Ecologies of Practices

Abstract

In this Chapter, we establish that there are connections between practices in particular sites, and that they are sometimes in ecological relationships with one another. These ecological arrangements are characterised by interdependence among practices and among the practice architectures that hold different practices in place. The sayings, doings and relatings of one practice (like teaching, for example) in a site sometimes turn out to be practice architectures (cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements) that enable and constrain another practice in the site (like student learning, for example). We argue that these relationships of interdependence form ecologies of practices. In ecologies of practices, the interdependence is not between participants in practices but, rather, between the practices themselves. We examine how different practices can co-inhabit and co-exist in a site. We pay particular attention to the five practices that have been interconnected with one another since the emergence of mass compulsory schooling in the mid-nineteenth century in the West, namely: (1) student learning, (2) teaching, (3) professional learning, (4) leading, and (5) researching. We call this group of interdependent practices the Education Complex. Based on our empirical and theoretical work, we present evidence to show how some of these five practices emerge and exist in ecologically interdependent ways.