The Power of Hermeneutic Phenomenology in Restoring the Centrality of Experiences in Work-Integrated Learning

Our research using hermeneutic phenomenology positions a pre-service or graduate teacher's learning to be a teacher as a process of formation which involves relational sensibilities and ontological understandings that are often taken for granted and can be drawn from teacher's everyday experiences of 'being-in' their practice. We live in ideological times that are challenging the priorities, practices and discourses within pre-service teacher education programs. Critically important here are changes driven by an ideological 'evidence-based' priority for the 'measurement' of preservice teachers and graduate teachers' professional practice. In this paper, we share our concerns over this narrowing of educational outcomes toward behavioral practices occurring in the context of work-integrated learning (WIL). How have Initial Teacher Education Programs lost sight of the holistic, complex and contextual nature of their praxis? Not to mention the nuanced and experiential improvisation occurring within every relational engagement that constitutes WIL.