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Teaching as a disciplineJohn Loughran & Tom RussellPublished online: 29 May 2009.

To cite this article: John Loughran & Tom Russell (2009) Teaching as a discipline, Teachers andTeaching: theory and practice, 15:2, 183-187

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Teachers and Teaching: theory and practiceVol. 15, No. 2, April 2009, 183187

ISSN 1354-0602 print/ISSN 1470-1278 online 2009 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/13540600902875282http://www.informaworld.com

EDITORIAL

Teaching as a discipline

Taylor and FrancisCTAT_A_387700.sgm10.1080/13540600902875282Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice1354-0602 (print)/1470-1278 (online)Original Article2009Taylor & Francis152000000April 2009JohnLoughranjohn.loughran@education.monash.edu.auIt is interesting to look back at the development of understandings of teaching in theacademic literature. Historically, it seems as though teaching has long suffered fromtwo competing views of practice. The first is associated with the delivery of informa-tion and the perceived role of the teacher as an expert of delivery a technical rationalapproach (Schn, 1983). The other is a view of teaching as a problematic enterprisein which the skills, knowledge, and ability of the teacher is based on expertise that isdeveloped and enhanced through reflection on experience over time (Korthagen,2001). In the early 1990s, a concerned group of teacher educators began to addressthese dichotomous views by choosing to research their own practice in order to shedmore light on the complex nature of teaching (and as a consequence, that of teachingteaching). This led to the development of what is now the well-established fieldof Self-study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices (see, e.g., Hamilton,Pinnegar, Russell, Loughran, & LaBoskey, 1998; Russell, 2004; Samaras, 2006). Asthe field of self-study has developed, the resultant focus on the nature and knowledgeof teaching has further highlighted the pitfalls of dichotomous perspectives on prac-tice. Teacher educators researching their own practice through a self-study methodol-ogy have illustrated how their practice is impacted when teaching itself becomesthe focus of their endeavors (see, e.g., Berry, 2007; Brandenburg, 2008; Clarke &Erickson, 2004; Fitzgerald, Farstad, & Deemer, 2002; Hamilton, 2004; Russell, 1997).As a consequence, the emerging push for the development and articulation of a peda-gogy of teacher education (Korthagen & Kessels, 1999; Loughran, 2006) has meantthat what teaching is, how it is described and practiced, and how it is taught in teachereducation have become increasingly important. In many ways, this focus on teachinghas helped to highlight how traditional academic structures can suppress and under-value knowledge of practice so much so that a technical rational approach to teachingis, in some instances and through some practices, allowed to continue unchallenged.Perhaps the challenge is to begin to think about teaching as a discipline in its ownright?

This special issue of Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice takes up thechallenge of examining teaching as a discipline and continues the growing tradition ofthe journal for exploring issues associated with teaching in ways that are designed tohelp in developing a deeper understanding and valuing of teaching from an interna-tional perspective. Suggesting that teaching might be considered as a discipline is nodoubt provocative, but in so doing, this special issue creates new ways of thinkingabout and examining teaching drawing on a range of views from leading scholars inthe field.

It is important to note from the outset that this special issue has been conceptual-ized and structured as an integrated and purposely connected set of papers. Althoughthe papers can of course be read as individual studies, the intention is that they fit

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together in an organized manner designed to help to push and probe different perspec-tives on teaching as a discipline in order to build deeper understandings of thatperspective in concert with the implications for teacher education practices.

The papers build on one another in ways that encourage deeper consideration oftheir particular issue(s) rather than each continually revisiting a central argument inthe way that stand alone papers need to when they are not specifically organized inline with a major theme. Therefore, an important point about these papers is that theyare intended to delve much more deeply into an element of teaching in which theauthor(s) have particular expertise and experience and examine that in light of thenotion of teaching as a discipline. This special issue then opens with a paper by JohnLoughran from Australia that is designed to set the scene for that which follows.

In this first paper of the special issue on teaching as a discipline, Loughran workshis way through ideas about teaching and the nature of disciplines in order to interro-gate not only what comprises a discipline, but also how the contested views about adiscipline could be seen as creating a space for thinking about teaching in that way.He draws attention to the ways in which different traditions influence understandingsabout disciplines and also how language shapes such interpretations. His paperfollows a line of argument that suggests that if teaching is to be understood as complexand problematic, then the teaching of teaching must also be a complex and highlyskilled task. Hence, teacher education as the home of teaching teaching requires schol-ars of that field. This paper sets out to raise issues and concerns about teaching andteacher education that are then taken up in much more detail by the authors thatfollow.

The next paper is by John Mason from the UK who suggests that teaching shouldbe understood as disciplined enquiry based on the need for ongoing study of oneselfin order to be sensitive to learners, to the sense that learners are making of situations,and into the subject matter of the discipline. Mason makes a very strong case forteaching to be viewed as disciplined enquiry through an explication of a number ofinteresting claims based on the expectation that ongoing enquiry requires perspectivesthat include that: the basis for teaching should not be seen as a combination of a store-house of knowledge and a mastery of pedagogic mechanisms; if teachers are to effec-tively direct other peoples attention they must therefore be aware of both what theyare attending to and how they are attending to it; appreciation and understanding ofdifferent topics is not a binary matter; the actions available to learners should be trig-gers for inspection into the origins of, and responses to, those actions. Underpinningthis work, Mason argues that there is a need for teachers to be sensitive to others, andto do so means teachers need to continually refresh the sensitivities to themselves.This occurs through an ongoing development of self-knowledge, which encompassessubject matter epistemology and ontology, pedagogic strategies and didactic tactics,and the psycho-social specifics of the situation.

Masons paper is followed by that of Mieke Lunenberg and Fred Korthagen fromThe Netherlands who discuss what it means to be a professional teacher. Their viewof the professional teacher is based on an understanding that teachers have practicalwisdom and their professional status is embodied in how that practical wisdom isrelated to Theory (with a big T) and experience. The position they take is based on theimportance of viewing the notions of practical wisdom, Theory, and experience asconnected in a triangular model. They consider how different entry points for prac-tices in teacher education can be created through the triangular model and how, in sodoing, the relationship between theory and practice in teacher education can be seen

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from a much broader perspective. Their paper illustrates how, in teacher education,pedagogical approaches can be used to better link practical wisdom, Theory, andexperience so that students of teaching can see into the nature of practice in new andpowerful ways.

Robert V. Bullough (Jr.) and Stefinee Pinnegar from the USA follow Lunenbergand Korthagen and address some of the challenges associated with thinking aboutknowledge in relation to the disciplines by raising the issue of Eudaimonia (happi-ness of teaching) and how important that is in the face of the ongoing threat of perfor-mativity. In a very carefully crafted paper, they kick back against the notion ofteaching as a discipline partly as a consequence of the baggage associated with thelanguage and expectations that disciplines carry and partly as a consequence of theway in which teaching has been treated (historically and socially). They prefer to pushthe boundaries of thinking about teaching in different ways (through Eudaimonia) bylooking into that which they see as the driving force that underpins much of the workof teachers and therefore much of the feelings and actions that shape teaching andlearning. They conclude that it is in the moments of happiness that teachers find mostmeaning in their work and therefore a quest for disciplinary status is not particularlyhelpful for them. Bullough and Pinnegar make clear that pedagogic relationshipsmatter a whole lot more in the work and life of teachers and need to be better recog-nized and more highly valued than the endless push for student test scores as themeasure of achievement.

Geert Kelchtermans from Belgium offers the next paper in this special issue whichfollows on well from the Bullough and Pinnegar paper as he explores the place of self-understanding, vulnerability, and reflection in Who I am in how I teach is themessage: self-understanding, vulnerability and reflection. Kelchtermans views teach-ing as enacted scholarship which, he suggests, implies not only a technical agenda ofeffectiveness (achieving the curriculum goals), but also a complex relationship withothers, characterised by moral responsibilities, political interests and emotional expe-riences. He argues the place of deep reflection in the very being of a teacher andsuggests that a narrative/biographical perspective offers teachers a different languagefor talking about, sharing, and critically challenging what it means (and feels like) tobe a teacher. He sees this situation as being common to both teaching and teachereducation and so begins the transition into a consideration of the important relation-ships between teaching and teacher education that are taken up by Grossman,Hammerness, and McDonald.

The next paper Redefining teaching, re-imagining teacher education by PamGrossman, Karen Hammerness, and Morva McDonald from the USA acts as a shiftingpoint in this special issue by taking ideas and issues about teaching and consideringthem in terms of teacher education. The authors push forward with an argument aboutimportant future directions for teacher education based on a re-conceptualization ofteaching based on clinical aspects of practice. As they make clear, if clinical practiceis to be taken seriously then teacher educators must add pedagogies of enactment totheir existing repertoires of pedagogies of reflection and investigation. The authorsvisit some of the historical divisions that lie at the heart of much of teacher educationthat need to be addressed including such things as: the curricular divide betweenfoundations and methods courses; and the ever present universityschool divide. Theirpaper closes with a strong case for teacher education to be organized around a coreset of practices in which knowledge, skill, and professional identity are developed,and in so doing teaching might not only be re-conceptualized but be practiced in

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accord with that re-conceptualization and be driven by similar shifts in the nature ofteacher education.

A focus on the teacher educator as scholar and the implications of that for the workof teacher education is taken up by Shawn Bullock from Canada. Bullocks paper,Learning to think like a teacher educator: making the substantive and syntactic struc-tures of teaching explicit through self-study, offers a most compelling account of theshift from teacher to teacher educator. Bullock illustrates well how the role of teachingabout teaching comprises so much more than simply transplanting a school teacherinto a teacher education context. He makes a strong case for the need for teachereducators to be purposeful and explicit models of practice. He describes how hissubstantive knowledge of teaching was unclear when he first moved from schoolteaching to teaching teaching and how he was confronted by that in ways that high-lighted for him the need for teacher educators to have pedagogical content knowledgeof teaching about teaching. His paper demonstrates what it means to be a teachereducation scholar and to honestly respond to the challenge of articulating a pedagogyof teacher education through sustained, systematic, and careful inquiry into personalpractice. Through his ongoing self-study into his development as a teacher educatorhe demonstrates what it means to learn to think like a teacher educator whose curric-ular content is pedagogy. This is a most compelling paper that brings to the surfaceimportant issues about the transition from teacher to teacher educator building nicelyon the work of other scholars associated with this field (e.g., Dinkelman, Margolis, &Sikkenga, 2006; Murray & Male, 2005; Ritter, 2007).

Amanda Berry from Australia extends the exploration of teaching teaching in avery sophisticated manner through her paper Professional self-understanding asexpertise in teaching about teaching. Berry examines in detail how teacher educatorsprofessional knowledge of practice can be developed, articulated, and portrayedin accord with views of a pedagogy of teacher education. She works, in part, fromKelchtermans notion of self-understanding as she conceptualizes teacher educatorsknowledge of practice and argues that it comprises one element of teacher educatorsprofessional knowledge. Through her rigorous and thorough self-study of her practiceas a teacher educator she demonstrates how, as a consequence of her articulation oftensions, she came to develop a strong conceptual framework for analyzing and betterunderstanding her practice as a teacher educator. In accord with the work of Bullock,Berry makes clear that quality in teaching teaching requires understanding teaching ascomplex and problematic and, that in so doing, expertise in teaching teaching is ascholarly endeavor.

Andrea K. Martin and Tom Russell bring this special issue of Teachers and Teach-ing: theory and practice to a close with a paper that pulls together many of the issuesand ideas raised by the other authors in a compelling piece that explores why thinkingabout teaching as a discipline matters in concert with the implications that such anapproach has for teacher education. Through an analysis of their own teaching aboutteaching they outline an interesting range of insights, issues, and questions that emergeas a consequence of considering teaching as a discipline. They work through howteaching and teacher education are too often viewed as simple activities and how theinfluences of the history of schooling and the history of educational research haveinfluenced that thinking. They draw their ideas together through a consideration of therole of parody and paradox in making it difficult to see teaching as a discipline as away of drawing attention to the importance of examining and interrogating teachingand the teaching of teaching.

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Together, these papers offer interesting, challenging, and thought provoking waysof thinking about teaching and teacher education. This special issue is designed to pushthe boundaries of thinking about teaching and teacher education in ways that mightlead to the development of deeper understandings and greater valuing of the nobleprofession. We hope that that is realized now in the research and practice of others.

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Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.Clarke, A., & Erickson, G. (2004). The nature of teaching and learning in self-study. In J.J.

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Dinkelman, T., Margolis, J., & Sikkenga, K. (2006). From teacher to teacher educator:Experiences, expectations, and expatriation. Studying Teacher Education: A Journal ofSelf-study of Teacher Education Practices, 2(1), 523.

Fitzgerald, L.M., Farstad, J.E., & Deemer, D. (2002). What gets mythed in the studentevaluations of their teacher education professors? In J.J. Loughran & T. Russell (Eds.),Improving teacher education practices through self-study (pp. 208221). London:RoutledgeFalmer.

Hamilton, M.L. (2004). Professional knowledge, teacher education and self-study. In J.J.Loughran, M.L. Hamilton, V.K. LaBoskey, & T. Russell (Eds.), International handbookof self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (Vol. 1, pp. 375419).Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.

Hamilton, M.L., Pinnegar, S., Russell, T., Loughran, J.J., & LaBoskey, V. (Eds.). (1998).Reconceptualizing teaching practice: Self-study in teacher education. London: Falmer.

Korthagen, F.A.J. (2001). Teacher education: A problematic enterprise. In F.A.J. Korthagen,J. Kessels, B. Koster, B. Langerwarf, & T. Wubbels (Eds.), Linking practice and theory:The pedagogy of realistic teacher education (pp. 119). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Korthagen, F.A.J., & Kessels, J. (1999). Linking theory and practice: Changing the pedagogyof teacher education. Educational Researcher, 28(4), 417.

Loughran, J.J. (2006). Developing a pedagogy of teacher education: Understanding teachingand learning about teaching. London: Routledge.

Murray, J., & Male, T. (2005). Becoming a teacher educator: Evidence from the field. Teachingand Teacher Education, 21(2), 125142.

Ritter, J.K. (2007). Forging a pedagogy of teacher education: The challenges of moving fromclassroom teacher to teacher educator. Studying Teacher Education: A Journal of Self-studyof Teacher Education Practices, 3(1), 522.

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