The reflective practicum in the process of becoming a teacher: the tutor’s discursive support

Abstract

Interest in reflective practices, within the broader framework of teachers’ professional knowledge, has been ongoing in educational research for the past few decades. The idea from which reflection itself stems is that of teachers’ agency in their own professional development. The initial positivist approach viewed the relationships between teachers’ theoretical knowledge and educational practice in terms of hierarchical reductionism. We analyze the relationships between different types of knowledge from a historical-cultural perspective, which requires locating them in the context of the cultural activities. Our aim is to analyze the discursive interactions, which take place during collaborative seminars, within a reflective practicum, and to identify how the university tutors support and foster reflection on practice. We use a multiple case design in which each case is a classroom unit made up of a tutor and his or her students. An analysis of the tutors’ discourse revealed an ongoing promotion of students’ active engagement through highly structured classroom participation, a strong focus on interpreting students’ personal experiences during teaching practice and significant interventions aimed at establishing links with academic knowledge. Results invite us to rethink the ways in which we can contribute to processes of reflection among trainee teachers.