Teachers in a classroom are the experts in a series of interrelated areas of knowledge and practice, such as classroom management, motivating pupils, accomplishing curriculum, conducting assessment, and they orchestrate and implement their pedagogical expertise in their unique ways (Baumfield, Hall & Wall 2013). Often this knowledge is called ‘practical knowledge’, ‘knowledge in action’ or ‘practical theory’. However, the variety and the use of the terms is not systematic and practical theory has often been used interchangeably with practical knowledge (Buitnik 2009). Stenberg (2011) defines teacher’s  practical theory as a concept that expands practical knowledge also to teacher’s personal beliefs, values, and understandings that guide teacher’s pedagogical action in a classroom.

Teachers use practical theory as a framework of their everyday work, but it also creates the mirror for teachers’ reflection on their teaching (He and Levin 2008; Stenberg 2014).Recently many studies have paid attention to the development of student teachers’ practical theory (i.e. Buitnik 2009; Chant 2002;  He & Levin 2008;  He, Levin & Yongning 2011; Stenberg 2011) but there are only a few studies that have either investigated the development of the practical theory of experienced teachers (Gatbonton 2009). To develop school pedagogies it is important to find new ways which support also experienced teachers to reflect their practical theory.

In this paper, we zoom into the pedagogy of one classroom. In our joint investigation, we want to deepen our collective and individual understanding how pupils’ perspectives and experiences can foster the teacher’s pedagogical thinking and practices.

Photo-elicitation, especially, has been used to enhance informant’s engagement in interviews, challenge participants, provide nuances, trigger memories and lead to new perspectives and explanations (Lapenta 2011).

 A body of other research methods has also taken advantage of these methods and engaged children and young people in documenting and reflecting upon their experiences through drawings, map making, arts-based activities, digital photographs, or video recordings. Visual approaches are reported to be exciting for children and they have enabled investigations into new and different contexts and allowed new light to be shed on old debates (Baumfield, Hall & Wall 2013). Visual approaches also encourage diverse modes of participation. Here, pupils do not have to rely only on written or spoken words (Dean 2007; Moss et al. 2007).

 Especially the use of photographs have been identified as particularly helpful for pupils to document and communicate their perspective of what makes a meaningful classroom experience (Clark 2010; Cook and Hess 2007; Kumpulainen et al. 2013; Lipponen, Kumpulainen & Paananen, in press; Smith, Duncan, and Marshall 2005). The use of photographs have also been reported to help young people talk about their experiences rather than discuss something in the abstract (Cook and Hess 2007). Photographs taken by pupils can stimulate conversations in which participants share and consider different perspectives (Kaplan, Lewis, and Mumba 2007).

This paper is based on an action research study in which we engaged children in documenting their classroom life with digital cameras and in reflecting on them in joint discussions with their peers, with their teacher and with student teachers. We focus on two issues:

1. What constitutes meaningful experiences of the classroom pedagogy from the pupils’ perspective?

 2. How can pupils contribute in a process of developing the teacher’s practical theory(and pedagogical actions) by taking photos of classroom events that they consider meaningful?

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