Teaching for Self or Others? Lessons from An Educator's Log

Source: Teaching Education, Volume 20, Issue 2, pages 163 - 174 (June 2009).

In this article, the author presents the findings of a self-study into his teaching practices as a sociology-of-education lecturer working in the pre-service teacher education program of a regional university in New South Wales, Australia. The principal data source is a logbook of the teaching practices which characterized several tutorial classes taught in 2007.
To understand these practices, the article draws upon Aristotle's concepts of techne and praxis.
It also draws upon Bourdieu's understanding of practices as socially constructed and contested.

The article situates tensions between more technicist and praxis-oriented teaching approaches to pre-service teacher education, within the teacher education and university contexts in which these classes were undertaken. In doing so, the article reveals tensions between assessment-driven and more authentic teaching practices, and more student- and teacher-centered teaching practices. The article also shows how accountability pressures within tertiary settings have led to a more instrumental approach to tertiary teaching.

The author concludes that there is a need for greater attention to the conditions of work which influence teacher educators' practices, rather than fetishising individualistic instantiations of such practices.