Knowing pedagogical praxis in twenty-first century education

Abstract

There are always perennial and critical questions to be asked about the nature, conduct and study of education. Who is it for?What is its purpose? Is it just? How does it happen? How does one educate? What is education? Such questions lead us into the complex territory of interrelated educational practices involving student learning, teaching, leading, professional learning and development and researching. This chapter seeks to answer a more fundamental question for educators about pedagogical practice posed by Stephen Kemmis: in whose interests are we acting? To do this, we take the lead from decades of influential work by Kemmis and his commitment to a praxis-oriented view of pedagogy, research and education. For him, praxis in education, although differently understood in different historical and educational traditions, concerns a more deliberative, moral, ethical and virtuous conceptualisation of pedagogical practice. It sets aside a more simplistic view of praxis as action by tying it intimately to the notion of phronesis, a concept that accounts for practical wisdom and the recognition that practical action in the here-and-now (in everyday life, in educational settings) has consequences and so is part of history-making. Thus, the chapter re(in)states the promises of education by considering what is pedagogical praxis, what is required for pedagogical praxis and why should educators be concerned with pedagogical praxis in contemporary times.