PEDAGOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AS AN EPISTEME THAT CONNECTS DISCIPLINARY KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE IN THE CONFIGURATION OF TEACHING IDENTITY

Abstract

This essay analyzes the significance of pedagogical knowledge in shaping teacher identity and practice in the context of the transformations characteristic of post-industrial society. It starts from the thesis that traditional training models, focused exclusively on disciplinary mastery or the application of technical resources, are epistemically insufficient to address the complexity of the classroom. Consequently, pedagogical knowledge is posited as the indispensable link between the rigor of disciplinary knowledge and the effectiveness of educational action, thus overcoming the historical dissociation between the two. This study characterizes such knowledge not as a set of instrumental recipes, but as a complex episteme that integrates theoretical, practical, and ethical dimensions. It highlights that teachers' identities are constructed through systematic reflection on their work, which allows them to move beyond the role of passive executors to become autonomous intellectuals and social architects of learning experiences. As a central finding, it concludes that the critical appropriation of pedagogical knowledge provides teachers with the necessary tools to solve everyday problems, innovate in their methodology, and adapt to contextual changes without losing their formative essence. Finally, a transformation in teacher training models is proposed, in which action research and the integration of theory and practice are fundamental, allowing teachers to regain their social legitimacy and their capacity to transform educational reality from a conscious and humanizing perspective.