Research.

Critical perspectives

Values and Virtues in Higher Education Research centres on practitioners studying and researching their practices in higher education settings, in order to improve those practices for the benefit of others and themselves. Making research public is a key aspect of ensuring the quality of educational research and educational practices: Values and Virtues in Higher Education Research raises questions and develops conversations about why higher education practitioners should study and improve their work, how this may be done, and what might be some of the benefits of doing so. What we do as practitioners is influenced by and linked with what we value, what we believe is good. Improving practices therefore involves becoming aware of and interrogating the values that enter into and inform those practices; a study of practices becomes a study of the relationships between the practices in question and their values base.

From an international group of contributors in this growing field, this book provides strong theoretical resources and case study material that shows how this transformation may be achieved, including topics such as:

• Theorising practices to show personal and organisational accountability
• Developing inter-professional and inter-disciplinary dialogues for social transformation
• Establishing communities of inquiry in higher education and other workplace settings
• Reconceptualising professional education as research-informed practice
• Locating educational theory in the real world for human and environmental wellbeing

Showing the evolution of theory through critical engagement, this text will be a valuable companion for lecturers, students and professional developers in higher education. This book will form core reading for those who are interested in engaging in practice-based research, and as additional reading for those whose aim is to broaden their thinking in relation to the role of values and virtues in educational research.

Jean McNiff is an independent researcher and writer, Professor of Educational Research at York St John University, and Visiting Professor at Oslo and Akershus University College, Beijing Normal University and Ningxia Teachers University. She is also the author of key texts Action Research: Principles and Practice, You and Your Action Research Project and Writing Up Your Action Research Project.