ABSTRACT
My interest in teacher knowledge is first in its nature as comprising formal, theoretical, and practical knowledge (see Clandinin & Connelly, 1987; Clark & Peterson, 1986; Connelly & Clandinin, 1985; Elbaz, 1983, 1991; Shulman, 1986, 1987, 1992) and ethical knowing; second, my interest is in its construction and use in the act of teaching. The coinage of the phrase “ethical knowing” (in the present continuous) is intended to highlight that the ever-evolving act of knowing, that is, constructing, using, reflecting on knowledge and its responsible use is inseparable on the one hand from the values and beliefs that comprise the ethical system that individuals develop through their ongoing processes of enculturation and on the other hand from its linguistic representation. Teacher knowledge is characterised in the literature as formal, theoretical, practical, and contextual (among other descriptors) in relation to realms of knowledge and their interrelation and in relation to knowledge acquisition and learning. This kind of characterisation, however, excludes values and ethics, for example, knowing about ways of acting and interacting with responsibility to others and ways of making knowledge (i.e., people’s knowing) of value to the world in which we live. It also excludes metaknowledge, that is, the capability to reflect on the construction and the power of knowledge.
