Phase Transition of Multi-Professional Collaborative Conference

From the Perspective of Clinical Pedagogy

Abstract

ABSTRACT 　　 This study revisits the state of multi-professional collaboration and its challenges in the context of clinical pedagogy by reconsidering multi-professional collaborative conferences as emergent educational practices used by teachers and local development support workers. First, the educational policy underlying the current practice of novel multi-professional collaboration is reviewed. Second, the significance of this educational practice is examined from the perspective of clinical pedagogy. Finally, the narrative-based practice of in-service teacher education is exemplified and the practical issues of multi-professional collaborative conferences are examined. 　　 The clinical pedagogical perspective revealed that multi-professional collaborations between teachers and local development support workers should be re-evaluated as an educational practice that deepens children’s understanding and explores new collaborations to care for and support children. Current educational policies promote the practice of “curriculum open to society” is primarily examined via learning activities, and the practice based on the concept of “school as a team” is explored mainly in the context of student guidance and counselling. Evidently, it might be difficult to improve the quality of educational practice as multi-professional collaborations without deepening the mutual understanding of the zone of proximal development of each child. 　　 In clinical pedagogical practice, multidisciplinary collaboration is accompanied by a kind of “disturbance” that leads to the novel activity system. By accepting the emotional experience (perezhivanie ) that accompanies such disturbances, respecting each other’s specialties, and conducting a polyphonic dialogue, the practice of in-service teacher education could be enriched. Multi-professional collaborative conferences must thus shift from a problem-solving phase to a problem-inquiry phase, whereby the multi-professional conference can be a mode of “open dialogue” that addresses the problems in the network of relationships surrounding a child in crises.