Strategic Knowledge as a Selective Mechanism of Pedagogical Reasoning among Experienced EFL Lecturers

Abstract

Strategic knowledge remains underexamined in EFL research and is often conflated with ordinary instructional adaptation. This qualitative multiple-case study examined how strategic knowledge shaped pedagogical reasoning and potential pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) development among five experienced EFL lecturers across five subject areas at an Indonesian state university. Data were collected over one semester using Content Representations (CoRes), Pedagogical and Professional-experience Repertoires (PaP-eRs), ten classroom observations, and post-observation interviews; detailed reasoning-chain analysis centred on CoRe and PaP-eR evidence. Framework-guided thematic analysis integrated within-case reconstruction of planned and enacted reasoning with cross-case synthesis based on Shulman’s model and six strategic-knowledge indicators. All teachers calibrated content to perceived learner characteristics, adapted instructional representations, and staged small-group-to-whole-class activities. However, the uniformity of these practices was more consistent with professional routines than with strategic knowledge. Stronger evidence emerged only when teachers recognized a conflict between pedagogical principles, diagnosed the resulting misalignment, and constructed a non-routine response. The analysis yielded a tentative four-phase sequence—evaluation, strategic diagnosis, alternative construction, and implementation—strongly evidenced in two cases, partially in one, weakly in one, and absent in one; implementation was confirmed in only one case. The findings position strategic knowledge as a selective and unevenly visible mechanism of pedagogical reasoning rather than an automatic attribute of experience. Only one case provided moderate, self-reported evidence of enacted PCK revision, underscoring the need for longitudinal corroboration.