ixin constructing her identity as she moved from a professional in the classroom to
becoming an academic in a university. She concluded that:
... the boundary practices of the third space require a delicate balancing act of acknowledg-
ing and respecting the personal and professional identities of all involved...The challenges
and tensions involved in developing these boundary practices are essential elements of my
evolving identity and practice as a teacher educator.
Lingard and Renshaw (2010) have been ever alert to the perceived gap between
the two sectors and argue for teaching as a research-informed and research-
informing profession and for teachers to have a ‘researcherly disposition’, effec-
tively inhabiting the third space along with their academic colleagues. Of course the
notion of a ‘third space’ is a metaphoric one and other writers in the book, while not
specifically invoking the concept, are referencing it as a dimension within which
new and different relationships can emerge such as in the practice of mentoring.
Finally, Kemmis (2009) insists upon a social view of practice with a demarcation
between that and the prevailing individualistic stance that overly attends to indi-
vidual behaviours and attributes. He argues that practice is always shaped by ideas,
meanings and intentions that are socially formed and always involves values, raising
questions about professional responsibility. He is optimistic that in spite of histori-
cal constraints governing habits of mind, there is always the potential for practice to
be transformative. The authors of Educating Future Teachers: Innovative
Perspectives in Professional Experience, drawing as they do upon a wide range of
theories infused with experience as illustrated by a number of case studies, have
made an important contribution to our understanding of these tricky concepts,
‘practice’ and ‘practise’, and have contributed to what I have called ‘a reflexive
turn’ in evolving these into ‘praxis’ as morally informed action (Groundwater-
Smith 2017).
References
Anderson-Gough, F., Grey, C., & Robson, K. (2006). Professionals, networking and the networked
professional. In R. Greenwood, R. Suddaby, & M. McDougald (Eds.), Professional service
firms. Research in the sociology of organisations (Vol. 24, pp. 231–256). Bingley, UK: Emerald
Group Publishing.
Green, B. (Ed.). (2009). Understanding and researching professional practice. Rotterdam, The
Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Groundwater-Smith, S. (2017). From practice to praxis: A reflexive turn. London: Routledge.
Kemmis, S. (2009). Understanding professional practice: A synoptic framework. In B. Green
(Ed.), Understanding and researching professional practice (pp. 19–38). Rotterdam, The
Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P., & Bristol, L. (2014).
Changing practices, changing education. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Springer.
The University of Sydney Susan Groundwater-Smith
NSW, Australia
Foreword