Experienced teacher educators hunting assumptions to examine their pedagogy : an international collaborative study
- Authors: Brandenburg, Robyn , Garbett, Dawn , Ovens, Alan , Thomas, Lynn
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Frontiers in Education Vol. 7, no. (2023), p.
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- Description: The research presented in this article focuses on an international collaboration conducted by four experienced teacher educators who used assumption identification and examination to advance pedagogical practice. It describes and examines how teacher educators deliberately undertook reflective practices to inform and enhance teaching. Four vignettes are described and analyzed—Practica woes and Modelling practice—and examined using the simple, complicated, and complex teaching framework. The key outcomes include the impact and role of assumption definition, identification, and examination as powerful reflective tools. Researching practice in teacher education is an effective way to advance pedagogical knowledge and practice and a disposition of inquiry is necessary to enhance knowledge at all stages of teacher educator experience. This international collaboration highlights the importance of problematizing teaching, continually inquiring into and interrogating practice and grasping the teachable moments. Copyright © 2023 Brandenburg, Garbett, Ovens and Thomas.
Shedding light on our practices: Four assumption hunters on a quest
- Authors: Garbutt, Dawn , Brandenburg, Robyn , Thomas, Lynn , Ovens, Alan
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: Pushing boundaries and crossing borders; Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices, Herstmonceux, UK: 2018 p. 409-415
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- Description: We are an international collaborative of self-study researchers who have begun work together to identify and challenge assumptions that underpinned our practice as teacher educators. Assumptions are the underlying biases that define how pedagogy is enacted. Seeking out and challenging assumptions helps to discover the unconscious biases that define and mediate a practitioner’s actions in the classroom. Assumptions by themselves are neither good nor bad things, but rather are the tacit beliefs that guide a teacher’s decision making. As Brookfield (1995) states, “informed actions…are based on assumptions that have been carefully and critically investigated” (p.80). By using this as the starting point for self-study, the objective is then not to eliminate assumptions from our teaching practice, but to better understand and analyse those assumptions through a process of rigorous self-inquiry. Such inquiry empowers us to assess the impact of our assumptions on our professional practice.