Big Thinking
3 minute read. Rachele Newman
A new language for teacher education?
Have you ever noticed that everyone seems to have an opinion on teachers and their work? And, have you ever noticed that many have a rather under-developed understanding of the full extent of that work? Teaching as a profession is unique as public perceptions related to it are informed by extensive direct experience of the day-to-day work of teachers. When forming perceptions about teaching, it is common to build these on lived experiences in classrooms and schools. Lortie, in the 1970s termed this the ‘Apprenticeship of Observation’ and it can account for the many misconceptions, over-simplification and under appreciation of the complex knowledge that a teacher requires. Prof Phillipa Cordingly suggests that teacher learning is distinct from the learning of other professionals who ‘don’t face a wide-spread belief that everyone is an expert, based on the strength of their own years as a pupil’ (TDT, 2025 p20). The problem is that pupils don’t see the full picture- and they are not the only ones.
This over-simplification of the professional knowledge of teachers has become widespread in the last decade, perpetuated by a series of policies and national agendas that position teacher knowledge and learning as technical knowledge that can be delivered through training (Newman, 2025), (Brooks & Horndern, 2024) and underscoring the ‘popular myth that there is little to know about teaching…and what there is can be picked up on the job’ (Cochran-Smith, 2005 p302). Experienced teachers will recognise this as a superficial and reductive understanding of the breadth and depth of knowledge required by teachers and the learning that teachers will therefore experience as professionals.
It was therefore with excitement that I read about ‘Didagogy’– a term coined by the Teacher Development Trust which captures the unique and complex work of teacher education and learning. The term implies and recognises a body of rich knowledge about how teachers learn and a shared language with which to frame this (in the same way the word ‘pedagogy’ recognises a rich range of professional and disciplinary knowledge related to the teaching of children). This recognises the richness of teacher learning and pushes back against the established ‘attempts to simplify teacher learning into something uniform, quick or easily measurable’ (TDT, 2025 p5)
The emergence of this term represents a shift towards a richer discourse about what teacher learning and teacher education could and should be. Prof Caroline Daly suggests that there is a ‘need to address the under-appreciation of the complexity of what it is to learn this expert practice (as opposed to training for curriculum delivery) (TDT, 2025 p25) When children learn, teachers recognise, embrace and work with the complexity inherent in this process and consciously draw upon their pedagogical knowledge to shape rich and developmental learning experiences for their pupils.
In my role as a Teacher Educator (both pre and in service teachers and school leaders), I’m super excited about this shift in the narrative. The professional learning I design is always from the perspective of rich, contextual knowledge and built upon the principles of adaptive, reflective practice and professional judgement that characterises Didagogy.
Learning to teach is not about achieving a narrow range of competencies. I hope that teachers and teacher educators claim this new language as a badge of professional status and elevate, and celebrate, the rich, messy, complex world of teacher learning.
References:
Brooks, C. & Horndern, J (2024) Towards instrumental trainability in England? The ‘official pedagogy’ of the Core Content Framework. British Journal of Educational Studies 72(1): 5-22
Cochran-Smith, M (2005) Studying Teacher Education: What we know and need to know. Journal of Teacher Education 56(4) 301-306
Newman, R (2025) What does it really mean to be classroom ready? Professional agency, autonomy and confidence in beginner teachers. Chartered College: Impact
Teacher Development Trust (2025) What is Didagogy? Exploring the Discipline of Teaching Teachers.