A theoretical and methodological device for understanding professional practices

Abstract

This contribution presents a theoretical and methodological device that acknowledges the complexity inherent in the notion of professional practice within the context of a research in education. After discussing various theoretical perspectives in relation to this notion, we propose two courses of action for facilitating its operationalization. The device elaborated is based on a methodological bricolage (as Levi-Strauss [1962] defines it) that includes three cumulative points of view: restitution, contrast and analysis. Each point of view attaches a specific significance to the words of the practitioners who took part in the research as well as to those of the researcher. We feel this device is heuristically rich for studying the practices of various stakeholders within the school, teachers included, notably because, on one hand, it allows for the articulation of words and actions and, on the other, it calls upon various kinds of data, analytical strategies and statuses of speech.