This paper presents a conceptual framework of teachers' practical knowledge. The researcher examined interview data from 29 Finnish elementary school teachers to identify common features underlying teachers' practical knowledge. The interviews examined teachers' teaching and students' learning activities, social relationships within the profession, and teachers' professional selves. The empirical findings indicated that teachers shared some common epistemological stances guiding their practical ways of knowing. These stances were investigated and identified according to ways of being (nonscholastic stance) and ways of acting (organizational stance). This paper brings these two stances in teachers' practical knowledge together. It argues that the stances have the potential to combine vocational and professional aspects by establishing alternative epistemologies in teachers' practical knowledge. The results indicate that teaching can be seen both as a vocation with deep personal commitment and as a profession with procedural reasonings. For effective teaching, both aspects should be brought together. (Contains 66 references.) (SM)