Transforming teacher education programs: The temporal character of teaching as lived experience

Understanding the work and experience of teaching requires that we distinguish the praxis of teaching as lived experience from the way it is represented in theory. In the practice of teaching, in 'teaching qua praxis,' a heightened sense of situated meaning comes from an understanding of the temporal character of teaching. In this paper, I would like to discuss two modes of time-chronological and phenomenological-in relation to the praxis of teaching. The representation of lived experiences in theory is associated with the so-called 'chronological time.' The way humans experience time cannot however be reduced to only one modality. It will be suggested that we can have a greater appreciation of teaching as lived experience if we focus on the modality of time referred to as 'phenomenological time.' In order to bring out the significance of the difference between these two modalities of time and their interrelationships in the context of teaching, I will refer to John Dewey's concept of consummatory experience in relation to a phenomenological analysis of the dynamics of teaching an undergraduate educational foundations course. The aim of this paper is to bring out the significance of the temporal dimension of experience of teaching and how this dimension can be utilized to reform the way teacher education programs structure their coursework and clinical experiences they provide for pre-service teachers.