Practical Enquiry, Values and the Problem of Educational Theory

Abstract In a recent television feature for BBC'sPublic Eye—'Teacher Training: Back to the Classroom?'—the hoary old issue of the proper balance of theory and practice in the professional preparation of teachers was aired yet again. During the ensuing debate the various distinguished contributors to the programme adopted one or the other of the two main positions—either that educational theory might well be dispensed with entirely in favour of some kind of direct school‐based initiation into the craft skills of teaching or that theory should be taken out of the colleges and into the schools in order to be more directly relevant or applicable to practice. The main argument of this paper is that both these positions are predicated on a common mistaken assumption that the theoretically informed practical discourse which underlies rational educational debate and discussion is essentially a kind of technical discourse concerned primarily with the largely pragmatic achievement of certain value‐neutral goals. Attempts to integrate theory with practice or to dispense with it altogether in favour of practice both miss the point that the heart of so‐called theoretical educational discourse is moral and evaluative in character and its proper concern is with the education rather than the practical training of teachers.