Consequences Governing
3.2 Philosophy and the meaning of knowledge
As Pring (2000) states the object of study within educational research is ‘educational practice’. W. Carr (1995) draws attention to the way that ‘educational practice’ is used to refer to,
… an activity undertaken in order to acquire certain capacities and skills (‘teaching practice’) and to an activity which demonstrates that these competencies and skills have been acquired (‘good practice’) (p 61) It is further contrasted with a third view, that of taking a purely ‘theoretical’ view of education which W. Carr (1995) demonstrates is incoherent unless it is recognized that all practice is necessarily theory-laden – in two ways, in that a teacher has to operate within a conceptual framework and that also a teacher can be guided by a theory which they believe will be helpful in their practice.
W. Carr (1995) further concludes,
… educational practice can never be guided by theory alone. This is because ‘theory’, whether implicit and tacit or explicit and overt, is always a set of
Research Approach
Sociology
(The knowledge context)
Method
(Practical knowledge and data)
Psychology (Personal knowledge)
Philosophy
(The meaning of knowledge)
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general beliefs, while ‘practice’ always involves taking action in a particular situation. Although practice may be guided by some implicit theoretical principles about what, in general, ought to be done, the decision to invoke or apply such principles in any particular situation cannot itself be guided or determined by theoretical beliefs. (p63)
W. Carr (1995) then goes on to argue that an educational practice is not a matter of ‘knowing how’ to do something (teach) in the form that Ryle (1978) sets out. Ryle (1978) makes the distinction between ‘knowing how’ and ‘knowing that’ with the former being in a sense prior to the latter so that the formulation of knowledge in language about educational practice follows the demonstration of that knowledge in the actions of the teacher. Additionally W.
Carr (1995) argues that educational practice is an ethical activity in that it intrinsically relates to notions of ‘good’. The teacher’s practice needs to be a series of actions that are both efficacious and worthwhile. This point is reiterated by D. Carr (2003),
… good education and teaching are expressive not of some theory-based repertoire of technical skills and competences, but of a fundamental form of moral association in which all human agents are engaged by virtue of social membership. (p266)
Taking as the basic unit of educational research the ‘educational practice’ might well mean to posit this as the ‘fact’ that is to be explained. This entails claims about a social reality
containing social ‘facts’ that exist independently of the observer and therefore need to be shown to be based on evidence. However this social reality might also be described as
complex. Radford (2008) describes the social reality of the school classroom as multifaceted with a multitude of levels of analysis including parts that are unstructured, parts with an historical context and containing elements within it of ‘causal’ or explanatory type relations.
Pring (2000) argues,
An educational practice … is a transaction between a teacher and a learner within
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a framework of agreed purposes and underlying procedural values (p.28)
This builds upon the framework set by Peters (1974) who defines education as the,
… intentional bringing about of a desirable state of mind in a morally unobjectionable manner. (p.27)
and
… for ‘education’ implies that a man’s outlook is transformed by what he knows.
(p.31)
This is also repeated in D. Carr (2003),
… education and teaching are construed as moral relations in which positive self- transformation is presupposed to improvement of others … (p266)
Social reality is distinct from physical reality in the sense argued by Searle (1999) as it is
‘observer-dependent’. Searle (1999) has three components for a social reality that then becomes an institutional reality (as would be occurring within a school – the setting for the educational practices) that together describe how it can be observer-dependent and also in a meaningful way – objective. Searle (1999) begins with the concept of intentionality.
Intentionality is the,
… general term for all the various forms by which the mind can be directed at, or be about, or of, objects and states of affairs in the world. (p. 85)
And then he adds,
Whenever you have people co-operating, you have collective intentionality. (p.
120)
Then by giving a relationship, or an object, or a set of social arrangements a function we assign meanings to our social world that combine a form of causal explanation with a teleological one – a purpose. In this way argues Searle (1999) we build up the picture of our social world such that it is meaningful to us in the way that the physical world is causally
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meaningful. Finally we then assign rules and define the activity by the rules that operate within it. Thus, as a consequence of these three moves we have a ‘constructed’ social world that is ‘real’.
Thus Searle (1999) and Pring (2004) have argued that it is possible to have a social reality that is both independent and observer-dependent. It is independent in the sense that Pring describes namely that there is an objective process that must be followed in order to make truthful claims about that social reality. Pring (2004) argues these that,
First, it signifies that what is said is in tune with the world as it really is; it is not product of my (purely subjective) whim or wishes. Second, an enquiry is
‘objective’ in that it takes the necessary and appropriate steps to get at that
objective state of affairs … they include, for example, examination of the evidence, testing one’s conclusions against experience, ensuring that the account is coherent and not self-contradictory, subjecting it to the critical scrutiny of others. (p.213) This meshes with the case made by Searle (1999) that the nature of social reality necessarily contains the notion that it is structured by human minds but in a way that is not the
personalised achievement of each of us. As Searle (1999) describes the issue in its philosophically technical terms,
Our main problem … is to explain how there can be an epistemically objective social reality that is partly constituted by an ontologically subjective set of attitudes. (p.113) Searle (1999) develops the theory of 'background' to explain how socially constructed reality operates without an existence independent of agents.
Evidence means the presentation of empirical data to justify, refute or verify knowledge claims. These knowledge claims will be presented in the form of theory and will need to be tested once they are translated into the discourse that enables them to be situated within the teacher’s reflective practice. As Pring (2000) says there is a need to ‘institutionalise
criticism’ to enable this process to occur.
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Then to justify what sorts of evidence support such claims there needs to be an agreed process. A process that sets out the agreed rules for matching and justifying the forms that evidence can take which answer the arguments that the sceptical or critical reader would make.
Therefore the presentation of the evidence must have both an internal coherence and an external one – it must be true to itself and to the shared social reality.
Key to the nature of the claims is the status of their truth and therefore what knowledge we gain from accepting them as substantiated. It is a qualified correspondence view of truth in the sense that although it is the case that the reality being investigated may be so complex that any one person’s view necessarily may be discrepant with another’s nevertheless there still remains a reality to which all the knowledge claims are directed.
Peters (1977) describes Dewey’s combination of a ‘structured’ reality within an
‘intentionalist’ framework as a restructuring of experiences which add to the meaning of the experience and which also increase the ability for the experiencing agent to direct the course of subsequent experiences.
This adds the final piece to the complicated jigsaw puzzle that makes the educational research rationale. This links the ‘what’ to the ‘how’ and the ‘why’.
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Figure 11: The Educational Research Rationale
Research needs to be practitioner orientated so that it both utilises the ‘insider’ knowledge of the teacher and it is ‘useful’ for the development and improvement of the profession. Being useful need not mean ‘what works’ rather it could just as well mean that which clarifies a problematic area or re-defines a situation – an increase in knowledge may not lead directly to a measurable outcome as it may impact in a different time-frame and in an altered context to that directly referred to in the research.
Educational settings are complex in the sense that the unpredictability of these social situations with their range of actors, intentions, beliefs, social experiences means that the view that clear causal relations can be predicted and controlled such that outcomes can be socially engineered is not possible. It is possible nevertheless to hypothesise causal links of a weaker nature which account for aspects of the complexity as it is still possible to come to
Making the function meaningful in a purposeful as well as causal way – making sense of the educational
practice
Assigning rules to the educational practice that
are a shared understanding with others – constructing the
educational practice Intentionality – the
giving of a function to an aspect of our reality – an
educational practice
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conclusions that are stronger in possibility than others. This is both a common-sense and a research based aspect of knowledge because without it the possibility of teaching as defined above would not be possible.
Pring (2000) says
The background knowledge of social context and structure is a kind of causal factor as it enters into the determining intentions of the agent. But this will only explain what happens in a tentative and provisional way, since the growing consciousness if the learner enables him to overcome what otherwise would be determinants of his behaviour. (p. 70)
This applies both to the pupils and to the teachers as they are both learners within the classroom. The teachers will operate with a range of common-sense and technical
explanations about their experiences which will need to be explored as the starting point of the enquiry. The development of this discourse so that it describes, explores and investigates the shared social reality of the educational practice will become the evidence of the research.
The theory that is derived from the investigation of this discourse will need to enhance and illuminate the practitioner derived discourse such that it can restructure and direct the understandings of the teachers and improve practice.
This form of practical knowledge that is in a form of flux, the teacher co-constructs with others in their learning environment through the interplay of formal codified knowledge, contextual, shared experience and reflection at different levels of sophistication is also referred to as ‘praxis’ – Aristotle’s practical knowledge in the tripartite division of knowledge that he described (Barnes, 2000)
89 3.3 Sociology and the context for knowledge
It is possible to make greater sense of this philosophical background by using Bourdieu's (Jenkins, 1992) sociological concept of 'habitus'. Atkinson (2010) summarises habitus as,
... the agent's action-generating predispositions and schemes of perception based on a tacit anticipation of objective probability. (p 331)
This study intends to use the notions of teacher professionalism, special education, the culture of the school and self-identity as the means to illuminate how the teacher adapts to the changes in their educational practice that follow from the transfer from mainstream to special school education. These are the teacher’s ‘schemes of perception’ that they use to make sense of their world and also that frames their actions in that world.
The 'communities of practice' theory of Wenger (1998) helps to provide a way of realising how the 'habitus' structures actions and also works to support the 're-structuring' of future actions. The dispositions are both durable in that they last over time and are transposable across a range of settings (Maton, p 51). This dynamic process is situated within the 'field' or school and is affected by the power relationships that determine the roles of the teachers and their access to resources and control. This in turn will be moderated by the individual teachers 'store' of cultural capital which is used by them to negotiate within the school's culture. This process will be experienced by the teacher as the way in which they understand their teaching role within the school and then how they evaluate their effectiveness in that role.
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In Communities of Practice theory this process is explored in depth as it focusses on both these aspects of the teacher's practice - their identity and their competence. Wenger (1998) states,
... The primary focus of this theory is on learning as social participation.
Participation here refers not just to local events of engagement in certain activities with certain people, but to a more encompassing process of being active
participants in the practices of social communities and constructing identities in relation to these communities. ( p 4)
It is through the membership of a social community and participating in its practices that a person constructs their identity and develops competency.
Becoming good at something involves developing specialised sensitivities, an aesthetic sense, and refined perceptions that are brought to bear on making judgements about the qualities of a product or action. That these are shared in a community of practice is what allows participants to negotiate the appropriateness of what they do. (p 81)
and
... a community of practice acts as a locally negotiated regime of competence.
( p137)
Wenger (1998) is arguing that the teacher joins the community of practice that is the school through their on-going engagement with their colleagues in what might be a number of sub-communities. They then develop both their identity as a fellow teacher and their competence in their professional role. Both are structured within the community of practice. The
community of practice therefore operates as the 'habitus' or the institutional 'background' to the individual teachers development ' trajectory' as they begin as the new comer and through time become the experienced hand. This helps Wenger’s (1998) theory as the Community of Practice theory does not explicitly situate or contextualize itself into the politicized
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environments when it plays out where differentiated roles, meanings and access to resources are factors in the ‘learning process’.
Wenger (1998) describes three dimensions of competence which are also dimensions of identity. They help to illustrate how the 'habitus' operates. Firstly there is the skills and knowledge that enable social interactions to take place and then through which help can be asked, support sought and feedback provided. The power relationships that roles provide within the school will also affect this process - the 'field'.
For Wenger (1998),
We become who we are by being able to play a part in relations of engagement that constitute our community. (p 152)
The second dimension is one that relates to the task that the teacher has. This places a very clear perspective and boundary what they have to do and be. Wenger (1998) says,
... an identity in this sense manifests as a tendency to come up with certain interpretations, to engage in certain actions, to make certain choices, to value certain experiences - all by virtue of participating in certain enterprises. (p 153) The third dimension is one that refers to the availability of a shared repertoire of actions that the teacher can draw upon and then adapt for themselves. Wenger (1998) says,
As an identity, this translates into a personal set of events, references, memories, and experiences that create individual relations of negotiability with respect to the repertoire of a practice. (p 153)
The study will then explore teacher's responses in interviews to their reflections on the change processes and how they affected these two central concepts, the teacher’s identity and their competence in their evaluations of their personal experiences.
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Figure 12: Influences on the Teacher’s Role
‘Pedagogy’ is a concept that brings together each of these aspects of the teacher’s world and describes the dynamic process that occurs within the classroom which combines them.
The work of Hart et al (2004) presents a version of pedagogy that builds on the notion of
‘transformability’ in the learner as being central to its meaning. This is then the teacher’s
‘moral’ purpose. They further argue that the teacher needs to have a sense of the power of the present to affect the future in relation to the assumptions they hold as to the capacity for learning in the pupils. They argue that the expectation that the teacher holds relating to their view as to the learner’s ‘ability’ can operate as a self-fulfilling prophesy in that it then forms the ‘future world’ and co-creates the outcome it has predicted with the collusion of the
Identity Competencies
Professionalism
Teacher
Role
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learner. They posit an alternative. If the teacher operates without a fixed notion of the learner’s ability then they will necessarily have to understand the complex play of internal and external forces that influence learning capacity. This is their model,
Figure 13: Transforming learning capacity: the teacher’s part of the task (Hart et al p169)
This model incorporates,
The range and quality of learning opportunities provided, and the relationships that support and shape learning opportunities, interact with internal subjective states to create and constrain capacity to learn. Second, it has a collective as well as an individual dimension. Capacity to learn is contained within and constituted by how a group of young people operate and work together as a group, and by the opportunities and resources made available to them as a group. Third, it includes internal resources
The teacher’s choices and actions – made to bring about
External forces
Expanded learning opportunities
Limits lifted
Conditions enhanced
Internal forces
Enhanced states of mind
Limits lifted
Increased resources (knowledge, skills and understanding)
Increased learning capacity affects
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and states of mind in addition to the purely cognitive-intellectual: the capacity to learn in any situation is affected, for example, by the emotional states and feelings of social acceptance and belonging in the school or class group. Fourth, the cognitive aspects are not mysterious inner entities, but are skills and understandings that can be, and have been, learned. Fifth, learning capacity is transformable because the forces that shape it, individually and collectively are, to an extent, within teachers’ control.
The teachers recognize that they have the power to strengthen and, in time, transform learning capacity by acting systematically to lift limits on learning, to expand and enhance learning opportunities and to create conditions that encourage and empower young people to use the opportunities available to the more fully. (p166-167)
Which then leads to a more complex picture of the structure of the educational practice in which understanding and action around the affective, social and intellectual purposes of the learning task are clarified and incorporated within the experience. The experience is one that the teacher and learner are co-creating, is based on a trust and equality within the learning encounter and is open-ended in its expected outcomes as the learning will be the created out of their respective contributions.
Mezirow’s (2000) model of the adult learner is helpful in understanding the process that the
Mezirow’s (2000) model of the adult learner is helpful in understanding the process that the