Subtopic Deep Dive

Teaching as a Practice
Research Guide

What is Teaching as a Practice?

"Teaching as a Practice" examines Alasdair MacIntyre's conceptualization of teaching as a social practice with internal goods and standards of excellence.

Researchers apply MacIntyre's framework to teacher identity, professional development, and resistance to neoliberal reforms (Wain, 2003; 14 citations). Key works address scope problems in practices (Sinnicks, 2017; 36 citations), educational purposes (MacAllister, 2016; 26 citations), and phronesis hypotheses (Kristjánsson, 2021; 23 citations). Over 10 papers from 2003-2024 explore these implications.

Curated Papers

Key Challenges

Why It Matters

MacIntyre's practice concept frames teaching beyond technical skills, influencing teacher professionalism debates (Kreber, 2015; 15 citations). It critiques neoliberal quality assurance, advocating experience-based standards over explicit metrics (Christensen, 2010). Applications include business ethics education (Sinnicks, 2017) and democratic teaching (Webster, 2017; 12 citations), shaping policy resistance and ethical training.

Key Research Challenges

Scope of Practice Application

MacIntyre’s practice concept faces scope problems limiting applicability to business ethics and education (Sinnicks, 2017). Critics question boundaries between practices and institutions (Kavanagh, 2012). Resolving this requires clarifying internal goods in teaching contexts.

Phronesis Operationalization

Phronesis in teaching lacks testable measures despite 22 hypotheses proposed (Kristjánsson, 2021; 23 citations). Educational discourse varies in engagement levels, frustrating empirical validation. Bridging theory to practice demands new research programs.

Neoliberal Reform Resistance

Quality assurance tensions undervalue teacher experience against explicit standards (Christensen, 2010). Neoliberal metrics conflict with practice-based excellence (Webster, 2017). Developing counter-frameworks challenges policy dominance.

Essential Papers

Moral Education at Work: On the Scope of MacIntyre’s Concept of a Practice

Matthew Sinnicks · 2017 · Journal of Business Ethics · 36 citations

This paper seeks to show how MacIntyre’s concept of a practice can survive a series of ‘scope problems’ which threaten to render the concept inapplicable to business ethics. I begin by outlining Ma...

What should Educational Institutions be for?

James MacAllister · 2016 · British Journal of Educational Studies · 26 citations

In this article, I respond to the work of Gert Biesta regarding the question of what education should be for. He maintains education ought to be oriented towards the ‘good’ rather than measurement,...

Twenty‐two testable hypotheses about phronesis: Outlining an educational research programme

Kristján Kristjánsson · 2021 · British Educational Research Journal · 23 citations

The concept of phronesis enters educational discourse at various levels of engagement, and it continues to fascinate and frustrate educational theorists in equal measure. This article begins by cha...

Furthering the “Theory Debate” in the Scholarship of Teaching: A Proposal Based on MacIntyre’s Account of Practices

Carolin Kreber · 2015 · Canadian Journal of Higher Education · 15 citations

Initiatives intended to support and advance the scholarship of teaching have become common in Canada as well as internationally. Nonetheless, the notion of a scholarship of teaching remains contest...

MacIntyre: Teaching, Politics and Practice

Kenneth Wain · 2003 · Journal of Philosophy of Education · 14 citations

Journal Article MacIntyre: Teaching, Politics and Practice Get access Kenneth Wain Kenneth Wain Correspondence: Kenneth Wain, Faculty of Education, University of Malta, Msida, Malta Email: kenneth....

Education or Quality of Teaching? Implications for Australian Democracy

R. Scott Webster · 2017 · 12 citations

The argument being made here is that democratic life is more likely if educators actually ‘educate’, rather than comply with quality of teaching approaches as promoted by the Australian federal gov...

Johnson, MacIntyre, and the Practice of Argumentation

Tone Kvernbekk · 2008 · Informal Logic · 4 citations

This article is a discussion of Ralph Johnson’s concept of practice of argumentation. Such practice is characterized by three properties: (1) It is teleological, (2) it is dialectical, and (3) it i...

Reading Guide

Foundational Papers

Start with Wain (2003; 14 citations) for core MacIntyre teaching analysis, then Kvernbekk (2008; 4 citations) on argumentation practices, as they establish political and rational dimensions.

Recent Advances

Study Sinnicks (2017; 36 citations) for scope resolutions, Kristjánsson (2021; 23 citations) for phronesis hypotheses, Webster (2017; 12 citations) for democracy links.

Core Methods

Philosophical argumentation (Kvernbekk, 2007-2008), scope problem resolution (Sinnicks, 2017), testable hypothesis formulation (Kristjánsson, 2021), theory-practice debates (Kreber, 2015).

How PapersFlow Helps You Research Teaching as a Practice

Discover & Search

Research Agent uses searchPapers on 'MacIntyre teaching practice' to retrieve Sinnicks (2017), then citationGraph maps Wain (2003) influences, and findSimilarPapers uncovers Kreber (2015). exaSearch handles Danish texts like Christensen (2010) for comprehensive coverage.

Analyze & Verify

Analysis Agent applies readPaperContent to Sinnicks (2017) abstracts, verifyResponse with CoVe checks MacIntyre scope claims against Wain (2003), and runPythonAnalysis computes citation networks via pandas on 10 papers. GRADE grading scores phronesis evidence in Kristjánsson (2021).

Synthesize & Write

Synthesis Agent detects gaps in neoliberal critiques between Webster (2017) and Christensen (2010), flags contradictions in practice definitions. Writing Agent uses latexEditText for revisions, latexSyncCitations integrates 10 papers, latexCompile generates reports, and exportMermaid diagrams MacIntyre practice hierarchies.

Use Cases

"Extract citation stats and run network analysis on MacIntyre teaching papers."

Research Agent → searchPapers → Analysis Agent → runPythonAnalysis (pandas network graph on 10 papers) → matplotlib citation plot output.

"Write LaTeX section comparing Wain (2003) and Sinnicks (2017) on teaching practices."

Synthesis Agent → gap detection → Writing Agent → latexEditText + latexSyncCitations + latexCompile → formatted PDF section.

"Find GitHub repos linked to phronesis research tools from Kristjánsson (2021)."

Research Agent → paperExtractUrls (Kristjánsson 2021) → paperFindGithubRepo → githubRepoInspect → code snippets for phronesis metrics.

Automated Workflows

Deep Research workflow scans 50+ OpenAlex papers on MacIntyre practices, structures reports with GRADE-scored sections on teaching implications. DeepScan's 7-step chain verifies scope claims: readPaperContent (Sinnicks) → CoVe → runPythonAnalysis. Theorizer generates hypotheses linking phronesis (Kristjánsson, 2021) to teacher identity practices.

Try Doxa for Teaching as a Practice Research

Frequently Asked Questions

What defines teaching as a practice per MacIntyre?

Teaching qualifies as a practice with internal goods like excellence standards, distinct from external institutional rewards (Wain, 2003; Sinnicks, 2017).

What methods analyze teaching practices?

Philosophical extension tests scope (Sinnicks, 2017), hypothesis generation for phronesis (Kristjánsson, 2021), and theory debates via practice accounts (Kreber, 2015).

What are key papers?

Sinnicks (2017; 36 citations) on scope, MacAllister (2016; 26 citations) on purposes, Wain (2003; 14 citations) on politics and practice.

What open problems exist?

Operationalizing phronesis empirically (Kristjánsson, 2021), resisting neoliberal metrics (Webster, 2017; Christensen, 2010), clarifying practice-institution boundaries (Kavanagh, 2012).