Exploring Teacher’s Educational Wisdom In The Perspective Of Phenomenological Pedagogy:a Case Study

The past decade has witnessed that the shift of teaching from techniques to practice. It is held that teaching is not an instrument to achieve some external objective, but the objective itself. Teaching should be the immediate creation that teacher applies practical wisdom to endow every context with educational significance. The implementation of tact actions according to students’ particular needs in specific education situation is called the real education. Therefore, teacher’s educational wisdom is receiving more and more attention. Teachers with educational wisdom can be able to deal with the teaching content creatively, treat unexpected events occurring in the classroom wisely, capture educational information and appropriate educational moment quickly to involve students into creative learning and exploit students’ potential sensitively. The educational wisdom is of extraordinary significance for the growth of teachers. It is the symbol of the core value of teachers’ professional development which can lead teaching to turn back to the essence of education. Simultaneously, teacher’s educational wisdom can promote the development of students’ life and further attains the sharing of life among students and teachers.Phenomenological pedagogy upholds the concepts of the phenomenology which goes back to things themselves and life world. It pays great attention to the educational things which occur in the educational scene and in the educational context. This thesis, based on correlative theories of phenomenological pedagogy, aims to do some exploration on educational wisdom of an excellent English teacher in RICH education which is a curriculum innovation carried out in English teaching for English majors in a southern university in China. Specifically, this study attempts to explore the following two questions:1) How does the teacher exhibit her educational wisdom in the classroom?2) what are the main factors contributing to teacher’s educational wisdom?This study, which lasts for a whole academic year from October2011to June2012, is conducted in the course of Comprehensive English for freshmen, English experimental Class111, taught by Hafen, a English teacher with over30years of teaching experience for the English major, as well as a leading member of RICH. The research methods adopted were narrative inquiry, case study method. The data used in this study is qualitative in nature which had been obtained through a variety of sources, including class records, observation notes, after-class reflection, learners’portfolios, journals, students’PPT as well as interviews with the teacher and the students. On the basis of the data, three enlightening stories about teacher’s educational wisdom performed by Hafen in language classroom are presented in a narrative way.From the perspective of phenomenological pedagogy, the thesis based on the stories, attempts to explore the nature of teacher’s educational wisdom through stories and analyze my understanding of the factors affecting teacher’s educational wisdom. In this thesis, teacher’s educational wisdom is shown in the form of being authentic, being flexible and being relevant. Stories are relived and retold in the interpretation process. Teacher’s educational wisdom cannot obtain directly through study, but it needs teachers to produce in practice. Therefore, this thesis analyzes the generation factors of teacher’s educational wisdom in four aspects:teacher’s love, teacher’s reflection, teacher’s personal practical knowledge and positive institution culture.