ABSTRACT

In this paper, I propose shifts in perspective and practice in initial teacher education from the reflective to the diffractive practitioner as a productive way of supporting new teachers to prepare for the complex and non-linear nature of teaching. The reflective practitioner is a figure deeply embedded in humanist and anthropocentric discourses, aligned to standardised outcomes. Accordingly, reflection risks being a fixed, technical exercise that is predominantly cognitive and linear, ignoring the complex, uncertain and affective ways of knowing that emerge within teaching encounters. Here, I use theories from posthumanism to suggest diffraction as an otherwise means to explore teaching as non-linear and materially and affectively entangled through time and space, in ways that are attentive to difference and the complex world-making of education as an ethically engaged practice. In refusing simplistic, reductionist narratives about teaching, about ‘what works’ and about what it means to ‘be’ a teacher, diffractive practices are responsive to contemporary educational landscapes. I offer an example of thinking and practising diffractively, drawing on data from a creative collaging workshop for new teachers to illustrate how reconfiguration of spatial temporalities and an attention to entanglements in teaching encounters can offer generative ways to think about professional practice.

摘要

在本文中，我提出了在初等教师教育中将观念和实践从反思型实践者转变为衍射型实践者的建议，以此作为支持新教师为复杂而非线性的教学做准备的有效方式。反思型从业者是一个深深植根于人文主义和人类中心主义话语中的人物，与标准化的结果保持一致。因此，反思有可能是固定的，技术性的练习，主要是认知性和线性的，而忽略了在教学中会遇到的复杂，不确定和情感的认识方式。在这里，我使用后人文主义的理论来建议衍射，以此作为探索非线性教学的方式，这种教学方式是非线性的，并在时间和空间上被物质和情感所纠缠，以注意差异的方式以及作为道德参与实践的复杂的世界教育方式。在拒绝关于教学，“什么起作用”以及“成为”老师的含义的简单化，还原主义的叙述时，差异化的做法对当代教育环境做出了回应。我提供了一个思考和练习差异的示例，它从一个创意的协作研讨会上为新老师提供的数据中汲取了经验，以说明如何重新配置​​空间时空性并注意在教学中遇到的纠缠可以为思考专业实践提供一种生成方式。衍射实践是对当代教育环境的回应。我提供了一个思考和练习差异的示例，它从一个创意的协作研讨会上为新老师提供的数据中汲取了经验，以说明如何重新配置​​空间时空性并注意在教学中遇到的纠缠可以为思考专业实践提供一种生成方式。衍射实践是对当代教育环境的回应。我提供了一个思考和练习差异的示例，它从一个创意的协作研讨会上为新老师提供的数据中汲取了经验，以说明如何重新配置​​空间时空性并注意在教学中遇到的纠缠可以为思考专业实践提供一种生成方式。