Understanding the challenge of developing pedagogical reasoning in initial teacher education: Theorising as practice-focused research

Abstract

In this paper, we theorise our practice as teacher educators to understand a practice issue: the challenge our students had in developing pedagogical reasoning. The article discusses the findings of the theorising process to explore how pedagogical reasoning is developed and why it is challenging. It also provides an approach for theorising and exemplifies the process. We first explain our practice issue before outlining a framework for theorising adapted from the work of Stepney and Thomson, and Coghlan and Rigg. The approach involved abductive reasoning through reflexive conversations and written accounts of practice in relation to the findings of an integrative literature review, our personal practical theories and our earlier research into the practice issue. Theorising led us to understand pedagogical reasoning as a complex process emerging from the integration of different forms of knowledge across Initial Teacher Education programmes. This integration depends on the formation of epistemic relations and requires an explicit intellectual endeavour between students and teacher educators. We explore how we might encourage this endeavour through the ideas of intellectual space, epistemic coherence and slow pedagogy. We also make the case for theorising to be considered as a form of practice-focused research and hope to encourage others to engage with its transformative potential for understanding persistent practice issues.