Welcome to the WJETT blog
What is WJETT?
The WJETT blog or Warwick Journal of Education - Transforming Teaching blog is designed to encourage staff and students to disseminate good practice and to engage with their peers on academic cultural critique or areas of research that they find interesting. With the increased focus on ‘teachers as researchers’ in the sector, many qualified teachers are expected to publish the outcomes of any action research projects they undertake. The WJETT blog can be the first step on your journey towards publishing and enables you to experience publishing and reviewing in a friendly and supportive environment.
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Selflessness or self–love? Is it an ethical choice?
Faced with the choice of how to spend our time, we often face a stark choice – spend it on ourselves or spend it on others.
How should an ethical educator, seeking to apply and embody the Nolan Principles of Public Life, behave? Selflessly, surely. Not selfishly? The two can appear to be completely opposed to each other.
Now consider your car for a moment. You ask it to take you to work and on holiday, perform at high (and low) speeds, navigate narrow country lanes and wide open motorways, carrying all kinds of cargo and in all kinds of weather. But you know you have to respect its needs. New tyres, MOT, a good service (check those spark plugs) on occasion the requisite “aircon regas”. New wiper blades, clean car mats and ash trays. A good wash with the jet hose and polish with a chammy leather. All that, before you’ve even started putting in the fuel, be it diesel, petrol or a charge of electric.
So we know how to respect and take care of a high performance machine. Mainly because if we don’t, we know that we will soon have oil leaks, squeaky wipers, bald tyres and failed MOTs. We will be sitting in the gutter by the road-side waiting for a pickup and an expensive garage bill. Do we consider any of that “routine” maintenance of our car “selfish” in any way? No. We regard it as essential maintenance. It keeps our vehicle in good condition and make it ready to take us where we want to go, when we want to go there. What a luxury. It keeps the car legal, functional and safe for us and for other people.
So why are we so apt to short-change our bodies, relationships and selves when it comes to spending time and resources on them? Why might the performance of regular routine maintenance appear to be a selfish act?
In order to perform at the high levels you demand of yourself you need to be in tip-top condition. So is self-love an indulgence? Is prioritising your wellbeing an optional extra? You might be able to run on low fuel until the dashboard warning light turns red, but we all know that if you do it for too long you’ll be stuck by the roadside with a whole new set of priorities. If you don’t take time to refuel, refresh, be rested, connect with others and if you don’t ensure that you’re able to perform to the max there’s no way you’ll be able to continue for any length of time.
So put yourself through an MOT. Draw up an action plan. Deal with those essential repairs and put a plan in place to address the “advisories”. That way, there’ll be much more of yourself to give and be selfless with.
References:
The 7 principles of public life. (1995, May 31). Retrieved from Gov.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-7-principles-of-public-life/the-7-principles-of-public-life--2Link opens in a new window
Writing guidance
Can I write about anything in my blog post?
Yes pretty much. Academic cultural critique (Thomson and Mewburn, 2013) is always a good source of content for academic blogs. This can include (but is not limited to) comments and reflections on funding; higher education policy or academic life. You might also want to consider blogging about:
- Academic practice (Saper, 2006)
- Information and/or self-help advice
- Technical, teaching and careers advice
- Your research or practice
- How you’ve undertaken research
- The impact of research on your practice
- An area of research/practice that interests you
- Your teaching experiences/reflections
How long can my blog post be?
Each individual blog post should be no longer than 500 words. Long blocks of text are sometimes hard for readers to digest. Break up your content into shorter paragraphs, bullet points and lists whenever possible. Also include a list of keywords or tags as this makes it easier for Google to find your work.
Do I need to use citations?
No, this is a reflective piece so it does not need to include citations (but you obviously can include them if they are relevant).
Can I include links or images?
We would encourage you to include links to any articles that you have considered whilst writing your blog post. We also welcome the use of images (as long as you have permission to use them) as they can often help to illustrate a point and obviously will not be included in the word limit. Please remember this is a public site so if you want to include images of your students in your classes then you will need permission to do this.
What is the process for submitting a piece of work?
Your blog post should be emailed to A.Ball.1@warwick.ac.uk. Once the submission has been reviewed it will either be uploaded at the beginning of the next available week or sent back to you for editing if it requires amendments. You should then send the amended work to me once again and I will then upload it.