What are we teaching for? Humility and responsibility in social science research

Humility and responsibility are concepts the authors of this chapter leverage to frame and characterise their educational research program’s pedagogical culture. They discuss these twin ethical concepts and respond to the question, “What are we teaching for?” They argue that as teachers, we are responsible for what our instruction makes possible in social science research. We must instill in our students a dynamic interest that goes beyond the classroom. Also, we must keep in mind the big picture about our field, our role(s) within it, and how we teach and train into it. The value is in the process of critical reflection itself and our responsibility as social science teachers is to understand that the way we teach matters. If our desire is to produce reflective, critical, and responsive researchers and methodologists, then we must attend to our responsibilities and muster some degree of humility in our pedagogy.