ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a discussion of the theory-practice relationship in professional formation and to identify the implications of this discussion to rethink the design and delivery of programmes of professional formation. It adopts a social practice perspective based on the concept of 'recontextualisation'. The concept recontextualisation has been subsequently developed as a way to analyse the relationship between forms of knowing, learning and acting in and between the contexts of education and work. It also shows that the theory-practice issue manifests in four ways in the construction of professional curricula; approach to learning and teaching; organisation of and the engagement with work; and development of theoretical and professional reasoning. It concludes by acknowledging that the concept of recontextualisation developed in the chapter has some affinities, and differences, to the way in which Bernstein has employed that term. Bernstein, in all his work, was concerned with schools and uses the concept of recontextualisation to explain how disciplines are transformed into curricula.
