Teaching and teacher education in the age of evidence: The case for artistry

Abstract

In July 2022 Gert Biesta gave an invited keynote lecture at the 2022 EDULOG International Conference on Teacher Education: Building an Agenda for the 21st Century in Porto, Portugal[1]. In the following interview Gert Biesta shares key ideas from his lecture, particularly highlighting that any discussion about the future of teacher education needs to start from a meaningful understanding of education and the important role of the teacher. In his lecture Biesta made a case for understanding teaching as an art rather than an applied science, and made the interesting suggestion that we should see teaching as a double art. This suggests that teacher education that understands that teaching is an art, and not the application of rules and recipes, needs to work with students to develop their teacherly artistry. Such a future for teacher education is quite different from the idea that teaching should be a profession based upon or informed by scientific evidence about what works. The main problem with that idea, so Biesta makes clear in this interview, is that looking for evidence about what works misunderstands what education is and what the work of the teacher entails. [1] For more information about this event see here: https://www.2022.edulog.pt