Pedagogy, Education and Praxis (PEP)
The Pedagogy, Education and Praxis (PEP) group is exploring how teachers develop the moral, social and professional capabilities characteristic of excellent teachers. The group is part of an international collaboration with researchers in the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland and the United Kingdom. Our work includes exploring how contemporary ideas of excellence have been shaped by long traditions of "pedagogik" in Europe (the philosophy and theory of "upbringing" through child-rearing, education, youth work and other processes) and educational philosophy and theory in the English- speaking world. In both of these regions, however, these formative traditions of pedagogy and education are under threat in our postmodern times from particular 'modern' ways of understanding science and research, and 'modern' ways of arranging functional systems of schooling at every level of education from pre-school to university. We are interested in how educational 'praxis' (morally and socially committed action informed by tradition and theory) and 'praxis development' (through the initial and continuing education of teachers) are conducted in and affected by our new times. Our explorations of these traditions and of professional practice in education today are beginning to yield new insights into the work of educators and the educational profession, and suggest possibilities of how teachers and the profession can be refreshed and re-invigorated.
The following Information from our edited volume (Kemmis and Smith, 2008) Enabling Praxis: Challenges for education (Rotterdam:Sense) describes the general problems the group is investigating:
"In a range of professions, professional practice today is under threat. It is endangered, for example, by pressures of bureaucratic control, commodification, marketization, and the standardisation of practice in some professions. In these times, there is a need for deeper understandings of professional practice and how it develops through professional careers. Enabling Praxis: Challenges for education explores these questions in the context of initial and continuing professional education of teachers. It presents a theory of the development of praxis - morally committed action oriented by tradition - to show the ways praxis is enabled and constrained by the cultural-discursive, material and social-political conditions under which professional practice occurs. It introduces the notion of 'practice architectures' to show how particular conditions for practice shape the possibilities of praxis. The way these processes work is illustrated by detailed exploration of a number of cases of praxis development in a variety of educational settings, at a variety of levels - in teacher education for schools and for vocational education and training, in the continuing professional education of teachers, in educational administration, and in informal, community-based education for sustainability initiatives. The book provides conceptual resources that permit deeper analysis of the character, conduct and consequences of professional practice. It concludes with challenges for education, and for initial and continuing teacher education, suggesting that the contemporary threats to education as a professional practice call for revitalisation of the profession, professional bodies and the intellectual traditions that orient and guide educational practice."
The Pedagogy, Education and Praxis group's current research concerns four principal problems:
- What is 'praxis'?
- What is 'praxis development'?
- How is praxis situated in practice and different settings and traditions of professional practice?
- What research approaches are adequate and appropriate for researching praxis and praxis development?
Our Members
Pedagogy, Education and Praxis (PEP)
- Professor Stephen Kemmis
- Dr Christine Edward-Groves
- Associate Professor Ros Brennan-Kemmis
- Dr Annemaree Lloyd
- Dr Jane Wilkinson
- Professor Jeannie Herbert
- Professor Lisa Given
Affiliates
- Dr Peter Grootenboer (Griffith University)
- Dr Tracey Smith (Department of Education Training and Communities)
- Dr Ian Hardy (University of Queensland)
Doctoral Candidates
- Kathleen Clayton
- William Adlong
- Doris Santos
- Maria Bennet