Chapter 2: The Functions of Beliefs: Teachers’ Personal Epistemology on the Pinning Block

We approach personal epistemology as one of many sets of beliefs that influence and are influenced by teachers’ learning experiences, practice, and personal and professional contexts. Teachers¹ like all humans have a range of beliefs that influence how they engage in their personal and professional lives (Pajares, 1992). Personal epistemology, a set of multidimensional beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing, seems to be one set of beliefs that is particularly salient in the teaching context where individuals make decisions about content, pedagogical approaches, and curriculum sequencing (e.g., Brownlee 2003, 2004; Olafson & Schraw, 2010).

We conceive of beliefs as part of a system, an integrated multidimensional web of connected perspectives (beliefs), conceptions (knowledge), and values (affects/emotions) held by the individual that govern cognitive and external actions. Personal epistemology is one aspect of this system. In our previous work (Fives & Buehl, 2012), we presented a working framework of how beliefs function as filters, frames, and guides based on the repeated attributions of these functions to beliefs in the literature (e.g., Cross, 2009; Greene, 1971; Pajares, 1992; Richardson, 1996; Thompson, 1992). Herein we articulate our working framework of these functions using teachers’ personal epistemology as the beliefs of interest given their salience to teaching. We argue that belief researchers and teacher educators need to define, not just the belief(s) of interest in their investigations or as the focus of their instruction, but also the function that each belief serves. That is, the same “belief may serve multiple functions within the self-system of the person and as such may need to be accessed, activated, or refuted in targeted ways for desired learning and teaching outcomes to be garnered. Thus, we need to consider not just changing specific beliefs but also facilitate the use, activation, and implementation of specific beliefs for specific tasks and contexts.