Cases are of major importance in several research approaches to teacher professionalism.

For Oevermann (structural approach), a case is a living practice that enters a state of crisis. The professional needs to do both, to understand the specific structure of the case and to subsume the case under general (scientific) knowledge (cf. Oevermann 1996, 126). Helsper has further developed this approach by conceptualizing structural antinomies of teaching. The relation between the reconstruction of a case and its subsumption is described as one of those antinomies characterizing the work of teachers (cf. Helsper 2004, 70-88).

Schön (reflective-based approach) argues against the model of technical rationality which describes professionalism as the application of theory and technique in practice situations (cf. Schön 1983, 21-69). His point is that performance can lead to surprise caused by the discovery of new aspects of a case or a situation. Then, the practitioner will begin to reflect in respectively on action.

Finally, Paseka et al. offer a third perspective by following the theory of structuration proposed by Giddens (cf. Giddens 1984, 25-26). Thus, practice situations structure the actions of teachers. At the same time, teachers use structures – rules and resources – in practice situations. On that basis, Paseka et al. describe five domains as fields of competencies, in which structure and agency are related in a dialectic way (cf. Paseka et al. 2011). For this paper, the domain Personal Mastery, that is asking how knowledge is used by teachers when working with cases (cf. Paseka 2011) is of specific interest.

In all these approaches, developing and using a case perspective can be seen as a structural feature of teacher professionalism (cf. also Paseka/Hinzke in press, 15). That’s why although data collection takes place in Germany, the subject described is a constant challenge for teachers of all types of schools around the world. However, it hasn’t yet been analyzed in a detailed, empirical way.

Against this background, the paper presents an explorative, reconstructive study about present practice of teachers. Its first intention is to investigate if teachers have an idea of a case at all. The further research questions are: What do teachers define as cases? How do they interpret them? In which way do they use a case perspective in practice situations? How do they use structures – rules and resources – when taking a case perspective and how do practice situations structure teaching? 

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