The Lost Art of Scholarship
Scholarship is considered an old fashioned, almost elitist term conjuring mental images of wise, solitary, old men surrounded by ancient tomes and artefacts symbolic of learning—visually exemplified by the renaissance paintings of St Jerome. In an education context, the notion of being a scholar, pursuing scholarship or emphasising its value, is often deemed only relevant to the academically gifted. This should be far from the case. In fact to aspire to exceptional scholarship applies to every teacher and student—it is not about outcomes, it is about qualities of engagement in the teaching and learning continuum. Everyone can aspire to be ‘scholarly’. It requires application, curiosity, tenacity and commitment—qualities that can be encouraged at every level of educational endeavour.
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