ABSTRACT
This chapter explores key conceptualisations of practice that have become current in the social sciences and the humanities. Following Rouse (2007) a distinction is made between ‘regularist/regulist’ and ‘normative’ approaches. It is demonstrated that ‘regularist/regulist’ conceptions have dominated much contemporary thinking about educational practice, with deleterious consequences for our thinking about educational practice. An argument is made for returning to more normative views of practice developed in philosophy with their focus on internal and external goods (Hager 2011), purposiveness and mutual accountability (Rouse 2007). These offer the means for thinking through the criteria by which educational expertise might be established and iterated.
