Pedagogy, Education, Praxis

Syften

The international collaborative research program ‘Pedagogy, Education and Praxis’ has three kinds of aims:

1. theoretical aims concerning the exploration and critical development of key concepts and associated understandings, from different educational and research traditions, of pedagogy, educational science and educational studies, and social and educational praxis and practice;
2. practical aims concerning the quality and transformation of educational praxis in settings including education, teacher education and the continuing professional development of teachers, in relation to a variety of contemporary educational problems and issues, as they emerge in a variety of educational contexts at different levels of education and in different national contexts; and
3. strategic aims of:

• encouraging the dialogue between different traditions of theory, research and practice in education;
• encouraging reflexivity in this dialogue to help us understand the origins and formation of our own understandings, presuppositions and traditions;
• encouraging the development of critical praxis in pedagogy, aiming to foster the development of new kinds of transformative education and upbringing appropriate for the changed times and circumstances of late modernity; and
• fostering collaboration and the development of networks between scholars interested in these problems and issues across traditions.

Forskningsfrågor

Research Questions concerning the overarching research topic ‘Praxis development throughout the teaching career’:

1. What is educational praxis? Here the aim is to articulate a coherent theoretical account of ‘educational praxis’ and of what might count as ‘the development of educational praxis’ that can be used to critically examine contemporary educational and pedagogical practices and to inform empirical studies of how, in different national contexts, educational praxis develops through various stages of the teaching career, from initial teacher education through to the continuing professional development of experienced teachers and teacher leaders.
2. How, in different national contexts, is good professional practice (‘praxis’) being understood and experienced by teachers? Here the aim is to explore differences in the ways educational praxis is understood by teachers at various stages of the teaching career, from initial teacher education through continuing professional development to experienced teachers.
3. How, in different national contexts, is good professional development (praxis development) being understood and experienced by teachers? Here the aim is to investigate how teachers’ capacity for educational praxis does (or does not) develop at various stages of the teaching career, from initial teacher education through continuing professional development to experienced teachers.
4. How, in different national contexts, are the changing cultural, social, political and material conditions for praxis and praxis development affecting the educational practices of teachers? Here the aim is to explore how the changing conditions for pedagogy and education are differently forming and transforming praxis and praxis development at various stages of the teaching career, from initial teacher education through continuing professional development to experienced teachers.
5. What research approaches facilitate praxis and praxis development in different international contexts? Here the aim is to examine existing approaches to ‘practice-based’ and ‘praxis-related’ research (for example, educational action research) and develop a more adequate understanding both of the forms of research that can promote the development of praxis, and of the conditions under which this kind of ‘praxis research’ might be conducted (and by whom), in different educational settings.