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The purpose of this paper is to ask how we can think about critical reflection as a pedagogical practice given the “confessional turn”. By the “confessional turn” the author…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to ask how we can think about critical reflection as a pedagogical practice given the “confessional turn”. By the “confessional turn” the author refers to the idea that “subjective, autobiographical and confessional modes of expression” have expanded exponentially across a wide range of social spheres, including education, the legal system, the media and the workplace. Examining these developments, this paper asks what these debates on critical reflection and confession mean for pedagogical practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The main approach is a review of key debates in the literature on critical reflection and also in the wider social sciences.
Findings
The discussion compares different debates. Thus it shows that for critics, the turn to the “first person” technologies is narcissistic, psychologistic and de‐politicising. On this view, critical reflective practice might be understood as an individualistic and individualising pedagogy in spite of its claims to be critical. The paper discusses how in contrast, others see this move to talk about the subjective and the self as an extension of the feminist project of the personal is political – i.e. that personal stories, feelings and issues have social and political roots and consequences. For them, reflection can be critical, leading to political consciousness‐raising, i.e. a new awareness about social, political and personal processes. It finishes by examining the view that the idea of reflexivity might help us out of the conflict between these debates.
Practical implications
The paper poses a number of questions in relation to critical reflection that can be taken up by practitioners in the field.
Originality/value of paper
The paper brings new literature to bear on the practice of critical reflection and raises important questions relevant to academics and practitioners.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive narrative account of supervisory conversations with doctoral students. They include providing knowledge and experience…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive narrative account of supervisory conversations with doctoral students. They include providing knowledge and experience about the nature of qualitative and quantitative approaches and their respective histories and rigour requirements.
Design/methodological/approach
An introduction reveals the complexity, debates and dialectics that are engaged with during the doctoral supervisory process. Two design issues are discussed. One is research design; the other is supervisor method.
Findings
Rigour in interpretive research is distinctive, linked to its characteristics and the unique role of the researcher as an instrument of data collection, conscious of the need to give voice to respondents and preserve their authentic responses. The audit trail is a centrepiece for both rigour and the reflection, reflexivity necessary to address ongoing biases, decisions and dilemmas.
Research limitations/implications
Supervisory conversations are dynamic but there is a core, a set of initial conditions and these relate to the ethics and integrity of the doctoral student and the supervisor.
Originality/value
The paper penetrates the social space where supervisors and doctoral students interact. Within the text, “advice” and seminal ideas are presented from literature and the supervisor's experience that will inform researchers and demonstrate a supervisor method.
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The purpose of this paper is to argue that intersubjective experiences, governed by various dimensions of space, and induced actions are invaluable to invisible public…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to argue that intersubjective experiences, governed by various dimensions of space, and induced actions are invaluable to invisible public administrators. Knowledge of these experiences holds the keys to good public administration practice and theory building.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper seeks to establish various dimensions for cultivating space in public organizations. These dimensions are related to intersubjective experiences.
Findings
The development and refining of methods, including reflection, reflexivity, hermeneutics, and dialectics, to enrich intersubjective experiences, is found to be essential.
Practical implications
As organizational realities change, the administrative understandings of intersubjective experiences will have to evolve.
Originality/value
Knowledge of the invisible administrator and intersubjective experiences has not been accorded enough research importance.
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Keywords
Abstract
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Maria Francesca Freda and Giovanna Esposito
The purpose of this paper is to discuss a reflexive process that makes a distinction between reflection and reflexivity, two processes the authors define according to the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss a reflexive process that makes a distinction between reflection and reflexivity, two processes the authors define according to the mentalization construct. Next, it explores how the narrative mediation path (NMP), a novel multimodal counselling method addressed to underachieving college students, promotes reflection and reflexivity by enhancing student ability to mentalize their university experiences.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted an idiographic case study on one of the ten groups of underachieving students who participated in the counselling sessions.
Findings
NMP narrative modes (metaphoric, iconographic, writing, and bodily) promoted reflection, and group-level inter-subjective steps were essential for the development of reflexivity. Furthermore, it was found that in each narrative mode, the students developed reflective and reflexive processes through the attainment of mentalization dimensions.
Practical implications
The adoption of the NMP has some implications for universities. Many underachieving students in higher education often have reflexive difficulties when examining their university experiences, so could be considered average mentalizers who tend to show bias in their university experience signification when under stress. Promoting mentalization development can enable students to use their resources strategically at university and improve their academic performance.
Originality/value
The NMP is innovative because of its multimodality: it employs different modes and media, makes use of both individual and group narrative levels, and is integrated in a single method, which enhances the development of reflexive meaning construction.
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Tricia M. Kress and Kimberly J. Frazier-Booth
Since the publication of Schon’s (1984) landmark text The Reflective Practitioner, there has been a surge in research literature demonstrating reflection as an essential “best…
Abstract
Since the publication of Schon’s (1984) landmark text The Reflective Practitioner, there has been a surge in research literature demonstrating reflection as an essential “best practice” for teachers. However, it often feels as if reflection is forced into our lives or we happen upon it at inopportune times, creating a contradiction of un/predictability – it is touted as crucial but afforded only particular spaces or purposes, while it sneaks into our lives at inappropriate times. From our perspective, this indicates underlying flawed modernist and humanist logics at work in conceptualizations of teacher and teachers’ work –we cannot plan on bodies in motion being predictable, and just because reflection seems located in the mind, does not mean the human is solely involved in reflection. The purpose of this chapter is to explore reflexivity as un/predictable in order to generate new possibilities and potential that are not bound by modernism’s penchant toward structure and humanism’s myopic self-awareness. Via co/autoethnography, we present individual narratives illustrating our relationships with reflexivity in various spaces of our lives. By using various types of mirrors (e.g., classic mirror, interrogation mirror, window as mirror, water as mirror) as analytical devices, we illustrate reflexivity as embodied processes that emerge un/predictably as we traverse various geotemporal–political locations and engage with other human, non-human and material bodies. By recasting reflexivity as dynamic and fluid, we raise possibilities for spontaneously incorporating reflexivity into teaching–learning and research, thereby untethering critical reflection from modernist and humanist logics that attempt to corral reflection into discrete activities and truncate its potential for transforming praxis.
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This chapter seeks to examine the ways in which university-based researchers can facilitate the understanding and awareness of public policy-makers and key decision-makers in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter seeks to examine the ways in which university-based researchers can facilitate the understanding and awareness of public policy-makers and key decision-makers in the contribution to theory and complexity research can make to contemporary public policy.
Design
The chapter provides a systematic literature review informed by reference to key urban regeneration strategies in the United Kingdom.
Findings
The chapter argues that it is through the promotion of inter-disciplinary approaches to understanding and learning that we might develop the reflective capacities of decision-makers.
Implications/Originality
The chapter is intentionally speculative and seeks to encourage critical self-reflection.
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Julie Faulkner and Michael Crowhurst
Critical discussion of the social conditions that shape educational thinking and practice is now embedded in accredited teacher education programmes. Beneath beliefs that critique…
Abstract
Purpose
Critical discussion of the social conditions that shape educational thinking and practice is now embedded in accredited teacher education programmes. Beneath beliefs that critique of educational inequality is desirable, however, lie more problematic questions around critical pedagogies, ethics and power. Emotional investments can work to protect habituated ways of thinking, despite attempts to move students beyond their comfort zone. This strategic process can shift attitudes and promote intellectual and emotional growth, but can also produce defensive reactions. This paper, a self-study in relation to an incident in a tertiary education programme, examines how student feedback on content and pedagogy positions teachers and learners. The purpose of this paper is to frame and reframe ways in which learner feedback to critical approaches might be read. The argument examines, through dialogue, the potential of disruptive teaching approaches for recontextualising both learner and teacher response. Such exploration articulates particular tensions and challenges inherent in critical teacher education pedagogies.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a reflective practitioner piece – involving journaling and the use of dialogue – to explore a critical incident.
Findings
This is an exploratory piece – the authors explore the workings of tension in critical/poststructural pedagogical work.
Originality/value
The deployment of dialogue as a method and as a way of presenting key issues is somewhat novel. The paper works through quite complex terrain in an accessible and reasonably clear fashion.
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Susan Brandis, Stephanie Schleimer and John Rice
Creating a culture of patient safety and developing a skilled workforce are major challenges for health managers. However, there is limited information to guide managers as to how…
Abstract
Purpose
Creating a culture of patient safety and developing a skilled workforce are major challenges for health managers. However, there is limited information to guide managers as to how patient safety culture can be improved. The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of reflexivity and develop a model for magnifying the effect of patient safety culture and demonstrating a link to improved perceptions of quality of care.
Design/methodology/approach
This research employed a correlational case study design with empirical hypothesis testing of quantitative scores derived from validated survey items. Staff perceptions of patient safety, reflexivity and quality of patient care were obtained via a survey in 2015 and analysed using inferential statistics. The final sample included 227 health service staff from clinical and non-clinical designations working in a large Australian tertiary hospital and health service delivering acute and sub-acute health care.
Findings
Both patient safety culture and reflexivity are positively correlated with perceived quality of patient care at the p<0.01 level. The moderating role of reflexivity on the relationship between patient safety culture and quality of care outcomes was significant and positive at the p<0.005 level.
Practical implications
Improving reflexivity in a health workforce positively moderates the effect of patient safety culture on perceptions of patient quality of care. The role of reflexivity therefore has implications for future pre-professional curriculum content and post-graduate licencing and registration requirements.
Originality/value
Much has been published on reflection. This paper considers the role of reflexivity, a much less understood but equally important construct in the field of patient safety.
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