ABSTRACT
This chapter continues the discussion of the teacher’s role, exploring in what ways teaching can be said to be a ‘professional’ activity. It recognises the conflicting expectations which society holds of teachers and the consequent dilemmas which teachers face within the complexities of the classroom. It suggests that it is the teachers’ knowledge base-content, pedagogical and curricular-which enables them to juggle and balance the range of demands made upon them during the school day. This suggests that what we observe in the ‘expert’ teacher’s classroom (see Berliner, Chapter 8) is ‘knowledge-inaction’, even where the skilled teacher may find it difficult to analyse and explain to others the basis and rationales for those actions. How far do you think it may be possible for a new teacher to begin to bring theory alive by reflecting critically on reading in relation to observations of skilled teaching in action? How might this be helped by joint analysis with an experienced teacher ‘mentor’?
