It ain't what you say, it's the way that you say it: an analysis of the language of educational development

Most of the time, the fact that the discourse academics use with their professional peers is opaque or unpalatable to colleagues from different disciplines is a matter of little consequence. Indeed, it may bring pleasure, reinforcing the sense of a community which recognises and values the speaker and distinguishing them from other groups in the staff canteen and at committee meetings.This is however not the case for the discourse of the academic community of educational developers. Educational development has a distinct role and set of responsibilities in higher education, which include the requirement to communicate across disciplines and to (the verb you select here will depend on your perspective) inform/support/convince/persuade/ lead/cajole/manipulate colleagues and influence their behaviour.

A version of this paper was first published in Educational Developments issue 5.2 June 2004 pp9-11.

• http://www.arts.ac.uk/cltad/47894.htm