ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the difference in the nature of professional knowledge aimed at each of these goals, effectiveness and desirability, and to explore how this knowledge is acquired. It considers three types of knowledge, instrumental, communicative and emancipatory, arguing that all three are important for civic-minded professional practice. While some of this knowledge can be acquired by being told much of it is developed only through involvement in the practice itself. Knowledge associated with practical and critical rationality is largely, albeit not exclusively, grounded in dispositions. These dispositions, or motivations, are necessary for achieving understanding, agreement with others and identifying distorted assumptions, both in relation to oneself and the ideals of the professional practice one is part of. The chapter also shows that civic professionalism is also informed by three types of knowledge. These in turn are important for attaining the core graduate attributes of openness to experience, moral commitment and social engagement, which enable civic-mindedness.
