Discerning competence within a teaching profession

Abstract: This study gives voice to the discernment of competence within the teaching profession. The overarching aim of the study was to find out what teachers themselves perceive as competence in connection with what they do in practice. The aim is also to reveal if therre are similarities an differences between the teacher`s and the researchers discernment of competence - and to discuss this in connection with teacher competence. The theoretical starting-point of the study is variation theory, whose significant feature is the concept of variation, which can be understood as an interest in different ways that a phenomenon can be understood. Developmental pedagogy is also used as a theoretical perspective, where variation and discernment are used as tools for grasping the link between teachers perceptions of competence and their actions. Further, developmental pedagogy is used as a means of enhancing the teachers own meta-reflective ability. Eight teachers were shadowed with a video camera in their ordinary settings for one day. These teachers then took part in stimulated recall sessions based on three sequences drawn from the video observations. The focus of all the stimulated recall situations was to give each of the participants an opportunity to discern what she considered to be her competence as a teacher judging from her own presence i the setting. The results show that teachers and researchers discernments of competence fall into four qualitatively different categories: (i) pedagogical knowledge, (ii) pedagogical intentions, (iii) pedagogical considerations and (iv) pedagogical assets. The main difference between the teachers and the researchers discernments concern the notion of the space given to the children. While teachers appear to be passive, they reflect on what step to take next while putting their pedagogical intentions into practice. The study also shows that the participating teachers have no difficulty describing or talking about what they think is their teaching competence.