**6. Concluding remarks**

moment; iii) at the moment of happening pedagogical practices (made visible in the specific language, the specific activities and the specific ways of relating at the time) are influenced by the specific practice architectures encountered at the time; and iv) practices are also influenced by what has been encountered previously [23]. Thus, in any one lesson, like the English lesson presented in Extract 2, practices and practice architectures may be different from those encountered and produced in any subsequent English lesson, or different to the arrangements found in a Science lesson in the same classroom (since different and characteristic vocabulary or terminology is used that render it a discipline-specific lesson, or different configurations of student groups are used). In the conduct of lessons, therefore, teachers must respond adeptly to student and community reality and diversity: cultural, linguistic, economic, regional and social differences. And as Kemmis et al. [3] showed, that responding to diversity requires understanding pedagogy as it is enacted in real sites, under real conditions at every school;

**5. The theory of practice architectures: a conceptual framework for** 

The interest in practices and practice architectures presented in this chapter stems from decades of theoretical and empirical work highlighting the sociality of teaching and learning. Utilising the theory of practice architectures offers some new insights into questions concern-

Broadly, the theory of practice architectures draws attention to *how* local or site based, as well as systemic external, conditions influence the conduct of pedagogical practices. Thus, it offers a fresh perspective on what happens in lessons in schools against the relatively volatile background of performativity, the measurement of the efficacy of teaching practice and student learning outcomes, and the rigidity being applied to the implementation of curriculum. It affords a view of pedagogy that necessarily accounts for the ways a constellation, body or assemblage of locally produced and intertwined practices and practice architectures shape what happens in sites of practice. The theory of practice architectures *re-centres* the significance of the sociality, situatedness and happeningness of classroom practices at both a *molar* and *micro* level in ways that enables the analyst *to get at* the diversity that exists in pedagogical

While many traditional accounts of pedagogy as method place great store in technè or the techniques of teaching for learning, the theory of practice architectures contributed to the field of social science for its capacity to show the nuances and distinctiveness of the practices and practice architectures of pedagogy that may indeed remain elusive in a highly complex field of study. It takes understandings about the conduct of pedagogy beyond a tacit more instrumental level to reveal the ways practices themselves get accomplished in the everydayness of particular social happenings like classroom teaching and learning. In particular, it offers

**understanding pedagogy as site based education**

134 New Pedagogical Challenges in the 21st Century - Contributions of Research in Education

ing pedagogy; these are summarised briefly next.

**5.1. New contributions of this theoretical position**

that is as *site based education*.

practices.

The chapter aimed to offer a practice perspective on pedagogy through the lens of the theory of practice architectures and to do this it took up the challenge of reflecting critically on the teaching and learning that happens in lessons. Broadly, the chapter proposes the relevance and utility of considering the theory of practice architectures for research on pedagogy. The rendering of pedagogy presented is theoretically innovative in that it seeks to understand the more complex relationships between practices and practice architectures made apparent in the cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements that influence the teaching and learning practices that occur in school settings. The ideas across the chapter have strong implications for teachers and leaders involved in practices of pedagogical decision making, since understanding how the practice architectures of pedagogy plays a decisive role in allocating life chances for young people is necessary for securing 'best practice' as a condition for efficacy, development and sustainability. Ultimately, this requires identifying the practice conditions that advance education itself in particular places as it leads to broader understandings about how and why some pedagogical practices persist and resist the constancy of change and the pressure of performativity, measurement and accountability.

The utility of the theory of practice architectures as applied to understanding the notion of pedagogy as a practice presents new conceptual work that concerns the interrelatedness and convergences between sociality, dialogue, ontology and temporality in teaching and learning. First, it is a conceptual position that shows the particularity of practices since as practices unfold discursively through moment of time they are particular to the persons involved, particular to the place in which they happen, particular to the actions and interactions of those present, and particular to that moment. Second, it shows how pedagogical practices are arrayed and enmeshed with people as they encounter one another through language, dialogue, activity, interactivity, and particular ways of relating that form semantic and social spaces. The theory of practice architectures advances notions about how disciplinary knowledge gets brought in, and enacted in and through practices in educational settings, and specifically opens the scope for discovering how diverse practices become interwoven in local sites or local practice landscapes. Third, this new conceptual work also addresses how practices are arrayed and enmeshed with people and other material objects as unfolding in real timespaces of human activity [15]. Finally, the theory of practice architectures is a theoretical position that contributes to understandings about how educational practices are developed in the local sites with which they are enmeshed, and about the teaching and learning practices necessary to support, develop and contribute to *site based education*.

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**Author details**

**References**

2017

Christine Edwards-Groves

. Stopping fall in tone , Continuing intonation

↑ Marked rise in pitch ↓ Marked fall in pitch

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no Underline indicating greater emphasis

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Address all correspondence to: cgroves@csu.edu.au

School of Education, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, Australia

Social. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1996

Practices, Changing Education. Singapore: Springer; 2014

[1] Schatzki TR. Social Practices: A Wittgensteinian Approach to Human Activity and the

The Practice Architectures of Pedagogy: Conceptualising the Convergences between Sociality…

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.72920

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[2] Kemmis S, Grootenboer P. Situating praxis in practice: Practice architectures and the cultural, social and material conditions for practice. In: Kemmis S, Smith TJ, editors. Enabling Praxis: Challenges for Education. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers; 2008. pp. 37-62

[3] Kemmis S, Wilkinson J, Edwards-Groves C, Hardy I, Grootenboer P, Bristol L. Changing

[4] Grootenboer P, Edwards-Groves C, Rönnerman K. The practice of leading from the middle. In: Grootenboer P, Edwards-Groves C, Choy S, editors. Practice Theory Perspectives on Pedagogy and Education: Praxis Diversity and Contestation. Singapore: Springer;

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