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Abstract

This article borrows an analogy from Michael Cole’s Cultural Psychology: A Once and Future Discipline. A man loses his car keys and searches unsuccessfully for them only in the area illuminated by the streetlight. Cole urged psychology to study thought by illuminating human activity in cultural and historical context. Lanier and Shulman similarly urged the study of teaching as multidisciplinary research. An applied field, our research is responsive to problems of practice. However, when these problems are framed rhetorically as crises, we are apt to respond to their urgency by seeking simplicity, authority, and order in our research. Paradoxically, this move reduces the sources of light diverse research traditions and genres can offer. We should resist (a) pitting approaches to research against one another, (b) privileging approaches merely because they are compatible with the language of policy, (c) accepting uncritically any approach to research, and (d) disregarding research emphasizing local knowledge.

Teachers’ professional agency in contradictory times

“…This entails intentionally interacting with others as a resource for learning and acting as a support for them (Edwards, 2005;Pyhältö & Keskinen, 2012). Teachers' professional agency refers also to teacher's ability to act in new and creative ways, and even to resist external norms and regulations when they are understood to contrast or conflict with professionally justifiable action (Dovemark, 2010;Florio-Ruane, 2002;Lasky, 2005;Milne, Scantlebury, & Otieno, 2006).…”

Positioning theory, embodiment, and the moral orders of objects in social dynamics: How positioning theory has neglected the body and artifactual knowing

“…Many criticisms of positioning have been framed around such points of theoretical nuance in philosophy, psychology, and discourse studies. Writing in a similar vein as Gergen, educational anthropologist Florio‐Ruane (2002) challenges scholars to engage in ‘epistemological stocktaking’ (p. 207) to carry out critical reflection on theories and research methods. Such stocktaking redirects theory and method away from intrinsically academic endeavors toward ‘practical utility’ (Gergen, 2019, p. 78).…”

Preparing Teachers for Language Assessment: A Practice‐Based Approach

“…Feature 1: Centered on Core Practices The first common design feature was the selection of core practices of CBLA. Within a practice-based approach, teaching must be broken down into core practices that can be carried out and learned by candidates (Florio-Ruane, 2002;Grossman et al, 2009;Grossman & McDonald, 2008). Core practices are those "in which the proficient enactment by a teacher is likely to lead to comparatively large advances in student learning" and those that, when done well, "give teachers a lot of capacity in their work" (Ball et al, 2009, pp.…”