What’s in a name…
Praxis— it’s a term that I first encountered when reading Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire defined Praxis as a dialectic of world-transforming action and reflection. It’s the humanizing work, particularly of oppressed groups, whereby they reflect on their world and their situation in the world, act to transform that situation, and reflect on their actions, so as to act again in the world.
Freire didn’t coin the term Praxis. The term has ancient Greek origins. Aristotle used the term to refer to knowledge that is connected to action; it’s knowledge put into practice, while it’s also knowledge gained through practice. The term is used in Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions to refer to the practice of faith. The Eastern churches use the term to emphasize that beliefs vocalized or written are of limited value if they’re not put into action by the believer.
The concept of Praxis suggests a cyclical process, sometimes described as a dialectic. With the concept of Praxis, your knowledge, ideas, and theories are useful only to the degree that you act upon them in the world; at the same time, it’s through reflection upon your actions that you create knowledge, shape ideas, and refine theories.
Epistemologically, Praxis suggests that knowledge is constructed, not passively acquired; learning is experiential, a process of acting upon ideas and reflecting upon one’s experience of that action. Pedagogically, Praxis posits that knowledge is not merely transmitted; the teacher must guide the student in constructing their own knowledge, acting upon ideas, testing theories, practicing skills, and reflecting upon their experience.
What’s in a logo…
The term Praxis aligns with the theory of constructivism. Piaget discussed the process of individual cognitive development through accommodation and assimilation of new information and experiences to already existing cognitive schema. Vygotsky pointed out that schema construction takes place within a social context where others — parents and teachers, for example — provide the scaffolds to support cognitive development. In the context of teaching and learning, constructivists argue that learners must build their own knowledge of the world, but it’s the role of teachers to provide scaffolds for this construction— teachers can provide the tools, the materials, the blueprints, and the guidance. This is depicted in the logo by the image of the bridge with the teacher on one side, providing the materials to the student on the other, as the student builds her bridge.
Helping teachers help students…
While Praxis Education seeks to support schools broadly to improve teaching and learning, at its core, it sets out to help teachers help students construct bridges to knowledge through teacher professional learning. I view the act of teaching as a three phase cycle of Plan, Teach, Reflect— thus, the cycle of three arrows in the logo. The teacher must develop units, lessons, materials, and assessments— Plan. The teacher must implement those plans with students in the classroom— Teach. The teacher must assess student learning and the effectiveness of the planing and teaching in order to inform the next cycle— Reflect.
Praxis also describes how teachers learn to teach. Yes, teachers can develop knowledge of subject matter during pre-service training. They can also gain knowledge of pedagogical methods in this way. But, with Lee Shulman, I believe that what makes a teacher is something called Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), which can only develop through Praxis. That is, it is only through the reflective act of teaching — the wisdom of practice, as Shulman put it — that teachers learn to teach.
Praxis Education aims to help provide scaffolds — to use Vygosky’s language again — to support and guide teachers in improving and refining their teaching craft, in constructing their Pedagogical Content Knowledge, in building their bridge to greater teaching expertise, so that they, in turn, can help students construct bridges to knowledge.