Phenomenological inquiry of Hong Kong school teachers’ pedagogical thoughtfulness and its implications for quality teaching and teacher education

This paper examines teachers’ (un)thoughtful actions in the dynamic and contingent classroom moments through classroom anecdotes obtained from the author’s most recent research project in Hong Kong context. It raises the research question of how we should cultivate teacher’s pedagogical thoughfulness. Experiential stories of unexpected/contingent classroom moments have been obtained through teacher/student interviews and writing exercises, and then interpreted using the hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry. From these descriptions, reflections on quality teaching, meaningful learning, embodied knowing and pedagogical thoughtfulness are generated, with a special discussion on the quality teaching requirements and its implications for pre and in-service teacher preparation programs.