Teacher Dispositions as a Means to Moral Practice and the Cultivation of Practical Wisdom

• In Event: 14.026 - Dispositions for Teaching and Learning: Conceptualization and Enactment Across Teacher Education Contexts

Abstract

Debates defining “quality teaching” and establishing methods of “accountability” persist (Cochran-Smith et al., 2012; Darling-Hammond & Lieberman, 2012; Fullan, 2011; Hanushek & Rivkin, 2006). Yet when these arguments focus on compliance-driven efforts to raise test scores, they disregard the fundamental essence of quality teaching: the moral capacities of the teacher to achieve worthwhile aims within a given context. The purposes of this conceptual paper are to describe what it means for teachers to engage in teaching as a moral practice, and to explain how dispositions are a means of building the moral capacities of teachers through the cultivation of “practical wisdom” (Schwartz & Sharpe, 2010). To build the conceptual framework this paper will draw on theoretical and empirical evidence in the field of teacher quality, teacher dispositions, and the moral work of teaching, and on philosophical explication of practical wisdom. We provide a brief overview of the conceptualization of dispositions in teaching, unpack why the moral is important in education, and synthesize evidence across a number of studies (Bercaw, Summers, Colby, & Payne, 2012; Carroll, 2012; Eberly, Rand, & O'Connor, 2007; Johnson, 2008; Schussler, Bercaw, & Stooksberry, 2008a, 2008b; Schussler & Knarr, 2013; Schussler, Stooksberry, & Bercaw, 2010) to show how attention to dispositions can nurture teachers’ capacities to discern appropriate decisions and actions in specific situations, in other words to apply practical wisdom.
Teaching involves a complex interplay of knowledge and skills encompassing such diverse areas as child development, subject area knowledge, culturally relevant pedagogy, classroom management, and a host of others. Yet quality teaching, teaching that embraces the inherent moral nature of all decisions and actions, moves beyond the teacher’s possession of knowledge and skills in these areas. For quality teaching to occur, the teacher must decide which knowledge and skills to employ in a particular context both to reach immediate goals and to work towards the broader purposes of education, especially educational equity for all. The teacher must be inclined to put his/her knowledge and skills to use to achieve desired outcomes and must develop discernment so s/he is aware of what a particular context requires in order for those outcomes to be reached. Because achieving desired outcomes and realizing broad purposes of education constitutes making values concrete, the teacher also must discern how his or her values are manifesting through his or her actions.
Because education encompasses an array of purposes beyond just acquiring content, it will always necessitate the judgments and moral capacities of teachers. It is true that to engage in quality teaching, teachers must know content and demonstrate pedagogical skills. In addition, teachers must develop discernment, including awareness of inclinations, what influences those inclinations—including one’s values—to drive their decisions, how the context impacts the effectiveness of those decisions, and how to best align one’s goals with one’s actions. In essence, the effective teacher embodies teaching as a moral practice through cultivation of practical wisdom. Dispositions are an essential means to developing that practice; educational equity depends on it.

Author

• Deborah L. Schussler, The Pennsylvania State University