ABSTRACT
We strongly believe that teaching is a fundamentally moral occupation and that the approach to resolving educational controversies should be set in a moral frame (Sockett, 1993). In this chapter, we first outline the vision of reconciliatory discourse, anticipating its detailed description in Chapter 2, and we show its connection to the three educational purposes that were described in the introductory chapter. In the second section, we locate its foundations in the twin notions of moral trust and intellectual struggle. From these underpinnings will come a view of reconciliatory discourse, which demands the meeting of hearts as well as minds. The aim is to rethink the purpose of educational debate, within the commitment to build on the best to improve education for all children. To do this, there will be the development of common ground on aims, the use of compromise, an ability to build on the best of arguments, and to integrate them.
