Tapping into the tacit: reading teacher anecdotes to tap into tacit pedagogical understandings

Abstract

Reading anecdotes about other teacher s experiences can assist beginning and experienced teachers to access their own tacit knowledge. Reading those anecdotes provides the opportunity to experience vicariously the events,feelings, outcomes and sometimes even emotions of the writer. The benefit of this process is magnified when the readers then begin to consider and apply their understandings of these 'minute passages of a private life' to their current, and sometimes past practices. This paper reports on the findings of a group of beginning and experienced Queensland teachers who were asked to read and then select one anecdote from a set written by beginning and experienced teachers. The 'tales' selected and the implications for exploration of personal pedagogy and practice were clearly linked to their perceived role in the classroom and their 'comfort' within that role now and in the future.