Provoking praxis amidst a faculty restructure: A practice architecture perspective

It is argued in this chapter that critical pedagogical praxis is a kind of social-justice oriented, critically reflexive, and informed teaching practice that is needed in universities in these times of complexity and rapid change. However, critical pedagogical praxis can sometimes be difficult to enact amidst pressures associated with mass education, changing community expectations, and the influences of neoliberalism and managerialism; pressures that are being experienced in educational institutions world-wide. This chapter discusses how the theory of practice architectures can shed light on some of the challenges of enacting critical pedagogical praxis in higher education. In the discussion, we draw primarily on a doctoral research project which examined enabling and constraining conditions for critical pedagogical praxis within a particular Australian university through the lens of practice architectures and other practice theories. We explore some of the salient architectures that were identified in the research, focussing our discussion on possibilities for enacting critical pedagogical praxis in the context of a faculty restructure. Ways in which academics were able to negotiate the changing conditions and create enabling architectures are discussed in the analysis.