Pedagogical Reflections on Reflective Practice in Teacher Education

Abstract

As a native of Western Canada, I returned " home " to the University ofAlberta to do doctoral studies with Ted Aoki. I had begun my teaching career in the late 1960s as a secondary school history teacher in the province of Newfoundland. I recall becoming superficially aware of interpretive and critical research paradigms during my brief sojourn back in Alberta to complete a master's degree in 1973-74. At that time Aoki and his students were searching for alternatives to the dominance of technical curriculum theories. Leaving the scholarly explorations behind, I became immersed in the curriculum development and implementation tasks in my new supervisory position with the school district back in Newfoundland. It was with these questions of school practice in mind that I returned to encounter a considerably changed academic landscape at the University ofAlberta in 1980. With the advice of Ted Aohi, Max van Manen, and Bruce Bain I plunged into the study of the works of Habermas, Gadamer, Merleau-Ponty, Ricocur, and Heidegger, all the while being en couraged by them to remain mindful of the world of teachers, children and schools. These explorations shaped my doctoral dissertation which was an at tempt to hermeneutically understand the meanings of " curriculum implementa tion " for teachers and consultants. My interest in educators' experiences with change has gradually led me into action research and teacher education. I have been exploring action research as a radical hermeneutics ofpractice, being particularly influenced by the postmodern turn in interpretation. Most recently I have been doing action research in col laboration with teacher educators on our own practices. In this connection we have been fixing attention on the play ofidentity and otherness in the pedagogy of teacher education. My publications include " Remembering forward: action re search and educating for peace " and an edited collection ofpapers for the World