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(Kemmis & McTaggart, 2005 ). Action research directs the researcher’s attention to
an analysis of social practices in consideration of explicitly held values and beliefs
about what is good and of benefit (Kemmis, McTaggart & Nixon, 2014 ). Critical,
evidence-based discussions about what is being achieved in practice and what may
need to change for future practice are central to action research, and that in turn
relies on communicative action. Similarly, in the professional experience, the pre-
service teacher considers the social practices of the placement setting and enacts
his/her emerging ways of knowing, understanding and being as ‘teacher’. Their
practice, knowledge and ‘being’ are at the same time subject to critique.
As with action research participants, preservice teachers must be deliberate,
intentional and participatory about the ways in which they critique and interpret
their actions in the social and material world. In turn, this recursive process assumes
that individual preservice teachers are aware of the way in which knowledge, iden-
tity and agency are reflexive and, indeed, the way in which their existing views of
self may be shaping (and possibly constraining) current interpretations of what is
valuable for practice in action. A critical disposition and willingness to reformulate
not just ways of knowing and ways of being becomes important. In this way, navi-
gating the professional experience space effectively relies on having the personal
and psychological infrastructure to support this challenging space.
For preservice teachers, as with many professional learning settings, the realisa-
tion that there is a genuine need for reconstruction and deepening personal knowl-
edge base and identity can be unsettling. Moreover teacher education is replete with
forms of practice and ways of working that can challenge existing perceptions of the
profession (Lingard, Nixon & Ranson, 2011 ). Integrating these professional ways
of being, which includes the process of becoming in the context of transitioning
from one way of being to another (Dall’Alba, 2009 ), can be intimidating. When we
acknowledge that professional experience is thus a process of becoming, a distinc-
tive shift in learning to be, we will be in a better position to more effectively facili-
tate learning (and the mentoring of learning) in the professional experience.
The Professional Experience as Communicative Space
and Action
The Habermasian notion of communicative space and communicative action ( 1984 )
has specific theoretical and conceptual potential for moving our thinking within
professional experience, and our practices as mentors and mentees, forward. As a
heuristic, communicative action highlights three key features of a morally just, fair
and equitable approach to communication (Kemmis & McTaggart, 2005 ), in those
participants who would consciously and deliberately aim to:
- Reach intersubjectivity agreement, as a basis for
- Mutual understanding, so as to
M. O’Brien et al.