Developing relational epistemology through relational pedagogy : new ways of thinking about personal epistemology in teacher education

Abstract

Abstract Personal epistemology research over the past few decades has helped us
to understand better the nature of effective learning and teaching in teacher education.
However, personal epistemology has been based predominantly on psychological
frameworks in which knowledge and beliefs are individually constructed. In this
chapter, we present a social constructivist perspective on the development of epistemological beliefs in which beliefs are constructed through interactions with social
and learning contexts. We argue for the term "relational epistemology" to be used
rather than "personal epistemology" to better reflect the role that external and internal
relations play in the social construction of epistemological beliefs. From this
framework, we then report on research into early childhood professionals’ beliefs
that provide new ways of thinking about the referential and structural dimensions
of relational epistemology and how these might be facilitated using an extended
model of relational pedagogy in teacher education.