Understanding Pedagogy

Developing a critical approach to teaching and learning

Michael Waring, Carol Evans

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317597476
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

What is meant by pedagogy?

How does our conception of pedagogy inform good teaching and learning?

Pedagogy is a complex concept of which student and practising teachers need to have an understanding, yet there remain many ambiguities about what the term means, and how it informs learning in the classroom. Understanding Pedagogy examines pedagogy in a holistic way, supporting a more critical and reflective understanding of teaching and learning. It considers pedagogy as a concept that covers not just teaching approaches and pupil-teacher relationships but one which also embraces and informs educational theory, personal learning styles, assessment, and relationships inside and outside the classroom.

A detailed consideration of what it means to be a professional in the contemporary climate, Understanding Pedagogy challenges student and practising teachers to reappraise their understanding and practice through effectively linking theory and practice. Key issues explored include the importance of understanding a learning styles profile, the application of cognitive neuroscience to teaching, personalised learning, assessment and feedback, and what we mean by critical reflection. Using the Personal Learning Styles Pedagogy, the authors make explicit the integration of theory and practice and the many decisions and selections that teachers make, their implications for what is being taught and learnt, how learners are positioned in the pedagogical process, and ultimately, how learning can be improved.

Understanding Pedagogy will be essential reading for student and practising teachers, as well those on Education Studies courses and undertaking masters level courses, involved in the endeavour of understanding what constitutes effective teaching and learning.

Chapter 1 Making sense of teacher professionalism

DOI: 10.4324/9781315746159-1

Overview

In this chapter we will identify what it is to be a twenty-first-century teaching professional, and address the question of what practice requires teachers to learn. How we perceive professionalism within our immediate and wider school roles affects the way we enact professionalism in our practice. Examining more sophisticated conceptions of professionalism, we will focus attention on the relationship between and the development of the following:

• teachers' conceptions of teaching: the notion of the professional teacher
• a critical professional identity
• micro-political literacy
• integrated understandings of the nature of knowledge
• professional development orientation: teacher capacity for autonomous professional development.

Defining professionalism

There are many definitions of professionalism, focusing on different aspects of the concept. Higgs and Titchen (2001, p. 5) outline a holistic view of professionalism, focusing on what teachers do both as an external and internally mediated process.

Professional practice . . . is a rare blend of people-centred and interactive processes, accountability and professional standards, practice wisdom, professional artistry, openness to knowledge growth and practice development and engagement in professional journeys towards expertise.

Alternatively, others have focused on how individuals make sense of and enact professionalism in their practice, seeing a commitment to self and organizational development as an important dimension of this:

Professionality [is]: an ideologically, attitudinally, intellectually and epistemologically-based stance on the part of an individual, in relation to the practice of the profession to which s/he belongs, and which influences her/his professional practice

L. Evans, 2008a, p. 26

Professionalism means different things to different people depending on their specific occupational groups; it reflects the perceptions of a person's group formed by their intended purpose, status, and nature of expertise, as well as their code of practice. Professionalism can be considered socially constructed (Ifanti and Fotopoulopu, 2011): ‘something which defines and articulates the quality and character of people's actions within that group’ (A. Hargreaves and Goodson, 1996, p. 4); a ‘consensus of the norms, which may apply to being and behaving as a professional within personal, organizational and broader political conditions’ (Day, 1999, p. 13) ‘subject to geographical and cultural differences in interpretation, which themselves may change over time’ (Helsby, 1995, p. 317), as noted in David Hargreaves's (2000) professionalism continuum (pre-professional, autonomous, collegial, post-professional or postmodern).

Day and Gu (2007) have argued that teachers' professionalism is closely related to educational policy reforms, which have the potential to diminish or redefine teachers' professionalism, thus suggesting that professionalism is externally driven. However, this would be to overstate the power of policy reforms in impacting on teachers' sense of professionalism and positioning the teacher as a passive receiver rather than as a creative thinker and actor. Although various notions of new teacher professionalism exist, ‘it is probably best to see all these various positions as competing versions of teacher professionalism for the twenty-first century, rather than seeing anyone as fitting an essentialist definition of professionalism and others as detracting from it’ (Whitty, 2001, p. 160).

Regardless of how one defines professionalism, it is how teachers enact professionalism that is important. However, for many, professionalism is inseparable from notions of professional identity and beliefs about what it is to be a good teacher (Lasky, 2005). There is a dichotomy between perceptions of professionalism focused on externally imposed perceptions of a profession's collective remit and responsibilities (whereby professionalism is imposed from above in defining the boundaries of the profession's actual and potential authority, power and influence) and an internal perception of professionalism focused on the attitudes and behaviours of individuals in relation to their profession. Professionalism and professional culture are often seen as intertwined; however L. Evans (2008a, 2008b) has argued that professional culture is more attitudinal (the response of people towards the professionalism) whereas professionalism is more functional in that it defines how individuals operate.

In sum, notions of what it is to be a teaching professional are constantly shifting and open to individual interpretation. How teachers perceive professionalism matters in the way they enact professionalism in the construction of their professional identity, and in their teaching which impacts on students' attainment (Sammons, et al., 2007). Of significance is A. Wilson et al.'s (2013) description of the development of professionalism as transformational rather than acquisitional, which acknowledges, thus, the importance of understanding and facilitating a more sophisticated notion of professionalism for the teacher of today.This will be discussed further in this chapter.

Key elements of professionalism

Hoyle (1975) made the distinction between professionalism and professionality, describing the former as comprising status-related elements of teachers' work and the latter as constituting the knowledge, skills and procedures that teachers use in their work.The important distinction between being professional (which implies the importance of training and development of specialist knowledge and skills, observance of standards, and the exercising of autonomy in decision making), and behaving professionally (which implies dedication and commitment) has been noted by many (e.g. Day, 1999; D. Hargreaves, 2000; Helsby, 1995). As part of being professionals, how teachers perceive themselves to be seen through others' eyes is important in framing their professional identity, or identities.

Linda Evans (2008a, 2008b) distinguished between demanded or requested professionalism (specific professional demands or requests made of an occupational group or individual workforce – usually by employers), prescribed professionalism (reflecting envisaged or recommended professional service levels perceived by analysts); and enacted professionalism. Linda Evans (2008a, 2008b) has argued the importance of enacted professionalism as the only meaningful conception of professionalism – that is, professional practice which is observed, perceived and interpreted. For example, professional standards for teachers and what it means to be a teacher cannot be imposed, they need to be owned and overseen by the profession itself (Sachs, 2003).

The need for more attention to be placed on becoming a teacher as part of teacher training and professional development opportunities has been identified (Wilkins, 2011). Early-career teachers in a study conducted by C. Evans (2014) found that there was little discussion about the teacher they wanted to be and how to get there, although such discussions – about what it was to be a teacher and specifically how to be the teacher they wanted to be – the student teachers felt to be highly valuable. Wilkins mirrors this finding as represented in the following quote from one of the student teachers in his study:

It's the bit that no-one ever teaches you, about how you grow into being a teacher. On the PGCE, my Induction Mentor, it all seems a bit mechanistic. Maybe you can't teach it, you just have to grow into it. (J)

Wilkins, 2011, p. 400

Traditional definitions of teacher professionalism have emphasized the role of training in providing teachers with expert knowledge of subject, pedagogy and students and stressed that such a position as teacher affords a degree of autonomy over practice and professional standards (Atkinson and Claxton, 2000; Day, 1999; Foucault, 1980; A. Wilson et al., 2013), although this is increasingly contested within the context of twenty-first-century learning environments.

Drawing on Barnett's (2011) conception of a will to offer, teachers have the responsibility to contribute to the knowledge base on learning and teaching at both subject and generic levels and to exercise expert judgement based on specialist knowledge. A central dimension of professionalism is that of concern for people and a service ethic requiring strong relational skills and a desire to enhance, empower, and develop others. Wilkins (2011) draws on the work of Parsons (1937) and Lortie (1975) in his conception of psychic rewards, which highlights the altruistic nature of professionalism. Trust is very much a cornerstone of professional practice: ‘Professionalism requires professionals to be worthy of that trust’ (Evetts, 2006, p. 134). Such trust requires a shared understanding of ethical and moral dimensions of professional practice within organizational contexts along with a clear sense of individual and collective responsibility for the welfare of all.

Professionalism involves the use of expert and wise judgement (A. Wilson et al., 2013) predicated on the development of appropriate professional values (Furlong, 2000b), self-awareness, and responsibility for self. ‘At their best, teachers are also able to reflect on and evaluate their practices, and to make rationally and ethically defensible judgements that go beyond compliance, pragmatic constraints or ideological preferences’ (Pollard, 2010, p. 2). Central to conceptions of professionalism is attention to ethical considerations.

Higgs and Titchen (2001) in their interpretation of professionalism have emphasized the importance of teacher sensitivity to context at local, national, and international levels and have argued that underpinning key elements of professionalism (people-centred, context-relevant, wise, and authentic practice) is the professional artistry of the teacher: ‘the self we bring to professional practice, is a creative entity, meeting individual needs with individual solutions’(Higgs and Titchen, 2001, p. 14). A capacity for autonomous professional development is also identified as a key component of professionalism (Day, 1999; Ifanti and Fotopoulopou, 2011; Pollard, 2010; Webb et al., 2004; Wilkins, 2011).Higgs and Titchen use the term interactional professional to highlight the role of the teacher in critiquing and developing his/her own practice in interaction with others:

Interactional professionals will be equipped with generic skills (including skills in communication, problem-solving, evaluation and investigation, self-directed learning and interpersonal interaction) which will enable them to engage in lifelong learning and professional review and development, as well as responsible, self-critical autonomous practice of their professional role. They will be capable of interacting effectively with their context in a manner which is transformational, facilitative, interdependent and symbiotic (i.e. both influenced by and influencing that environment).

Higgs and Hunt, 1999, p.15

Awareness, capacity, and commitment to change to enhance practice are also seen as key elements of professionalism_ ‘To develop professionally people need to recognise a new way of doing things as a better way of doing things. This recognition of a ‘better way’ is a key component within the process whereby people develop professionally’ (L. Evans, 2010, p. 7).

Collaboration with colleagues impacts teachers' professionalism and professional development (Ifanti and Fotopoulopou, 2011). However, it is not just about collaboration with colleagues within and beyond the immediate environs of the school, it is also about teachers practicing learning with students and collaborating with outside agencies, parents and wider learning networks (e.g. government bodies; professional associations; school networks; higher education institutions (Day, 1999)).

Furthermore, increasing emphasis is being placed on the teacher as part of their professional duties not only to engage in professional d...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table Of Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Making sense of teacher professionalism
• 2 Making sense of pedagogy
• 3 Making sense of educational theory: a critical introduction
• 4 The application of educational theory: an integrated approach using the Personal Learning Styles Pedagogy
• 5 Making sense of styles: a critical introduction
• 6 The application of styles: dispelling the misconceptions Appendix to chapter 6
• 7 Making sense of participatory pedagogies: a critical introduction
• 8 The application of a participatory pedagogy: using the Personal Learning Styles Pedagogy
• 9 Making sense of assessment and feedback
• 10 Making sense of critical reflection Appendix to chapter 10
• 11 The Personal Learning Styles Pedagogy implementation framework
• 12 Making sense of future challenges
• Bibliography
• Index