Understanding TPACK in Practice: Praxis through Technological Pedagogical Reasoning

Abstract

Reflective, intelligent, professional teachers research their own practice to inform future improvements. However, the demands upon teacher graduates and early career teachers do not enable the space and time to engage effectively in 'praxis' (Freire, 1970) which involves "highly developed educational practice that consciously articulates the theory on which it is based, and, in turn, generates new theory" (O'Toole & Beckett, 2013). Freire (1970) articulates the term 'limit situations' which can enable teacher voice to portray experience and reflection which might differ from those around them. This paper is situated within an understanding of the complexities of the contexts for graduate and early career teachers to develop Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) to have the confidence and capabilities to use technologies to support their teaching and to support student learning. This paper provides an Australian early career teacher's story through praxis by drawing upon the TPACK conceptualisation and recent attempts to explore teachers' Technological Pedagogical Reasoning (TPR) (Smart et al., 2013). The praxis is also considered in relation to the expectations of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL, 2011a), and the ICT Elaborations (AITSL, 2011b) which complement those standards. The authors suggest that this approach can significantly contribute to the TPACK literature to inform what TPACK looks like in practice through the experiences and reflections of teachers and explore the 'black box of technology integration' (Tondeur et al. 2013) through teacher perspectives.