Teachers' know-how : a philosophical investigation

235 Pages·2017·1.144 MB·English

by  Winch, Christopher

Teachers’Know-How
TheJournalofPhilosophyofEducationBookSeries
TheJournalofPhilosophyofEducationBookSeriespublishestitlesthatrepresent
awidevarietyofphilosophicaltraditions.Theyvaryfromexaminationoffunda-
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Subjectivity,andEducationalResearch Evidence?WhatBasis?WhosePolicy?
NaomiHodgson EditedbyDavidBridges,PaulSmeyersand
RichardSmith
PhilosophyEast/West:ExploringIntersections
betweenEducationalandContemplative NewPhilosophiesofLearning
Practices EditedbyRuthCigmanandAndrewDavis
EditedbyOrenErgasandSharonTodd TheCommonSchoolandtheComprehensive
TheWaysWeThink:FromtheStraitsofReason Ideal:ADefencebyRichardPringwith
tothePossibilitiesofThought ComplementaryEssays
EmmaWilliams EditedbyMarkHalsteadandGrahamHaydon
PhilosophicalPerspectivesonTeacher Philosophy,MethodologyandEducational
Education Research
EditedbyRuthHeilbronnandLorraine EditedbyDavidBridgesandRichardDSmith
Foreman-Peck PhilosophyoftheTeacher
Re-ImaginingRelationshipsInEducation: NigelTubbs
Ethics,PoliticsandPractices ConformismandCritiqueinLiberalSociety
EditedbyMorwennaGriffiths,MaritHonerød EditedbyFriedaHeytingandChristopherWinch
Hoveid,SharonToddandChristineWinter
RetrievingNature:Educationfora
EducationVygotsky,PhilosophyandEducation Post-HumanistAge
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EducationandtheGrowthofKnowledge: EducationandPractice:UpholdingtheIntegrity
PerspectivesfromSocialandVirtue ofTeachingandLearning
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EditedbyBenKotzee
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EducationPolicy:PhilosophicalCritique EditedbyLarsLovlie,KlausPeterMortensen
EditedbyRichardSmith andSvenErikNordenbo
Levinas,Subjectivity,Education:Towardsan TheEthicsofEducationalResearch
EthicsofRadicalResponsibility EditedbyMichaelMcnameeandDavidBridges
AnnaStrhan
InDefenceofHighCulture
PhilosophyforChildreninTransition:Problems EditedbyJohnGingellandEdBrandon
andProspects
EditedbyNancyVansieleghemandDavid EnquiriesattheInterface:Philosophical
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TheGoodLifeofTeaching:AnEthicsof
ProfessionalPractice TheLimitsofEducationalAssessment
ChrisHiggins EditedbyAndrewDavis
ReadingR.S.PetersToday:Analysis,Ethics, IllusoryFreedoms:Liberalism,Educationand
andtheAimsofEducation theMarket
EditedbyStefaanE.CuypersandChristopher EditedbyRuthJonathan
Martin QualityandEducation
TheFormationofReason EditedbyChristopherWinch
DavidBakhurst Teachers’Know-How:APhilosophical
WhatDoPhilosophersofEducationDo?(And Investigation
HowDoTheyDoIt?) ChristopherWinch
EditedbyClaudiaRuitenberg
Teachers’ Know-How
A Philosophical Investigation
Christopher Winch
Thiseditionfirstpublished2017
©2017ChristopherWinch.
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Contents
Preface vii
1 Introduction:EducationandTeaching 1
2 SchoolingandtheOccupationofTeaching 21
3 DimensionsofExpertiseandTheirRelevance
toTeaching 39
4 TowardsaTypologyofOccupations 59
5 TheElementsofTeacherKnowledgeandKnow-How 77
6 TeachingasaCraftOccupation 97
7 TheTeacherasExecutiveTechnician,orthe
Temptationsof‘TeacherProof’Teaching 115
8 TheTeacherasaProfessionalTechnician 133
9 TeachingasanOccupation 151
10 TeacherEducation 169
11 AGoodTeacher? 187
12 SomeOutstandingIssues 203
Bibliography 217
Index 227
Preface
What is good teaching? What is the know-how that teachers need?
Around the world, and as never before, governments are vexed
by questions about the quality of teaching and the preparation of
teachers. Economic competitiveness is dependent upon having an
educatedworkforce,andthisinturndependsuponhigh-performing
schools. Yet recurrently there is uncertainty as to how exactly
such schools are to be created and how the right teachers are to be
produced.
Now, as never before, however, we do have global measures for
that performance, and hence conclusions can be drawn about the
kind of teacher training and education that works best. First, the
appeal of the teaching profession is of critical importance. In the
countrieswiththebestexaminationperformance,teachersenjoyrel-
atively high social status and competitive remuneration. This status
isreflectedinthecomparativeautonomytheyhaveintheclassroom:
whereteachersarenotregardedasmeretechniciansorservantsofthe
system,greaterrespectforthemisgenerated,withinandbeyondthe
school. Second, it is clear that teacher education matters. The best
courses provide extensive practical experience in schools, research-
basedteachermethodsandemphasisonspecificexpertiseinthesub-
ject to be taught, as well as the ability to work with a wide variety
of child-development issues. Third, it is clear that ongoing profes-
sionaldevelopmentmatterstoo.Apartfromleadingtoimprovements
inpractice,thisenablesteacherstodevelopaspeopleintheirprofes-
sion, reinforcing their confidence and commitment to that practice.
Time allocated for working together is an important contribution to
this, as is the shared study of method and technique with support
fromfellowteachers.
viii Preface
Thisatleastistheprevailingwisdom,asexpressedinOECDrec-
ommendations based on PISA studies and other policy recommen-
dations. Governments are disposed to pay careful attention to the
comparisonsthatPISAhasprovided,notsurprisinglygiventheeco-
nomicpressuresthatcanbebroughttobearonthosethatdonottake
such findings seriously. But many have also found it convenient to
pushresponsibilityforreformdowntowardstheschoolsthemselves,
rather than investing in the teaching profession and specifically in
teacher education in the ways outlined here. Sometimes there has
been a tendency to debunk educational expertise and to champion
simplistic notions of the skills the teacher needs. In these circum-
stances, political debate about teacher education becomes ideolog-
ical in new ways, mired in confusion about what it is that teachers
needtoknow,aboutthequalitiestheymustbringtotheirprofessional
rolesandabouttheongoingdevelopmentinexpertiseneededtosus-
taintheminthis.Andevenincircumstanceswheregovernmentshave
acted on these three main recommendations, the tendency has been
for teaching to be turned into something formulaic. The variety of
thecircumstancesandthechallengesthatteachersface,andthecom-
plexandagainvaryingdemandsoftheirrelationshipwiththesubject
matter they are passing on, are rarely appreciated in the way that is
needed. Comparisons can be immensely valuable, especially where
theyserveforsomethingmorethansimplyshoringupanorthodoxy.
Buttoooftentheappealofasystematicapproachthattheorthodoxy
offers obscures the benefits such research might otherwise provide.
So how might things be moved forward and a better understanding
ofteachingachieved?
As is evident from the beginnings of philosophy, the role of the
teacher is crucial to human flourishing and to the development of a
good society, and understanding of this has been important to the
development of philosophy itself. Over the course of the centuries,
some of the greatest philosophers have returned to questions about
what it is to teach and to do this well. In contemporary philosophy
of education, the challenge of teaching has been addressed in fresh
ways in the present series, as indicated by Nigel Tubbs’ Philosophy
of the Teacher (2005) and Christopher Higgins’ The Good Life of
Teaching: An Ethics of Professional Practice (2011), as well as the
recent collection of essays, Philosophical Perspectives on Teacher
Education, edited by Ruth Heilbronn and Lorraine Foreman-Peck
(2015).
Thepresentadditiontotheseries,Teachers’Know-How:APhilo-
sophical Investigation, extends work on the topic to address more
Preface ix
specifically epistemological questions: these are matters of critical
importance,yettheyareoftenneglectedortreatedinonlyacursory
manner.Winchbroachesquestionsaboutthequalityofeducationin
a way that answers to the concerns not only of teachers but also of
policymakers, the public and parents. Crucial to his exploration of
teacher ability is a careful examination of the relationship between
teachingandlearning.Hisfocusisontheknow-howthatisinvolved
in teaching, understood in the broadest sense. And his preference
for the unfussy and practically attuned expression ‘know-how’, as
opposed to ‘competence’, ‘expertise’ and other more fashionable
terms, avoids the tendency towards jargon that often characterises
theorising about these matters: it suggests an embracing of the
knowledge and various practical abilities that teachers require, with
astrongsenseofthewaysinwhichsuchknowledgeisintegratedand
realisedinthoseabilities.Whatkindofknowledgeisitthatteachers
neediftheirpracticeistobeeffective?Andhowfardoestheacqui-
sitionofsuchknowledgecontributetothecharacterisingof,eventhe
constitutionof,teachingasaprofession?
Inevitably such questions need to be addressed with an eye
focussed realistically on the practical demands of particular institu-
tionsandontheeducationalsystemswithinwhichtheyoperate,and
Winch’s attention is turned in particular towards the relatively for-
malsettingofpublicschool-centrededucation.Butthisspecification
of context in fact contributes to the book’s ability to say things that
canbeseentoextendmorewidelythroughpracticesofteachingand
learning:fundamentalquestionsaboutteaching,learningandassess-
ment are, after all, not confined to those contexts but of relevance
more universally. What the book provides is a grammatical explo-
rationoftheseconcepts,asameanstobecomeclearaboutwhatthe
know-howofagoodteacherconsists.
A salient feature of the account is the attention it gives to the
important work Lee Shulman has undertaken into the pedagogical
demands and possibilities that arise in relation to specific subject
knowledge. Indeed, enquiry of this kind is important in the gener-
ation of coherent curricular and teaching strategies, and its value
is obscured where teaching and learning are understood in generic
terms or in generalised thinking skills. The book makes an invalu-
ablecontributionintakingthisdiscussionforward.
Itispossibletofindanumberofmodelsforconceptualisingteach-
ing. Winch takes particularly seriously the ideas of teaching as a
craft, but he eschews any simplistic assumption that the know-how
that this implies is necessarily devoid of theoretical knowledge. He
x Preface
shows how it is necessary to become clearer about the relationships
betweencraftknowledgeandmoresystematictechnicalknowledge.
Whatbecomesclear,inaddition,isthataproperexaminationofthese
matterscannotleavetheconceptofthe‘professionalteacher’undis-
turbed.Addressingsuchmatterstakesthereaderfurtherintotherela-
tionship between teaching and content knowledge. The discussion
leadsnotonlythroughthe‘Taylorised’viewsthathaveexertedsuch
influence, including contemporary reincarnations of these, but also
into such central philosophical literature as is provided by Gilbert
Ryle’sTheConceptofMind.
Winch has undertaken important research into the thinking of
GeorgKerschensteiner(1854–1932),withitsinsightsintothesocial
role of work and the bearing this has on vocational education. Such
a conception invites us to think in terms of not solely specific skills
and expertise but also forms of know-how that involve aspects of a
person’s character and sense of who they are. Here these ideas are
extended in inspiring ways, addressing the question of what it is to
pursue a career in teaching in terms of what Winch calls its ‘civic’
role.
Winchleadsthereadertowardsaviewofinitialteachereducation
that nicely balances the practical and academic. With the recogni-
tion that the expectation of complete precision in respect of mat-
ters of teaching and learning is likely to be the basis of fantasy,
his approach is healthily pragmatic: achieving the ‘greatest preci-
sionpossible’inthelightofthedemandsofthecontentbeingtaught
willbe,inhisphrase,nomeanachievement.Onarathermoresom-
bre note, he recognises that that achievement may well be compro-
misedinasocio-economicenvironmentthatplacestoomuchfaithin
‘marketforces’,constructinglearnersasconsumerswithconsumers’
expectations and teachers as technical operatives whose function is
to‘deliver’,whileindulginginexcessivefaithinhigh-stakestesting
and imposing punitive measures on those who do not ‘perform’ (in
whatare,ineffect,oftenbogusformsofcompetition).Thisdegener-
atemodelistobecontrastedwitha‘service’conceptionofteaching,
buthereonceagainWinchavoidssimplisticsolutions,withasensi-
tivitytothedemandsoflarge-scaleeducationalprovisionthatpitches
realismagainstformulaicanswers.
In this way the book holds onto a pragmatic and robust account
of the nature of knowledge and the specific know-how that is at the
heart of teaching. Winch takes the reader through obvious and less
obvious (though in fact essential) steps along the way, and he does
Preface xi
thiswithexemplaryclarity.Thisisabookthatmarriescarefulanaly-
sisandcommitment.Itwillassistpolicymakersandpractitioners,as
wellasinterestedmembersofthewiderpublic,incomingtoabetter
understandingofwhatitisthatteachersneedtoknow.
PaulStandish
SeriesEditor