Teaching Practices from a

Theoretical Perspective
Nomabandla Cishe, Dudu Mantlana1
and Nceba Nyembezi2
1
Walter Sisulu University, Private
Bag X1, Mthatha, 5117, South Africa
2
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan
University, South Africa
KEYWORDS Learning. Professional
Development. Professional Practice.
Teaching. Values. Identity

ABSTRACT Teaching practices are

important for understanding and
improving educational processes. They are
closely linked to the teachers’ strategies
for coping with challenges in their daily
professional life and to their
general well-being, and they shape the
learning environment and influence
learner motivation and achievement.
This paper aimed to investigate teaching
practices for professional development
from the post positivist paradigm
and social practice theories.This view
focuses on learners as active
participants in the process of acquiring
knowledge. Teachers holding this view
emphasize on facilitating student inquiry,
prefer to give students the chance
to develop solutions to problems on their
own, and allow students to play an active
role in instructional activities.This
paper assessed practices theory in terms of
the extent to which it is able to describe and
explain the phenomena of
professional learning and practice.This
paper demonstrates that positivism
provides a potentially useful
epistemological tool in the discourse of
the teachers’ professional development.
 INTRODUCTION
The paper explores the notion of
practice
from a theoretical perspective and
its impor-
tance in education. It begins with
the concept
itself and how it was
conceptualized. The so-
cial and cultural practice theories
are also pre-
sented. In the paper, the
researchers further
elaborate on the professional
practice, teach-
ing as a professional and social
practice.
Theory and practice are not only
related, but
also essential to education and
teacher practic-
es as the best theory is informed by
practice
and the best practice should be
grounded in
theory.
Hamilton (2005) traces the word
“practice”
to German origin. The word can be
described
as “Praxis” and that, in a simplified
English
translation, can be represented by
the word
doing. This is a simplification
because it sig-
nifies a verb form (I do) that, in
English, has
the complementary form, I am
doing. This is
known as the continuous form, and
conveys
a sense of continuity or process.
Teaching as
a continuous process is a practice.
In Polkinghorne’s (2004: 6) terms,
“prac-
tice” refers to “primarily engaged
in action or
activity”, and “activity aimed at
accomplish-
ing a variety of tasks”. Later, this
practice is
described as, “activity directed
towards accom-
plishing a goal” (Polkinghorne
2004: 71). It is,
according to Schwandt (2005: 319),
the prima-
cy of practice, and by the notion
that prac-
tice can be conceived as itself a form
of knowledge,
or “knowing”.
The term “practice” does not refer,
primarily,
to the sensuous objective activity of
the individ-
ual but to the activity and the total
experience of
mankind in the course of historical
development,
for in instance, during the struggle
of South Afri-
cans’ freedom against the Apartheid
Regime. In
the context, content and
performance, are all prac-
tical social activities. Because of
what the world
history, contemporary practice
expresses people’s
infinitely varied relations with nature
and with each
other in material and cultural
production, for ex-
ample, Soviet Bolshevik Revolution,
French Rev-
olution and South African
Revolution.
According to Warde (2004:17), a
‘practice’...
is a routinized type of behaviour
which consists
of several elements, interconnected
to one an-
other. For instance, forms of bodily
activities,
forms of mental activities, ‘things’
and their uses,
background knowledge in the form
of understand-
ing, know-how, and state of
emotion and motiva-
tional knowledge. Reckwitz (2002:
249-250) as-
cribes to a practice as, “...forms of
‘blocks’ whose
existence necessarily depends on
the existence
and specific interconnectedness of
these ele-
ments”. He adds that a practice
becomes a set of
interconnected heterogeneous
elements, and ar-
tifacts are included as elements in
the constitu-
tion of practices. A further
argument he provides
is that “...carrying out a practice very
often means
using particular things in a certain
way. It might
sound trivial to stress that in order
to play foot-
ball we need a ball and goal posts as
indispens-
able ‘resources’” (2002: 253).
164 NOMABANDLA CISHE, DUDU
MANTLANA AND NCEBA NYEMBEZI
In brief, the point of departure is
that people
in their everyday life are engaged in
practices.
Practices are meaningful to people
because they
lead them to their destination in
terms of what
they have set themselves to achieve.
Perform-
ing a practice usually requires
using various
tools and artifacts, such as
equipment, materi-
als, and infrastructures. However,
this aspect
does not make people conscious of
the fact that
they are consuming resources in
their daily ac-
tivities, even though they are.
Primarily, people
are practitioners who indirectly,
through the per-
formance of various practices, draw
on resourc-
es (Røpke 2009).
Theories are useful tools that help
us under-
stand and explain the world around
us. Theories
suggest the way things are, not the
way things
ought to be. They are not inherently
good or bad;
however, they can be used for good
or bad pur-
poses. A prominent function of
theory is provid-
ing an orientation base for
reflection on
practice.The process of applying
theory to prac-
tice is mostly encouraged and valued
in at least
education. It remains however a
relatively poor-
ly understood process and
continues to con-
fuse both students and some
practitioners in
education.
Teacher Practice
As discussed, practice is the
integration of
ideas that link thinking with doing
by people in
contexts. Practice, from the
introspective point
in education is, therefore, teachers’
behavior re-
garding educational matters, within
and outside
the classroom, based on theories
that they con-
sider valid which can give direction
towards the
achievement of set aims and
objectives.
Lindgren viewed practice in
education, as well
as in other fields, as based on
theory (Lindgren
1957: 333). According to Fitzmaurice
(2010: 18),
this kind of practice focuses on
methods and
techniques, based on the qualities
and disposi-
tion of the practitioner’s (teachers’)
practice as
a thoughtful, informed, responsible,
state-of-the-
art teaching in practice. Teaching,
as a practice
involves standards of excellence. To
enter such
practiceis to accept the set
standards and to be
a judge based on performance and
outcomes.
Generally, participation takes place
in communi-
ties of practice that portray a social
group in
which its members share given
activities (Garcia
et al. 2002).
Teachers, as described in the
literature pre-
sented in this review, are all-in-one
instructors,
counselors, supervisors and
managers, who are
expected to translate
homogeneous national
curricula into individualized
learning. This
should be done in such a way that
the curricula
caterto the diverse needs of
students in increas-
ingly multicultural, multi-ethnic
and multi-lev-
eled environments and be
accountable for the
success of these students on
national assess-
ment processes (Matras 2009).
Other authors see teaching as a
complex, fluid
activity that does not lend itself to
an easy def-
inition (Titus and Gremler 2010).
Titus and Grem-
ler (2010), however, feel that
teaching consists
of activities that transfer knowledge
from instruc-
tors (teachers) to learners in a
teaching-learning
situation. Teachers as human
beings are com-
plex and, depending on their
uniquely situated
experiences and life in classrooms,
they form
their own principles, which
influence and direct
their practices.
Objective of the Study
To evaluate theories and values
that under-
pin teaching practices in the
classroom.
METHODOLOGY
This paper reviews literature on
teaching
practices using practice theories
that are based
onpost positivist paradigm. Insights
about the
limitations of positivism and
modernity imply
that one has to understand his or
her own place
in the world and what he or she is
bringing to
the research by way of
assumptions about
knowledge. Investigating one’s own
epistemol-
ogies and understanding how they
affect one-
self, as a researcher is an essential
part of the
post positivist approach. As part of
this investi-
gation, one comes to some
understanding of
how people construct and maintain
perceptions
of the world. Examining one’s
epistemology in-
volves looking at the underlying
assumptions
we use to make sense of our day-to-
day lives
(Miller 2000).
The post positivist stance asserts
the value
of values, passion and politics in
research. Re-
search in this mode requires an
ability to see the
whole picture, to take a distanced
view or an
overview. But this kind of objectivity
is different
from just the facts lacking context,
it does not
TEACHING PRACTICES FROM A
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE 165
mean judging from nowhere
(Eagleton 2003). It
requires a fair degree of passion
especially pas-
sion for justice and the ability to
subject one’s
own assumptions to scrutiny. This
requires pa-
tience, honesty, courage,
persistence, imagina-
tion, sympathy and self-discipline
alongside di-
alogue and debate.
Theoretical Framework
According to Postill (2010), the first
genera-
tion of practice theorists sought a
virtuous mid-
dle path between the excesses of
methodologi-
cal individualism (the claim that
social phenom-
ena must be explained by showing
how they
result from individual actions) and
those of its
logical opposite, methodological
holism (the ex-
planation of phenomena by means
of structures
or social wholes (Ryan 1970).
Giddens as cited
in Postill (2010) argues that we
cannot separate
‘individuals’ from the day-to-day
contexts they
help to constitute.
Schatzki (2002) distinguishes four
main types
of practice theorists. These are
philosophers
(such as Wittgenstein, Dreyfus, or
Taylor), so-
cial theorists (Bourdieu, Giddens),
cultural the-
orists (Foucault) and theorists of
science and
technology (Latour, Rouse,
Pickering). Focus
here is on the theorists of the
twentieth century
(for example, Bourdieu 1977;
Foucault 1979; Gid-
dens 1979, 1984) as they, according
to Postill
(2010) laid the foundations of what
we now re-
gard as practice theory. These are
the social and
cultural theorists.
Postill (2010) argues that in
Bourdieu’s the-
ory of practice, the world’s
structural constraints
form ‘permanent dispositions’.
Bourdieu borrows
the Greek word ‘hexis’ to refer to the
way in which
social agents ‘carry themselves’ in
the world,
their gait (pace), gesture and
postures (Jenkins
2002: 75).
It is important to understand what
makes a
social practice the particular
practice it is be-
cause practices of the same kind
differ at vari-
ous times and places. Langford
(1989) refers to a
social practice as interaction
between individu-
als. This depends on the
circumstances in which
each individual finds him/herself.
Bourdieu’s formulation of practice
involves
action in time and space, along with
intentions,
meanings, values and
understandings of the
practitioner. He presupposes ideas
about the
nature and structure of the practice
that is em-
bedded in the practitioner’s
understandings of
the practice.Thus, the notion of
habitus, as a
historically and institutionally
constituted set
of predispositions to enter a setting
able to be a
‘player’ in the kind of game for this
setting (for
example, a football field, or a
government office)
flexibly and openly. Also, with a
‘practical sense’
about what the setting might offer
on this occa-
sion (for example, opportunities to
succeed or
transgress), habitus can be defined
as a system
of dispositions (lasting, acquired
schemes of
perception, thought and action).
Crudely put,
the habitus is the system of
dispositions, which
individuals have.
A closely related notion to
Bourdieu’s habi-
tus is Michel Foucault’s (1979)
concept of ‘dis-
cipline’. Like habitus, discipline ‘is
structure and
power that have been impressed on
the body
forming permanent dispositions’
(Eriksen and
Nielsen 2001: 130). In contrast to
Bourdieu,
though, Foucault laid particular
emphasis on the
violence through which modern
regimes impress
their power (or ‘biopower’) on bodies
(2001: 130).
Like Bourdieu, the British sociologist
Antho-
ny Giddens (1979, 1984) first
developed an orig-
inal version ofthe practice theory in
the 1970s,
but he arrived there via a very
different route.
Where Bourdieu grounded his
theories in em-
pirical research, Giddens is more
concerned with
the history of philosophy and social
theory than
with sociological data (Eriksen and
Nielsen 2001:
129).
Giddens’ theory of structuration is
that so-
cial practices become the site of the
social (Gid-
dens2013). Thus, practices are the
basic onto-
logical units for analysis. This
implies that indi-
vidual actions are constituted by
practices. Gen-
erally, social order, structures, and
institutions
come into being through practices.
Social life,
thus, consists of a wide range of
practices, such
as negotiation, cooking, banking,
recreation,
political, religious and educational
practices
(Schatzki 2002:70). This work
contributes to the
elaborate understanding of the
constitution and
change of practices.
Literature Review
Practices Specific to each Field
Practices are defined in different
ways and
in particular fields, and we can talk
about prac-
tices in a particular field.
166 NOMABANDLA CISHE, DUDU
MANTLANA AND NCEBA NYEMBEZI
teacher education
(Kemis)
talking about practices and
research in the
period of five years
At a later stage, Bourdieu added the
notion
of ‘field’ to practice-theoretical
vocabulary (see
Bourdieu 1992, 1993, 2005;
Bourdieu and Wac-
quant 1992; Swartz 1997; Reed-
Danahay 2005).
Fields are specialist domains of
practice (for ex-
ample, art, photography, sociology)
with their
own ‘logic’ that are constituted by a
unique com-
bination of species of capital, for
example, finan-
cial capital, symbolic capital
(prestige, renown)
or social capital (‘connections’).
A field is, in the first instance, a
structured
space of positions, a force field that
imposes its
specific determinations upon all
those who en-
ter it. Thus, anyone who wants to
succeed as a
scientist has no choice but to
acquire the mini-
mal “scientific capital” required and
to abide by
the regulations enforced by the
scientific milieu
of that time and place.
In the second instance, a field is an
arena of
struggle through which agents and
institutions
seek to preserve or overturn the
existing distri-
bution of capital (manifested, in the
scientific
field, by the ranking of institutions,
disciplines,
theories, methods, topics, journals,
or prizes). It
is a battlefield wherein the bases of
identity and
hierarchy are endlessly disputed
over. An apt
metaphor for a field is that of a
game. Only play-
ers with sufficient ‘know-how’ and
belief in the
game will be willing to invest time
and effort in
playing it. This has particular
reference to the
field of teaching, as teachers are the
ones who
know how to teach.
Bourdieu uses the concept of field
as a struc-
tured social space with its own
rules, schemes
of domination, legitimate opinions
and so on.
Fields are relatively autonomous
from the wider
social structure (or space, in his
terminology), in
which people relate and struggle
through a com-
plex of connected social relations
(both direct
and indirect). The habitus must be
seen not sim-
ply as a historically produced
structure that func-
tions to reproduce the social system
that gener-
ated it, but as a set of schemes both
imposed
and imposing. It is in the interest
of certain
groups that a particular manner of
doing, a spe-
cific standardized mode of
achieving all the di-
verse tasks posed by social life, be
considered
as the only possible way of acting.
The official
representation of practice is an
imposition of
meaning, a continual enactment of
symbolic vi-
olence that coercively, yet
unobtrusively, chan-
nels how participants can construe
the social
world.
The patterned social forces that
produced it
structure habitus. It gives form and
coherence
to the various activities of an
individual across
the separate spheres of life. This is
why Bourdi-
eu defines it in various ways as, “the
product of
structure, producer of practice, and
reproducer
of structure,” the “unchosen
principle of all
choices,” or “the practice-unifying
and practice-
generating principle” that permits
“regulated
improvisation” and the “conductor-
less orches-
tration” of conduct. Habitus is also a
principle
of both, social continuity and
discontinuity.
Continuity because it stores social
forces into
the individual organism and
transports them
across time and space, and
discontinuity be-
cause it can be modified through
the acquisition
of new dispositions and because it
can trigger
innovation whenever it encounters
a social set-
ting discrepant with the setting
from which it
issues.
For Schatzki (2001: 3), ‘the social is a
field of
embodied, materially interwoven
practices cen-
trally organized around shared
practical under-
standings’. The maintenance of
practices over
time depends on ‘the successful
inculcation of
shared embodied know-how’ (2001:
3) as well as
on their continued performance
(Postill 2010).
The relationship between habitus
and field
is a two-way relationship. The field
exists only
insofar as social agents possess the
disposi-
tions and set of perceptual
schemata that are
necessary to constitute that field
and imbue it
with meaning. Concomitantly, by
participating
in the field, agents incorporate into
their habitus
the proper know-how that will allow
them to con-
stitute the field. Habitus manifests
the structures
of the field, and the field mediates
between habi-
tus and practice.
Teaching as a Social Practice
The main question here is, why do
teachers
think of being teachers in a particular
way. D’Eon,
Overgaard and Harding (2000)
argue that teach-
ing as a practice is a complex,
intellectually de-
manding activity with five essential
features—
TEACHING PRACTICES FROM A
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE 167
1. Teaching is purposive (define
practice)
2. Any large number of behaviors
and activi-
ties may qualify as teaching,
3. Teaching is a rational enterprise
and this
is, in part, tied to its purposive
nature,
4. Teaching is a communal, as
opposed to an
individual enterprise
5. The practice of teaching has a
strong moral
dimension
Teaching is Purposive: Teaching is
neces-
sarily a purposive activity. We must
teach some-
thing to someone with a purpose in
mind, which
generally speaking is to get
someone to learn
something, to understand something,
to do some-
thing, or to appreciate something,
and so on.
Teaching Involves a Variety of
Activities:
A second essential feature of
teaching is that
teaching can involve a range of very
different
activities. The activities are limited
to the extent
that they must have potential to
achieve the
purposes of the practice, and they
ought to be
appropriate in the given context.
Teaching is a Rational
Enterprise:Teachers
ultimately ought to be able to justify
their ac-
tions by providing relevant reasons
for them in
relation to purpose and context
(Scheffler 1965).
Rationality in teaching also means
taking the
context into consideration.
Teaching is a Communal Enterprise:
Teach-
ing as a practice in schools cannot
be under-
stood merely by examining the
individual ac-
tions of a teacher engaged in the
practice or the
collective individual actions of some
or all of the
teachers.
Teaching has an Important Moral
Dimen-
sion: Teaching in schools and in
classrooms is a
moral practice. Teachers have a role
in develop-
ing the moral character of the
learners consis-
tent with ethical standards.
Teachers are charged
with the responsibility to both
students and
society for the training of the
students and they
have considerable authority in their
roles. Teach-
ers are able to develop the
character of students
available contextually, such as,
develop charac-
ter of social relations by improving
appearance,
for instance, how to be neatly
dressed and speak
politely, in order to be an example
for students.
Walker et al. (2013) assert that the
academic
progress of current character
education should
be adapted to ways of speaking
politely.
To view teaching as a social practice
is to
acknowledge, first and foremost,
the expecta-
tions society has for teaching, or in
other words,
the particular purposes of
teaching. Further-
more, the second feature of a social
practice
matches that aspect of teaching that
involves
common patterns of action or
behavior, which
are explaining, showing,
questioning, justifying,
judging, and correcting.The third
feature of a
social practice includes norms and
standards,
which are evident in the practice of
teaching. In
the course of the teachers’ day-to-
day teaching
activities, they may not be able to
explain why
they act in certain ways.
How Teachers Understand
Themselves as
Teachers in a Social Practice of
Teaching:
Langford (1989) argues that it is
necessary to
look at the concept of a person and
that of a
social practice and understand the
relation be-
tween them. This relation is internal
and depends
on each other for being what it is.
The overall
purpose shared by members has a
tendency to
shape a social practice and its
existence and iden-
tity is entirely dependent on its
members. Teach-
ers must see themselves as teachers
in a social
practice of teaching.
Understanding what a teacher is
depends on
understanding the social practice
of teaching
and its purpose. In the South
African context,
the social practice of teaching is
concerned with
what teaching is and the forms of
schooling that
advance it (Morrow 2007). Morrow
believes that
the practice of teaching is the
organization of
systematic learning, which is the
formal object
of teaching and the role of the
teacher. He claims
that there are poor teaching
practices because
teachers do not understand what
education is
and further states that unless the
concept of
teaching is retrieved there are no
hope of get-
ting learning right.
Professional Practice
According to Green (2009),
“professional
practice” is in itself, of course, a
construct
linking two concepts. On the one
hand, what
might simply be seen as an adjective,
a qualifying
term “professional” contains with it
the notion of
“profession”, and also that of “the
professional”,
or of being or becoming “a
professional”.
Green (2009) argues that
professional prac-
tice is complex. He explains what it
is, or what
it is constituted as, and why and how
it matters.
Professional practice is at the heart of
all these
concerns and questions, and yet this
is something
that is arguably still in need of
clarification and
168 NOMABANDLA CISHE, DUDU
MANTLANA AND NCEBA NYEMBEZI
elaboration, as is indeed the concept
of practice
itself.
The term “professional
experience” is of-
ten capitalized and mobilized as a
replacement for
“practicum”, in some circles at least.
Here again,
there is sometimes a certain overlap,
with “profes-
sional experience” used to refer to
engagement
in pre-service practice of the
profession at issue
before being immersed in the “real
world”, as it
were. In teaching, this is the period
when stu-
dents are sent out on teaching
practice (school-
based experience).
There are at least four senses in
which the term
“professional practice” might be
understood and
operationalized. Firstly, it can be
taken as re-
ferring to the notion of practicing a
profession,
as in the familiar expression
“practicing medicine”
or “practicing law”. Hence, one
might similarly
refer to “practicing education” or
(perhaps bet-
ter) “practicing teaching”, or
“practicing nurs-
ing” and the likes, although these
latter usages
are admittedly awkward
formulations, for rea-
sons that perhaps bear some
thinking about
(think about characteristics of a
profession,
which are not part of this paper).
Secondly, it
could refer to the notion of
practicing profes-
sionalism—that is, the fact that one
enacts pro-
fessionalism; one practicing what it
is to be pro-
fessional, or to be a professional. In
this case,
professionalism is itself is to be
understood
as a practice phenomenon, a
matter therefore
of practice and identity. Thirdly, and
relatedly, it
can be understood as referring to,
or evoking,
a moral-ethical quality: a
distinctive quality
of being in -the world, an attitude
or disposition
towards the objects of one’s
practice, whether
they be persons or not. Finally, a
practice might
be described as “professional”—in
contrast, then,
to what might be seen as the
sphere of the
“amateur”—analogously to what
happens in
sport and other arenas (example,
dancing), where
one is paid a fee for the service
that one pro-
vides and enacts, often on an
explicit, formal-
ly constructed scale. In this case,
all of these
senses might be seen as being
relevant, to dif-
fering degrees. Professional
practice fields are
distributed across the private and
public sec-
tors. They feature various schemes
of employ-
ment and remuneration and involve
extensive
programs of pre-service education
and training
(and in some case, renewal and
reaccreditation).
Moreover, all require a certain
disposition to be
instilled in their members, an
appropriate pro-
fessional attitude regarding
conduct and rela-
tionships (Green 2009).
With regard to practice itself, it
might be
useful to think in terms of three
distinct but
interrelated categories, namely,
“activity”, “experi-
ence” and “context”. What is it that
teachers do,
what have they gained, how do they
use their ex-
perience and make their activity
relevant to the
context.
Britzman (2003: 3) argues that the
practice
of teaching, because it is concocted
from rela-
tions with others and occurs in
structures that
are not of one’s own making, but
first and fore-
most, an uncertain experience that
one must learn
to interpret and make significant. It
is pertinent
to note that Britzman’s focus here
is on initial
teacher education, but her
argument has bear-
ing on thinking about professional
practice
more generally. This is because
(professional)
practice is undeniably experiential,
at least part
of the time, and perhaps different
ways and
senses. One “experiences”
practice, one lives
through it, aware that it is happening;
one remem-
bers it, afterwards; one looks forward
to it, or not.
It is an object of fear, of fantasy, and
always of
imagination.
Beck and Young (2005) speak of a
particular
form of “knowledge-based
professionalism”, with
closely links to more or less
traditionally con-
ceived university structures and
cultures, and
their concern ultimately is with
questions of knowl-
edge. They note accordingly, “the
emergence
of a new kind of professionalism
with much
weaker ties to the acquisition and
production
of knowledge in universities and
much stron-
ger links to practice in the “real
world” (Beck and
Young 2005: 192). There are two
points to make
here. The first is the emphatic
counter-posing
of “knowledge” to “practice”, which
is symp-
tomatic of what we would argue is
an important
problematic. The other is that such
an argument,
in postulating and critiquing a new
phase in pro-
fessionalism, obscures the manner
in which for
quite some time now there has
been a more or
less parallel emergence of
distinctive fields of
professional practice which
differently engage this
problematic. The relationship
between knowl-
edge and practice is indeed crucial,
but it needs
to b e understood outside current,
traditional frames
of reference.
Schwandt (2005) provides
guidance in this
regard. He observes that the
university sector
is currently struggling with “how to
frame teach-
TEACHING PRACTICES FROM A
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE 169
ing, learning and inquiry in the
professional prac-
tice fields”, which he describes
usefully as “those
organized human endeavors such
as teaching,
business management, public
planning and ad-
ministration, social work,
counseling, nursing,
allied-health endeavors, and so on”
(Schwandt
2005:313). He contextualizes this
struggle with-
in new forms and intensities of
managerial-
ism, and also the rise into
prominence of what is
variously called “science-based” or
“evidence-
based” practice and policy.
Teachers’ professional practice is
about
teachers’ professional development,
thus teach-
ers’ learning, learning how to learn,
and trans-
forming their knowledge into
practice for the
benefit of their students’ growth.
Teacher pro-
fessional learning is a complex
process, which
requires cognitive and emotional
involvement
of teachers individually, or
collective capacity
and willingness to examine where
each one
stands in terms of convictions and
beliefs and
the perusal and enactment of
appropriate alter-
natives for improvement or
change (Avalos
2010:12). As far as teachers’
professional prac-
tice is concern, they acquire and
generated
knowledge, and also disseminate the
knowledge
to the learners in and outside the
classroom.
This standard covers the
requirements for re-
flecting critically on the teachers’
practice, es-
tablishing professional learning
goals, planning
and undertaking learning and
development and
participating in the extended
professional
community.Teachers’
professional practice-
sareput into five categories that
include- know-
ing the students level of
understanding, the
knowledge of content, planning,
delivery, and
assessment of instruction.
Teachers should understand what
teaching
(literacy and numeracy) is all about.
In doing so,
there is need to reclaim the concept
of teaching.
Morrow’s position is that in order
to understand
what teaching is, focus should be
turned to the
manner in which a teacher enables
learners to
learn.
DISCUSSION
The view that teachers have a moral
obliga-
tion when teaching their students,
gains sup-
port from various authors (Walker et
al. 2013). A
recent study conducted in
Indonesia found that
teachers have not managed to
practice the con-
cept of teaching character both
conceptually and
contextually (Abu et al. 2014).
Conceptual fail-
ure causes teachers not to embed
character val-
ues that are extracted from the
behavior of stu-
dents. Contextually it causes
teachers to fail in
an attempt to develop character
values, such as
social relationships, honesty, and
discipline. This
observation corresponds with the
findings by
Arthur et al. (2014), which state
that moral de-
velopment of youth welfare cannot
be viewed
separately, but they must be
intertwined with
the community.
Building teachers’ competence for
the prac-
tices that can help all students learn
might de-
pend on teachers’ experience of
diversity, as
much as on their knowing about the
reasons for
inequalities (Pantic 2014).
Teachers can only
achieve this by interacting with
other colleagues
in their communities of practice.
This is in line
with Langford (1989) who calls for
a fresh look
at the concept of a person and that
of a social
practice and understand the
relation between
them. Helping teachers understand
the full trans-
formative potential of their
collective actions
might require systematic
preparation for build-
ing collaborative relationships with
their peers
and with other education
professionals. Promot-
ing systematic and critical
reflection might in-
volve collaborative enquiry and
research into
the impact of their own practices
and environ-
ments (Pantic 2014).
On the other hand, professionalism
educa-
tion itself is undergoing
development in many
countries. Like all educational
change, the pro-
cess is slow or even difficult, and
subject to
many factors. There is the scarcity
of data on
what works in professionalism
education and
assessment. Since both hard
outcomes and pro-
cess data are sparse, it is especially
challenging
to interpret the current study’s
observations as
a function of the specific curricula
at different
universities (ABIM 2014).
As mentioned under literature
review, some
historians of education thought that
control over
the classroom is left to teachers in
exchange for
exclusion from policymaking. For
instance,
teachers were treated like industrial
workers, even
though with necessary skills, they
were prevent-
ed from organizing for decades by
explicit anti-
union rulings, excluded from
management, yet
required to have credentials in
order to imple-
ment policy. It is not surprising that
teachers
should not compare themselves to
the idealized
medicine-based model of liberal
profession, by
170 NOMABANDLA CISHE, DUDU
MANTLANA AND NCEBA NYEMBEZI
virtue of which sociologists have
declared them
a semi-profession. Professionalism
is their indi-
vidual autonomy in the classroom,
although
superiors often refer to
professionalism as the
willingness to comply with directives
from above,
and call resistance,
unprofessional (Larson
2014). The relation between the
theoretical
knowledge that researchers
produce and teach-
ers’ practice appears uncertain to
many teach-
ers, who see university theory as
thoroughly
disconnected from the complex
realityof the
classroom (Larson 2014).
A self-reflective study conducted by
Okas
et al. (2014) enabled them to
qualitatively ana-
lyze how teachers described and
interpreted their
teaching activities and what being a
profession-
al teacher means to them. The
results show that
when speaking about the image of a
profession-
al teacher, novice teachers stress
technological
teaching aspects, for instance, skills
in using
information and communication
technology
equipment. The essays by the
experienced teach-
ers included more keywords
related to the de-
velopment of students and stressed
the teach-
er’s role as an educator. Both novice
and experi-
enced teachers valued the
pedagogical educa-
tion of teachers.
Implications of Practice in the
Classroom
First, teaching cannot be viewed as
the trans-
mission of knowledge from the
enlightened to
the unenlightened, rather teachers
act as “guides
on the side” who provide learners
with favor-
able opportunities to learn.
Second, if learning is based on prior
knowl-
edge, then teachers must note that
knowledge,
and provide learning environments
that exploit
inconsistencies between learners’
current un-
derstandings and the new
experiences before
them.
Teachers can also encourage group
interac-
tions, where the interplay among
participants
helps individual learners become
explicit about
their own understanding by
comparing it to that
of their peers.
Fourth, if new knowledge is actively
built,
and then time is needed to build it.
Ample time
facilitates learner reflection about
new experi-
ences, how those experiences line
up against
their understanding, and how an
improved view
of the world might be provided by
different
understandings.
A professional teacher today is
required to
demonstrate an increasingly large
repertoire of
personal as well as professional
qualities, knowl-
edge, skills and understandings.
These quali-
ties cannot easily be identified and
developed
by just one form of learning, for
example, univer-
sity-based learning or school-based
learning.
For this reason, professional
practice knowl-
edge should be analyzed as
representing more
than individual qualities.
Professional practice
knowledge is dependent on the
interactions
among certain individuals, in a
particular con-
text and within a certain structure.
It is formed
by history and tradition and by the
universal
qualities that are embedded in the
tradition of
the profession. It is formed by the
values that
are held and realized by the
professionals.
In the researchers’ understanding,
intentions
and values are important aspects of
practice.
What takes place in a school or
university is to
some extent formed by the
educators´ visions of
what should and could be achieved.
From a his-
torical perspective, the
consequences of certain
practices may be good or bad.
History can facil-
itate as well as hamper certain
practices.
Practice is always contextualized; it
cannot
be thought outside of some notion
of “context”.
There are always, unavoidably,
contextual consid-
erations and challenges in
understanding and re-
search professional practice.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, practice and for that
matter
teacher professional practice need to
be viewed in
a broader perspective to include a
theoretical un-
derpinning and important aspects
of practice,
such as personal value and identity
as well as a
historical and traditional
consideration. Thus,
the conceptualization of the
conceptof practice
needs to be always looked at in both,
content and
context. Theory and practice are
related and each
is essential to education and
teacher practices,
because the best theory is informed
by practice
and that the best practice is
grounded in theory.
RECOMMENDATIONS
It is important that the theory and
concepts
of good teaching practice be
communicated to
administrators as well as teachers
through on
going, supportive professional
development
activities and literature.
TEACHING PRACTICES FROM A
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVE 171
University lecturers need to model
these prac-
tices and provide supportive
assistance to pre-
service and in-service teachers as
they grapple
with these practices in their daily
endeavors.
Issues and concerns of teachers,
as they
begin to make their transition to
constructivist
teaching, need to be
acknowledged and ad-
dressed through discussions,
explanations of
what to expect, practical
suggestions, reassur-
ance, and supportive
understanding of teach-
ers’ concerns.
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