The purpose of this study is to understand the significance of contemplative practice in fostering teachers’ personal practical knowledge. Teachers’ practical knowledge has been valued to make teaching relevant to students’ real life contexts. However, practical knowledge has been considered difficult to teach because of the diversity and dynamism of reality. Based on the conceptualization that teachers’ contemplative practice could support their practical knowledge development, this qualitative study was carried out through a review of the literature and exploration of direct experiences of four teachers who have linked their contemplative practices to their teaching. The literature review informs us that in order to develop teachers’ practical knowledge, attention, a sense of the whole, and a sense of context are critical. In addition, those qualities can be fostered by non-dual knowing or intuitive knowing which can be developed by contemplation, that is, the act of looking at something by paying attention without thinking of anything else and without premises or judgments. The exploration of the participants’ direct experiences shows that their contemplative practices performed a significant role in fostering personal practical knowledge of self, students, environment, subject matter, curriculum, and instruction and in making their teaching relevant to the students’ real lives from a holistic perspective.

The purpose of this study is to understand the significance of contemplative practice in fostering teachers’ personal practical knowledge. Teachers’ practical knowledge has been valued to make teaching relevant to students’ real life contexts. However, practical knowledge has been considered difficult to teach because of the diversity and dynamism of reality. Based on the conceptualization that teachers’ contemplative practice could support their practical knowledge development, this qualitative study was carried out through a review of the literature and exploration of direct experiences of four teachers who have linked their contemplative practices to their teaching. The literature review informs us that in order to develop teachers’ practical knowledge, attention, a sense of the whole, and a sense of context are critical. In addition, those qualities can be fostered by non-dual knowing or intuitive knowing which can be developed by contemplation, that is, the act of looking at something by paying attention without thinking of anything else and without premises or judgments. The exploration of the participants’ direct experiences shows that their contemplative practices performed a significant role in fostering personal practical knowledge of self, students, environment, subject matter, curriculum, and instruction and in making their teaching relevant to the students’ real lives from a holistic perspective.

This essay is an attempt to scrutinize dance improvisation in terms of Aristotle’s concept of the practical knowledge phronesis. By remembering and reflecting upon lessons and my own practical knowledge and experience as a teacher in the subject of dance improvisation, I want to examine the ability to improvise as the dance students´ phronesis. Awareness, spontaneity and intuition are vital elements for the comprehension of phronesis and even represented in the basis training in dance improvisation. During the contemplation I have used philosophical books and texts mainly about practical knowledge, intuition and reflection.

This is an essay about reasons for action. It begins with two rather ordinary observations. The first is that these two uses of the term ‘reason’ roughly correspond with the two main roles that a reason can play: the role of favoring a prospective course of action, and the role of explaining action. Each of these roles seems crucial to a philosophical account of reasons, and it is not obvious that either has claim to priority. The second observation is that accommodating each of these roles seems to place restrictions on what we can say about reasons for action, and those who lean toward giving priority to one role rather than the other tend also to give priority to the corresponding set of restrictions. They take that set as given, and then focus their efforts on finding a way to meet the other set if they can. Accommodating the explanatory role has seemed to many to require that a reason bear some relation to the motivations of the agent for whom it is reason. One might wonder: what sense could there be in calling something a reason for me to act if it were not in any way capable of explaining my being moved to act? I argue, however, that accepting this sort of internalist condition on something’s being a reason to act precludes accepting a condition of objectivity that is imposed on us if we wish to accommodate the favoring role: sometimes, at least, when we have a reason to act, we could not cease to have that reason simply by having a (perhaps radically) different set of attitudes. I then consider whether the reverse might be true of externalist theories. Does taking the favoring role as one’s starting point preclude a full account of the explanatory role of reasons? I argue that it does not. I show that an Anscombean conception of intentional action allows for a fairly clean solution to a pair of puzzles that motivate this worry. This approach relieves much of the pressure to think of reasons as being tied to motivational attitudes. / text

Practical knowledge, as defined by Freema Elbaz (1983), is a complex, practically oriented set of understandings which teachers use to actively shape and direct their work. The goal of this study is the construction of a social science portrait that illuminates the practical knowledge of a large lecture professor of general chemistry at a public research university in the southeast. This study continues Elbaz's (1981) work on practical knowledge with the incorporation of a qualitative and intentionally interventionist methodology which "blurs the boundaries of aesthetics and empiricism in an effort to capture the complexity, dynamics, and subtlety of human experience and organizational life," (Lawrence-Lightfoot and Davis, 1997). This collection of interviews, observations, writings, and reflections is designed for an eclectic audience with the intent of initiating conversation on the topic of the large lecture and is a purposeful attempt to link research and practice. Social science portraiture is uniquely suited to this intersection of researcher and researched, the perfect combination of methodology and analysis for a project that is both product and praxis. The following research questions guide the study. Are aspects of Elbaz's practical knowledge identifiable in the research conversations conducted with a large lecture college professor? Is practical knowledge identifiable during observations of Patricia's large lecture chemistry classroom practice? Freema Elbaz conducted research conversations with Sarah, a high school classroom and writing resource teacher who conducted much of her teaching work one on one with students. Patricia's practice differs significantly from Sarah's with respect to subject matter and to scale. / Ph. D.

This dissertation considers experiences of embodied memory and indigenous connection to land by which people reconstitute social life in Skolt Sámi resettlement areas of Arctic Finland. After their Petsamo homeland was ceded to the Soviet Union following the Second World War, Skolt relocation to new areas of northern Finland radically transformed social, political, and subsistence lifeways, including through education in Finnish boarding schools. Continuing out-migration to Finnish cities has contributed to the suppression of identity and threats to community wellbeing, felt in ruptures of practice associated with material culture, language, and relationships with local ecologies. Though most studies in the region still focus on the reindeer herding and fishing commonly associated with Sámi populations, there is actually resurgence of Skolt craft (boats, tools, dress), as well as collection and processing of wild foods, which form the core of a vibrant cultural revival. Through participant observation and life history methods, I follow the making of things using local materials as a means by which people remake relationships with the land and with each other. The thesis focuses on the first 14 months of fieldwork in Čeʹvetjäuʹrr (F. Sevettijärvi) 2014-2015, out of a total of 26 months of multi-sited research in the Sámi regions. Scholarship on memory, practice, and displacement examines how memory becomes embodied, reworked, and reconciled across generations, and how material objects and the creation of home in new places create connections to original homelands. Meanwhile, studies among indigenous communities highlight how people use craft and art to establish connections to land despite, and through, displacement and movement. However, to understand the tangible mechanisms of these attachments and interventions, I inquire into the material practices by which people form relationships to resettlement environments. The thesis follows the concept of practical knowledge as transformed and mobilised through revival of local forms of production, to show how practices and memories are selectively rewoven to shape social futures. I argue that embodied processes of making, enmeshed in the materiality of resettlement environments, make Skolt community visible and felt in new ways by establishing connections between resettlement area and indigenous homeland. Grounding each chapter in stages of reconstruction of a Petsamo-style boat, made with roots, pine, and without metal nails, I weave points of analysis and diverse case studies to explore how processes of production, from collection of materials to building and ceremony, serve as loci of memory and practice by which people establish relationships with land to remake social worlds. In the first chapter, I explore spatial and temporal reconnections among Skolt return migrants and Finnish settlers to the Skolt regions of Finland. The second chapter deals with political and gendered dimensions of cultural revival work, showing how different ways of relating to the environment are negotiated through humour and production. The third chapter examines institutional avenues of reviving techniques of production. In the fourth chapter, I consider politics surrounding the role of non-Skolt actors in Skolt cultural revival. The final chapter examines how these politics are reconciled through ceremony and the making of collective memory, establishing Skolt presence in resettlement areas, as well as spatial and temporal continuity with Petsamo, through the public launching of the root boat. I conclude the thesis by bringing together the stages of boat production and related case studies to show how engagements with the environment through making create ways to reimagine relationships to people and place. I further suggest the broader contributions of this study for understanding indigenous movements, displacement, memory, and future-making.

Support teachers learning difficulties (STLD) have made a significant contribution to the provision of support for students experiencing learning difficulties and learning disabilities in Queensland state primary schools over almost forty years. During the 1990s with the implementation of an inclusive curriculum in schools, and in recent years, with changing systemic expectations of how academic performance might be improved, these teachers have increasingly participated in collaborative models with their classroom colleagues to provide for students experiencing various barriers to learning. This study focuses on the nature of exemplary practice as perceived through the eyes and voices of six exemplary STLD teachers. In keeping with this intent, a process of selecting the participants for in-depth study was instigated in a professional community of state primary STLD teachers located in a Brisbane education district to determine at the grass-roots what an exemplary STLD teacher might “look like”, and which six teachers in that community might contribute to the community‟s understanding of exemplary STLD teaching practice. These contributions are represented in six case studies, referred to as “portraits” and were co-constructed, that is through a dialogic process between the participant and me. Each portrait communicates an aspect of teaching practice and the experiential knowledge that underpins it. The term “exemplary” has been adopted consciously to denote “that serves as an example” (Harper, 2001) in contrast to the term “expert”, which frequently carries a technical connotation. A mixed methodology was adopted (Lincoln & Guba, 2003) in this qualitative study in anticipation of the need to draw upon various methods that in combination might assist in viewing, conceptualizing and harnessing the dynamic complexity expected to be evident in grassroots practice. First, various expressions of constructivism contributed, with the major influence being social constructivism to denote a “house” or a community of professionals in ongoing dialogue. 6 This provides the framework within which the study has been undertaken. Second, phenomenology, most particularly the work of Moustakas (1994) and van Manen (1990, 1994, 1995, 2007), is the primary source for the inspiration (van Manen) and the methods and tools (Moustakas) to explore the nature of their practice. Phenomenological approaches were adopted with the expectation they could assist in highlighting the essence of each individual‟s practice while allowing for the eliciting of experiential themes that are of importance to the professional community of STLD teachers. Finally, studies of practical teacher knowledge (Elbaz, 1983) in association with narrative inquiry (Connolly & Clandinin, 1988) have provided further insights into how the collective expression of these teachers might be displayed. The primary preoccupation of the portraits is the teachers‟ provision of support for individual students, and the nature and quality of the relationships enlisted in the service of making this provision. The teachers‟ transactions on behalf of these students are indicative of a raft of values, ideals, collaborative and communication skills which might be subsumed by the term relatedness, and the ability to see astutely the elements in various situations that need attentiveness. Their practice in action appears to be best encapsulated by Van Manen‟s (1995) term “pedagogical tact”, a term borrowed to capture the nature of the pedagogical relationships infused into their personal and professional selves. Three views of practice are provided to display and illuminate the nature of the six exemplary teachers‟ collective practice – View 1: “From the inside” which reveals the metaphors that inhabit their practice and the significance they have for their practice; View 2: “From the outside” which, through the vehicle of a narrative highlights a STLD teacher and a classroom teacher undertaking a collaborative process of providing for Dayne a student experiencing significant difficulties; View 3: “Thinking together” which provides an edited script elicited from a conversation of the participating exemplary STLD teachers. Collectively, the three views reveal what is at the heart of learning support for the six teachers. In addition, aspects of practical knowledge that are particularly pertinent to learning support practice are discussed. 7 Finally, the effectiveness of the methods adopted for the study is explored. First, the screening process successfully enabled the selection of participants who had developed their craft to a sophisticated degree enhanced by their own “personal signature” (Eisner, 1991). Second, the adoption of a combination of a social constructivist framework and phenomenological approaches provided appropriate vehicles to enable the construction of six portraits of practices that exemplified significant aspects of practice. Third, the difficulties of authenticating the portraits using a cohort of critical friends from the STLD community and forging links with the community are discussed. Finally, I raise the possibility of embedding the portraits in professional development contexts where early career STLD teachers may wish to reflect on their practice.

Based on past studies, entrepreneurial knowledge is known for the two functions: opportunity recognition and coping with the liabilities of newness, and the utility of knowledge is simplified and addressed to be a beneficial tool to advance entrepreneurial process. This perspective brings a problem to view the production of entrepreneurial knowledge as an input-output process, in which the entrepreneur¡¦s experience is seamlessly able to be translated into the entrepreneurial experience. Also this production process of entrepreneurial knowledge ignores the subjectivity of entreperneur and the notion of creativity of entrepreneurial knowledge. In light with the lens of entrepreneuring, this study aims to investigate the creation process of entrperneurial knowledge, arguing that entrepreneurial knowledge is knowledge to ¡§make things done¡¨ with that an entrepreneur is capable of tackling his/her problem and moving the entrepreneurial process forward. The creativity of such entrepreneurial knowledge is crafted from the bodily practice in everyday life instead of originating from intellectual operation. The body philosophy of Freanch phenomenologist Merlau-Ponty is adopted in this research to probe the notions of perception, embodiedment, body schema, and habits in the creative process of entrepreneurial knowledge, and how these body practices enhance and create a stylized entrepreneurial knowledge. Bed and Breakfast (B&Bs) is the primary research field, which has been growing as an eminent industry in Taiwan with NTD 16.83 billions annual value of production and 1.85 million visitng guests per year. On the foundation of phenomenological analysis of B&Bs entrepreneurs¡¦ stories, this paper argues that the creation of entrepreneurial knowledge reveals a bodily engagement process, in which entrepreneurial knowledge is accumulated and re-invented through the movement of embodiment. An entrepreneur also increases his/her bodily engagement along with the various pratices and then starting a becoming-entrepreneur process. In the end, the creation of entrepreneurial knowledge develops the composition of subjectivity. This finding risists the entities holding by the conventional entrepreneurial studies, drawing the attention to the becoming process of entrepreneurial subject. Besides, it is also manifested that the creativity of entrepreneurial knowledge emerges in entrepreneurs¡¦ daily practice. Six practices to broaden the possibility of entrepreneurial knowledge are confirmed under the context of Taiwan B&B¡¦s industry. This research intends to axplicate that the creative process of entrepreneurial knowledge unfolds a self-discovery process. Through the re-construct the relationship of self and world, people will re-discover themselves and re-create their life-worlds to live up the existence of subject as well as to disclose the meaning of entrepreneuring. With the understading of bodily practice and its roots in phenomenology and life-world perspective, entrepreneurial knowledge extends its connotation from economic function and implies a new possibility of guneine knowledge of self.

This dissertation investigates Korean pre-service kindergarten teachers’ practical knowledge regarding teaching circle time developed through both teaching practices and contextual factors during their field experience. To investigate this, a qualitative case study examining four pre-service kindergarten teachers working their field experience was conducted. Data collected through observation, stimulated recall interviews and semi-structured interviews of four participants during field experience was analyzed in order to answer the research questions. Data analysis revealed two major types of practical knowledge for teaching circle time: 1) practical knowledge about classroom management strategies; 2) practical knowledge about the teacher’s role in teacher-children interaction. The findings of the study were organized for presentation in Chapter 4 by combining the types of practical knowledge with separation of pre-existing and developed practical knowledge: the first section covers both pre-existing and developed classroom management strategies; the second section covers both pre-existing and developed practical knowledge regarding the teacher’s role in teacher-children interaction. The third section covers contextual factors which influence that development. While the pre-service teachers may have had sudden moments of inspiration where things coalesced for them, in general practical knowledge was not an instant acquisition. Indeed, this study witnessed what developed though successive teaching practices during their field experience. The use of (stimulated recall) interviews allowed for candid and timely revelations from the pre-service teachers, giving important insight into some specifics on the acquisition of practical knowledge, such as facing challenges as a vehicle for change, and the need for critical reflection. In this study, the primary contextual factor recognized as influencing pre-service teachers’ practical knowledge is the classroom teacher, through modeling and post-lesson conferences. Chapter 5 addresses the significance of the findings of this research and compares it to other research in the field, focusing on three aspects: 1) the specific types of practical knowledge developed through circle time teaching practice; 2) the process of the development of practical knowledge; and; 3) the influence of classroom teachers on that development. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of implications for: 1) pre-service kindergarten teachers at the same stage of their education, 2) teacher educators who are responsible for designing and reforming teacher education programs for pre-service kindergarten teachers, and 3) administrators of teacher education programs who can establish systemized regulations for field experience and recommendations for future research. / text

The purpose of this essay is to show how or if teachers use different methods working with minority language students, who don’t speak Swedish in lower primary school. By using different socio-cultural perspectives I want to show that learning for both students and teachers is contextual and socially connected and how practical knowledge is significant for many teachers. My working method of this essay is made in a qualitative form by interviews with four preschool teachers. By these interviews I hope to find account for how teachers with or without experience work with immigrant children. The result of my survey shows that perceived experience is significant to most of my informants, which is what deficient in their work with non-Swedish speaking children.