A Fusion of Orientation and Method: Bearing Witness in Educational Inquiry

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Bearing Witness as Research Methodology: Critical Strategies for Transformative Praxis

Abstract

This presentation puts forward the idea of bearing witness as an orientation in educational inquiry. The particular domain of interest is the world of teaching and teachers. Bearing witness fuses inquiry and relationality. It points to ways of seeing the complex social depths as well as promise of teaching while interacting with teachers. As an ‘orientation’, witnessing constitutes something other than a discrete ‘method’ that could be taught or learned like a skill. Rather, it constitutes an enacted ethics that combines epistemic and moral considerations. The intent of the presentation is to elucidate the idea of bearing witness in order to make it available to colleagues across the diverse fields of social inquiry in education.

Author

• David T. Hansen, Teachers College, Columbia University