"My tutor doesn’t say that": The legitimized voices in dialogic reflection on teaching practices

Abstract

In the construction of teachers’ professional knowledge, reflective practices are a fundamental tool that responds to the need to connect theoretical principles with practical resources and to the improvement of teaching by means of critical analysis. The Practicum, as a dialogic structure for the explanation and interpretation of teaching practices, provides teachers in training an opportunity to build their own understanding based on dialogue and reflection. Invocation is one of the resources used to legitimize scientific or disciplinary knowledge in joint reflection. Qualified voices are called and made present in classroom discourse to validate descriptions or explanations. We are interested in defining the profile of the invocations introduced in dialogic reflection, as sources of legitimation of knowledge, and identify the patterns in the sequence of the invocations' appearance. This work consists of an exploratory study of multiple cases, in which each case is a classroom unit composed of a tutor and her student teachers. Two cases from the Practicum in a Primary Education Teacher Degree were selected. A category system was developed for the analysis of invocations and organized into four dimensions: academic or professional knowledge, experiential knowledge, invocation of truth, and invocation of ideology or values. Results allow us to highlight some relevant conclusions. Invocations are a widespread resource in a process of dialogic reflection to legitimize the interpretation of educational practices. The participation of student teachers in dialogic reflection is possible and abundant thanks to the experience of the Practicum, which provides a validity criterion for their arguments, supported by the invocation to the authority of teaching experiences. In this study, tutors’ efforts to connect pedagogical principles with personal experiences in the Practicum have not clearly translated into student reflections in the same direction. The paper finishes paying attention to the competencies and training that Practicum tutors need.