Pedagogy-as-praxis: a sociocultural framework for researching pedagogy as performance and discourse

Abstract

This article presents a sociocultural conceptual framework for researching pedagogy as the performance of teaching together with its attendant discourse. The framework, referred to as pedagogy-as-praxis, consists of two core elements that draw on, combine and adapt several different yet complimentary theoretical perspectives. First, Alexander's action-based framework (the what) and components of Bernstein's theory on educational transmission (the how) are combined to intricately and sensitively describe the performance of teaching. Second, by positioning the performance of teaching as the tool element within an adapted and extended activity system, the remaining activity theory elements–subject, object, rules, community and division of labour–are applied to understand the discourse that produces, structures and influences its modality (the why). When combined within the pedagogy-as-praxis framework, these theoretical perspectives enable an analysis of how socio-cultural-political factors shape and mediate educational practices. The article starts by considering the definition of pedagogy upon which the framework is based before outlining the theoretical perspectives it is underpinned by. The framework and its constituting elements are then applied and demonstrated.