You may think of this as yet another site directed at those who practise or think about education. I’ve called in Critical Voice because I believe that it is something we all need to foster. As my very first post explains, critical does not mean negative (though it can). I view critique (as noun but also as verb) as a force for good, because it means both reflecting on one’s own assumptions about things and using these as a standpoint (or stance) to address the behaviours of others and the thinking that appears to be directing these behaviours. So that’s the “critical” part. It relates to the things we know and how we’ve come to know them and, to use a big word, has an epistemological emphasis
I think of voice as something that is unique to all of us. Actually we all speak something linguists call an ideolect, something that is unique and special to all of us. Having said that, there are forces at work in the world that would like us to mimic what they way and how they say it.
When we speak in our own authentic voice, we are being who we are. To use an expression from Edward Casey we are all implaced, that is we are connected at a bodily level to particular places and environments. The places and the living beings that inhabit them have a claim on us, whether we hear them or not. We are networked or grounded or connected in special ways. So, for now, I’m suggesting that our authentic “voice” is bound up in our being in the world. It has an ontological emphasis.