‘Pedagogic oppression’: the need for emancipation through contradiction in teacher professional development

ABSTRACT

Whilst teacher professional development exists in an arena of competing discourses it is commonly underpinned by a dualistic philosophical perspective. Some argue that professional development could be improved within the dualist perspective whilst others suggest a monistic alternative championing unity and connection. In this paper we argue that there are consequences to professional development experienced in a dualistic system which we term ‘pedagogic oppression’. We suggest that this pedagogic oppression takes place when Hegelian contradiction (the inability of anything to be identical with itself) is obscured in professional development. We claim that this pedagogic oppression reveals confusion around the purpose of professional development, reveals shortcomings in its scope, and reveals a deep dissatisfaction in teachers’ self-perceptions. This paper utilises reflexive thematic analysis generated from interviews with five experienced teachers of mathematics. We identify how a Hegelian understanding of opposition, experience and expertise can reveal pedagogic oppression and explore the consequences. Not only do we suggest that there is a need for a wider perspective of our understanding of professional development, but we also argue that professional development should be founded on principles which enable the revelation of contradiction – revelations that bring about pedagogic emancipation.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher professional development
• emancipation
• contradiction
• dualism
• monism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).