Page 21 - Beyond Methods

Conceptualizing teaching acts 9
strained to operate from handed-down fixed, pedagogic assump- tions and to seldom seriously question their validity or relevance to specific learning and teaching contexts. If any context-specific learn- ing and teaching problem arises, they are supposed to turn once again to the established professional knowledge base and search for a formula to fix it by themselves.
Viewing teachers as passive technicians is traditional and is still in vogue in many parts of the world. It might even be said, with some justification, that the technicist view provides a safe and se- cure environment for those teachers who may not have the ability, the resources, or the willingness to explore self-initiated, innovative teaching strategies. The technicist approach to teaching and teacher education is clearly characterized by a rigid role relationship be- tween theorists and teachers: theorists conceive and construct knowledge, teachers understand and implement knowledge. Cre- ation of new knowledge or a new theory is not the domain of teach- ers; their task is to execute what is prescribed for them.
Such an outlook inevitably leads to the disempowerment of teachers whose classroom behavior is mostly confined to received knowledge rather than lived experience. That is why the technicist approach is considered “so passive, so unchallenging, so boring that teachers often lose their sense of wonder and excitement about learn- ing to teach” (Kincheloe, 1993, p. 204). The concept of reflective teaching evolved partly as a reaction to the fixed assumptions and frozen beliefs of the technicist view of teaching.
Reflective task 1.1
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the role and function of teachers as passive technicians? Think about some of your own teachers whom you might call technicists. What aspect of their teaching did you like most? Least? Is there any aspect of technicist orientation that you think is relevant in your specific learning and teaching context?
Teachers as Reflective Practitioners
While there has recently been a renewed interest in the theory and practice of reflective teaching, the idea of teachers as reflective prac-