Mediating Purpose and Practice: Relationship-Based Praxis in the Work of Beginning Secondary Social Studies Teachers

• In Event: 60.083 - Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: 60.083-13 - Studies of Preservice Social Studies Teachers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to better understand the ways beginning social studies teachers’ purposes, namely those related to democratic theory, intersected with practice. Teachers were asked to develop personal practical theories of democracy and reflect on the ways their experiences related to those practical theories. Framed by a theory of democratic pragmatism, this paper includes findings that emphasize the roles of structural-institutional pressures, images of teacher, and knowing students as mediating factors in the dialectical relationship between purpose and practice as represented in decision-making. This research supports an argument for the importance of meaningful relationships with students as a key factor in the choices made by teachers.

Author

• Andrew L. Hostetler, Vanderbilt University