AUTHOR=Ratnam Tara 

TITLE=Provocation to Dialog in a Third Space: Helping Teachers Walk Toward Equity Pedagogy

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Education

VOLUME=Volume 5 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2020.569018

DOI=10.3389/feduc.2020.569018

ISSN=2504-284X

ABSTRACT=This paper looks into the conceptual basis of how teachers learn, including importantly, how they learn to relate to social concerns of equity in their teaching and makes this understanding  experientially accessible using a live case of  the ‘practical’ (Schwab, 1969).  The conceptual understanding emerges from questioning the assumptions behind the valorization in teacher education of ‘theory’ over ‘practice’ that has led to the ‘theory into practice’ /’input-output’ model of teacher education. An examination of the constraints posed by this monolithic model of teacher education to teacher learning, development and change has provided the impetus to work towards a more pluralistic                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          view of knowledge and the new understanding of the nature of teacher learning ensuing from it.  This alternative formation, which is informed by insights from sociocultural perspectives of Lev Vygotsky and  Mikhail Bakhtin among others,  has helped in constructing a view of teacher learning as taking shape in authentic social interaction in a ‘third space’ through hybridization of diverse voices. Most importantly, the paper regards its implications for teacher education by abstracting from experience the nature of mediation that facilitates hybridization.   
Reference:
Schwab, J.J. (1969). The Practical: A Language for Curriculum. The School Review, 78, (1), pp. 1-23.