The Teaching Triangle: Pedagogy Professionalism and Vocationalism

This constructivist grounded theory study interrogates the role of the second level teacher in contemporary Ireland. This role emerges as a problematic navigation between: a passive pedagogy an ambivalent professionalism and a frequently silenced vocational domain. The study highlights an intensified pedagogy dominated by: terminal exams competitive accountability limited autonomy and a fractured relational domain in typically non - reflective learning spaces. The study also celebrates however a deeply rooted yearning by teachers to re-discover their vocational mission. The author argues for a more radically integrated vocational practice. He challenges teacher educators policy makers teachers and educational leaders to ‘attend to' the human development mission at the heart of teaching and learning. In so doing he proposes a visionary framework to guide the realignment of educational practice in Ireland.