ABSTRACT
This chapter draws attention to a consideration of deliberative, responsible practice in the form of ‘praxis’, that is, morally informed action. We explore the tenets of practical wisdom, to ask that we transcend technical considerations of practice that turn exclusively upon effectiveness and accountability and take a course instead that will enable us to consider how we might identify and apprehend the knowledge that is required for us, individually and socially, to live fulfilled and satisfying lives. We see that codifying this ambition rarely falls within the ambit of discussions of improvement and reform. We argue that much of the education standards discourse is governed by a lack of trust that infuses the ways in which practice is characterised as though it is a form of manufacture, and make a plea for a more consultative stance that would enable the capture of educational practices in ways that more fully recognise their complexity and the many contexts in which they occur.
