1. 1
Professor Robin Alexander
Alexander´s earlier research and writing included the books The Self-
Evaluating Institution (1982), Primary Teaching (1984), Change in Teacher
Education (1984), Changing Primary Practice (1989), Versions of Primary
Education (1995), Policy and Practice in Primary Education: local initiative, national
agenda (1997), and Learning from Comparing: new directions in comparative
education research Vol I (1999) and Vol 2 (2000).
This corpus includes work on policy, pedagogy, curriculum, evaluation,
international comparative and cultural studies, teacher education and, especially,
primary education. Subsequently, his Culture and Pedagogy: international
comparisons in primary education (Blackwell 2001) won top education book
prizes on both sides of the Atlantic and led to Essays on
Pedagogy (2008), Education for All, the Quality Imperative and the Problem of
Pedagogy (2008) and to his extensive and continuing work on classroom talk
reform and the advancement of dialogic teaching (Education as Dialogue, 2006
and Towards Dialogic Teaching: rethinking classroom talk, 4th edition 2008).
Information taken from: http://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/alexander/

2. 2
Author´s goals
 Re-conceptualizing pedagogy and curriculum through criticizing how the teaching act has
been atomized in factors to study the phenomenon from a causality approach (method X
allow student to learn Y) and highlighting the failure of integrating once again such factors
to as a coherent and recognizable events located in time and space.
María: I would say he re-conceptualizes the relationship between pedagogy and teaching, rather
than the curriculum. The curriculum could be seen as part of pedagogy or teaching, depending on
the theoretical perspective.
 Problematizing the reductionism with which teaching has been conceived. Especially the
proliferation of certain models as, for instance, script teaching and bipolar models of
pedagogy.
María: Yes, the author challenges the dichotomous thinking that is often applied to pedagogy and
obscures the diverse combinations of pedagogical approaches that emerge in different contexts.
Scripted teaching or scripted instruction refers to commercial reading
programs that have highly structured lessons, often with specific time
allotments for teaching specific skills, and often word-for-word scripts of
what the teacher is to say. Scripted instruction has often been advocated
for schools where teachers have had inadequate teacher training and is
also seen as way to standardize the quality of instruction. Critics say that
such programs stifle teachers' creativity, undermine teachers' expertise, and
fail to provide for the diverse needs of many classrooms. Advocates see it
as the easiest way to provide teachers with the essential elements of
effective reading instruction. Scripted instruction has also been applied to
preparation of lessons in many other subject matter areas.
Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripted_teaching
Bipolar models of pedagogy… Examples of bipolar models: Student
center vs. teacher center, or process vs. product
Author’s claim
Developing a science for teaching acts based on a comparative inquiry to incorporate political and
conceptual spaces in re-conceptualizing curriculum and pedagogy.
María: I am not sure if he wants to develop a science for teaching acts or if he wants to develop a
new approach to studying pedagogy that contemplates the political and conceptual spaces you
mention.

3. 3
Methodological approach
Conceptualizing teaching based on a comparative model (5 countries –England, France, Russia, USA,
and India-, and working hard against ethnocentrism (bias in favoring one culture/country) because
terms are culturally and linguistically situated.
IMPORTANT NOTE OF THE AUTHOR:
Comparative inquiry is important, but there is a risk of using it to increase the bipolar models of pedagogy if
the researchers do not control the ethnocentric perspective
María: I think he is both conceptualizing teaching and uncovering conceptualizations of teaching in
different contexts.
Theoretical model
 Pedagogy encompasses that act together with purposes, values, ideas, assumptions,
theories and beliefs, which inform, shape, and seek to justify it. María: the act of teaching?
 Teaching is cultural act, which means such act is a group of coherent and recognizable
events that ensue in time and space, and also involves discourses (systems of values and
ideas).
 Three levels of data analysis: state/school/classroom:
María: I would add here that across these three levels of analysis he identifies 6 “versions of
teaching”. He also states that these versions are on a continuum and not distinct “national
descriptors”.

4. 4
Conclusion
In integrating teaching acts (frame/form/act) and discourses of pedagogy (systems of values)
emerges the complex relationship between theories and practices. Such relationship is not linear,
because teaching practices embrace contradictory thinking and mixed messages: teaching can be
traditional and progressive at the same time (bipolar pedagogy models are not useful).
María: Yes, that is why the author stresses the need for pluralist frameworks to conceptualize
teaching “and its informing values”
Research implications
The focus of research on teaching is not the effectiveness; instead, teaching acts should be
conceived as complex relationships between mixed values and observable practices (Frame/ Form/
Act).
María: He also emphasizes that values should be considered with the same seriousness as
observable practices. According to Alexander, pedagogies manifest values and beliefs that are
closely tied to culture and are complex.