Ignoring the Child and The Call for a Good Balance. Aspects of a Phenomenologically Based Theory of Teacher Actions

Abstract

This article explores the possibilities of articulating a theory of teacher actions in light of a critical or constitutive phenomenology of action. Through the use of a video analysis project, a case from a learning session is presented as a point of departure. The general question is whether constitutive phenomenology as a kind of reflective analysis may help to explore and understand the practical knowledge of a teacher in a classroom interacting with children. The situation is deliberately seen from the teacher’s point of view, and seeks to demonstrate how the knowledge of teachers’ actions in relation to a teaching subject, and in interaction with students’ and children’s calls, may be analysed. A general theory of teacher actions is formulated as a dynamic combination or balance of focal and global beliefs, values and practices, while different types of combinations of these phenomenologically described thetic "positionalities" are described to understand ignoring more generally. The ignoring of children in a classroom is further analysed and described according to the German Bildung tradition and the pedagogical paradox of formation. The article also discusses contributions and limitations of phenomenology in pedagogical research, and in relation to teacher student pedagogy in particular.