Rigor
Rigor creates a seriousness about our work. It is a deepening of our commitment to self (who we are in this profession) and practice (good teaching). Rigor is where we hold ourselves accountable. What an empowering place to be—to know our location of politics in a way that we can use those beneficial memberships to intentionally create a shift of dynamics, thus creating change.
Rigor allows us to take a critical look at our place in this society and decide how to use our knowledge.
The Small Schools Project includes examples of educational rigor in their article Rigor: What Does it Mean To You? (PDF).
One aspect of rigor is the idea that we must actively work against oppression if we want to help all of our students succeed. Freire sums it up like this: "Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral."
Another analogy for this rigor is riding an escalator. If you don't actively move against the ride, you will go in the direction of the escalator. If society is moving in one direction, you are moving that way too unless you are doing something to actively move a different way.