INTRODUCTION

In this chapter I will first define and then situate teachers’ personal practical knowledge (PPK) in the broad scholarly landscape and in the cognitive turn in teacher education. Next, I will review the literature on PPK for second language teachers. I will describe several significant research agendas and teacher education practices that PPK has helped to generate. Finally, I will compare two key studies in order to highlight the need for detailed explanations of the assumptions and constructs of PPK, and suggest future directions for research using PPK.

SCOPE AND DEFINITIONS

Teachers tell stories. Ask a teacher about the value of journal writing, and she might tell a story about a quiet student in class discussions who writes cogently about course readings. The teacher might frame the story around the image of students finding their voice. Ask a teacher about the meaning of student-centered instruction, and he might narrate his journey from beginning to experienced teacher, describing how superficial his conception was early in his teaching career. These stories are expressions of a dynamic and complex kind of knowledge – teachers’ personal practical knowledge.

Clandinin (1992) has described personal practical knowledge as follows:

Clandinin and Connelly (1987) have further characterised PPK as a “moral, affective, and aesthetic way of knowing life’s educational situations” (p. 59). These descriptions highlight the experiential, situational, dynamic, and storied dimensions of teachers’ knowledge alongside its emotional and moral dimensions.

Another significant component of PPK that has expanded our understandings of teachers is the construct of image, which unites the teacher’s personal and educational lives in its origin and the function it serves. Image is expressed through a teacher’s words and in his or her classroom practice. The unity and flow of these dimensions can best be understood through Clandinin’s (1986) words: “The emotional and moral dimensions of image are the glue which binds together the educational and personal private sides of an individual’s life” (p. 131).