Enhancing professionalism in education through inquiry learning: a living theory research approach

Here we present a rationale for enhancing professionalism through Living Theory research drawing on the accounts of practicing teachers to provide examples of evidence-based explanations of educational influences in learning. This rationale has emerged in the course of researching and answering questions of the kind ‘How do I improve what I am doing in my professional practice?’ and generating living-educational-theories (Whitehead, 1989) as valid explanations of our educational influences in our own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of others with values that carry hope for the flourishing of humanity. We show how teachers are able to realize in practice two responsibilities they have as professional educational practitioners. The first is to continually inquire into their practice to understand, explain and improve it. The second is to create and make public valid accounts of their educational influences in learning as contributions to the development of an educational knowledge-base.