Conference:
ECER 2008
Format:
Paper
Session Information
PRE_MOCK2, Mock Viva (Part 2)
Mock Viva
Time:
2008-09-09
15:00-16:00
Room:
C1 22 Margaretha Huitfeldts Auditorium
Chair:
Shosh Leshem
Discussant:
Vernon Trafford
Contribution
1. Research task: gap in knowledge that the present research is addressing
Teachers’ practical knowledge has been one significant part of research on teachers’ thinking calling for the fact that teachers have their own theories that can contribute to a codified knowledge base for teaching. The vast majority of educational research has primarily addressed the “content” of teachers’ practical knowledge. In other words, they expend a great deal of scholarly effort to assess exactly what teachers think on a whole range of educational issues, but devote very little to understanding why they think this way; that is, what the reasoning lies behind their practical knowledge claims. Therefore, the main research task of this study was to describe the nature of teachers’ pedagogical reasoning by addressing the reasoning underlie their practical knowledge.
2. Research questions
What is the structure of teachers reasoning that lies behind their practical knowledge?
What is the nature of teachers’ reasoning that underlies their practical knowledge?
What is the relationship (patterns) between different elements of teachers’ reasoning?
3. Conceptual framework of the research
Historically foundational system of justification has dominated epistemological studies in philosophy. From this perspective, “knowledge claims” should be supported by “universal and true justification”. In the practical fields such as teaching, however, justification of knowledge claims is embedded in the personal and social context in which individuals work. Drawing from Aristotle’s concept of “phronesis”, some philosophers of education (e.g., Carr, 2004, 2005; Dunne, 2005; Hamilton, 2005) have argued that teaching can be best understood as praxis (practice, action) that is supported by practical reasoning. In this way, education is not a theoretical activity, but a practical one: practical not in the sense of poiesis [i.e., making or production], which is ‘guided by fixed ends and governed by determinate rules, but rather in the sense of praxis which is more comprehensive and open-ended. In the practical reasoning perspective, therefore teachers deal with something that should or should not be done rather to claim that something is true or false.
Method
Research methodology
The present research was designed based on mixed methods approach. From different strategies in mixed approach research, I applied “concurrent nested strategy” (Creswell, 2003). Giving more priority to qualitative methods in the various phases of research, I also used quantitative methods in data analysis phase in order to get more insight into different patterns in teachers’ reasoning. The source of data were five class teachers and one subject teacher from two Finnish comprehensive schools, which provides a nine-year educational program for all school-age children beginning at the age of seven. Semi-structured open interview and “stimulated recall interview” (Calderhead, 1996) were used as the main tools for gathering data. I also used Toulmin’s (1958) and Fenstermacher and Richardsons’ (1993) models on practical argument for guiding data analysis.
Expected Outcomes
Findings: contribution to existing knowledge
In the line with the existing knowledge, the results indicated that teachers reasoned about their practical knowledge claims by using “practical argument”. Among other things teachers’ practical argument had three main elements: knowledge claims, grounds on which they justified their knowledge claim, and warrant by which they linked their knowledge claims to their grounds. The nature of grounds was found to be situational in different contexts, and not universal or fixed. More importantly contextual grounds were found to be backed up by two significant types of warrants: moral ethos, and efficiency-of-action warrant. Depending on what kind of these warrants they used, teachers' practical knowledge was interpreted to take two different epistemic statuses: “practicable” knowledge and “praxial” knowledge.
References
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