Teacher education, agency and knowledge: Conditions of epistemic (in)justice in teacher education

In this chapter, we link a Lacanian reading of agency to Fricker's notion of epistemic injustice to explore constraints and opportunities regarding the development of professional knowledge in English teacher education contexts. Drawing on Lacan's theory of four discourses, we examine examples of current issues in teacher education from the perspective of trainee teachers and teacher educators as knowing subjects. We consider how the knowing subject is positioned in four discoursal contexts aimed at developing teachers’ professional knowledge: discourses centring teacher education around national education policy; evaluative discourses involving England's Early Career Framework; discourses drawing on a shadow economy of online profession-led knowledge; and discourses involved in not knowing and uncertainty in teaching practicum. For each example, we articulate the symbolic order in which the knowing subject is implicated and the conditions of epistemic justice/injustice produced in the development of teacher knowledge. Finally, we consider what may be learned by bringing together a philosophical theory of knowledge and a psychoanalytic theory of discoursal agency, arguing for wider opportunities in England's teacher education programmes where subliminal and sublime forms of agency can take root and flourish.