Introduction: Three Ideal Types
There is considerable disagreement about what kind of occupation teaching is. It is generally agreed that for someone to teach it is necessary that there is some subject matter that they teach and someone to whom that subject matter is conveyed (Passmore 1980). However there is disagreement as to how that subject matter is conveyed. This does not merely mean the technique that is used to convey what is to be taught but the general form of the conveying. Thus Socrates, in comparing teaching to midwifery in Meno, is not just referring to the analogy between teaching and bringing a human into the world but is situating the occupation of midwifery as a craft and by implication suggesting that teaching is a craft which involves the skillful deployment of dialectical rather than instructional abilities (Plato 1970).
A craft is an occupation which relies on knowledge accumulated by individuals and their occupational communities, usually over long periods of...
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Winch, C. (2019). Three Contested Conceptions of the Teacher and Their Implications for Teacher Education. In: Peters, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Teacher Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1179-6_46-1
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