Reflective Practice: A Gateway for Transformative Practice

1. Presented By
Madan Rijal
Kathmandu University School of Education
Hattiban, Lalitpur

2. 1. Introduction/Background of the Study
2. Reflective Practice for Different Professionals
3. Critical Reflective Practice for Teacher/Teacher Educator
4. Purpose of the Study
5. Research Question/s
6. Narrative Inquiry as my Research Methodology
7. Interpretation and different theme generation
8. References

3. • The human being is an agent of change for the ongoing society, (Stetsenko, 2016)
• An essential aspect of active participation or engagement is reflective in/on the action,
• There is always room for further improvement,
• A key way in which an individual deep-down into their own experiences, practices and
learn the better options for improvement, (Jasper, 2003)
• In this way, reflective practice is an ‘insider’ or ‘self-directed’ approach which demands,
(Richards & Farrell, 2005)
• Reflective practice is the practitioner-initiated and practitioner-directed approach,
(Richards & Lockhart, 1994)
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4. Continue…
• It is about questioning the status quo and
ongoing practices ,
• Moving for better solutions by resolving
the issues or challenges,
• ‘Fine-tuning’ moment, (Rushton & Suter, 2012)
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5. Reflective Practice for Different Professionals
• This is the act of transformative activist stance, (Stetsenko, 2016)
• For doing this, we need to adopt the attributes of open-mindedness,
responsible, and wholeheartedness,
• These skills or characters enable practitioners to be aware of various
disempowering socio-cultural practices, (Brookfield, 2016)
• It helps practitioners to be critical and creative which are taken as very
essential skills for the 21st century.
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6. Critical Reflective Practice for Teacher/Teacher Educator
• Teaching is a reflective process (Underhill, 1991)
• Knowledge construction is a dynamic process which demands openness to change,
• Reflective act can help teachers to improve ill practices,
• Help in creating authentic learning communities by balancing the power dynamics,
• Individual will question the ongoing practices such as
 Why a certain practice is gaining popularity?
 Whose interest is being served by such practices?
 Are our practices benefiting the society in long term run?
 Are the practices include the features of equity, equality, and inclusion?
 ……
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7. Critical Reflective Practice for Teacher/Teacher Educator
• It help teachers to be equipped with the attribute of a critical reflector
including the characteristics of critical inquiry and self-reflection,
• These ideas can be considered as an effective way of pondering our practice
and looking for better alternatives for creating inclusive environment .
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8. Purpose of the Study
• The main purpose of this research study was to explore and critically assess
the perceptions of different educational professionals on (critical) reflective
practice in their work field.
• Further, I was curious to understand how their deep-seated perceptions and
practices will help me to envision my future practices incorporating
transformational aspect.
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9. Research Question/s
1. How have you been perceiving the idea of critical reflective practice
in your educational practices?
2. Why critical reflective practice is essential for professional
development?
3. How can critical reflective practice help educational practitioners to
orient the practices towards the transformative learning?
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10. Narrative Inquiry as my Research Methodology
• Narrative inquiry an essential tool for analysis in the fields of social science,
the educational field, and others,
• It accepts the idea that knowledge can be held in stories that can be relayed,
stored, and retrieved, (Cooperrider, 2002)
• Source of information
different field texts, such as stories, autobiography, journals, field notes,
letters, conversations, interviews, family stories, photos (and other
artifacts), (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000)
• Narratives collection and layered interpretations information & knowledge.
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11. Critical Reflective Practice as a mean for Detecting Disempowering Forces
• (Critical) reflective practice makes practitioners aware of different embedded hegemonic
disempowering forces and practices,
• Orient towards envisioning and creating a socially just heterogeneous environment.
• In such an environment,
 individual differences are taken as assets,
 knowledge is assumed to be subjective and based on context
 knowledge construction process is considered a collaborative act.
 the anti-disciplinary egocentric act.
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12. Reflective Practice as a mean for ‘ Fine-Tuning ’ the Pedagogical Practices
• “How can I improve what am I doing?” This is an essential aspect of transformative
learning,
• This practice helps individual to ponder into own belief system and connected practices
such that orient him/her towards various emerging pedagogical practices,
• These practices may help in the inclusion and heterogeneous collaboration of the
learners,
• Through maintaining the environment of equity and equality,
• The continuous reflective act, our practices always get polished and follow the path of
“fine-tuning” (Rushton & Suter, 2012)
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13. Reflective Practice: An act of Being Perpetual Problem Solver
• Challenging the status quo and searching out for spatiotemporal needs is a
never - ending process, (Larrivee, 2000)
• The idea of reflective practice is making oneself a continuous problem solver,
• The ‘flash-back approach’ will help an individual to constantly be active and
engaged in searching the better alternatives for their practices, (Chaudhary, 2008)
• The habits of being perpetual problem-solving skills will also be gradually
increasing in learners with time.
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14. Reflective Practice Transforms the Roles of Teachers and Students
• The reflective practice act helps a teacher to be critical about their pedagogical practices
beyond content knowledge transmission,
• Raise their questions for why certain ongoing practices are prevailing to date and what are
the positive and negative aspects are embedded in them,
• Teacher a kind of new role of facilitator shifting from a controller or authoritarian person,
• Encourage students to act beyond ‘blindfolded devotees’,
• Help in critically re/examine various concepts through socio-cultural lenses,
• Students will be autonomous and responsible for their learning.
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15. (Critical) Reflective Practice is a Gateway for Transformative Learning
• Helps to be conscious about various taken for granted socio-cultural
assumptions
• Encourage for searching alternatives for improvement,
• Inclusive, encouraging and engaged,
• Help to take critical stance and be an agent of change in evolving society,
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16. • Brookfield, S. (2016). So what exactly is critical about critical reflection. Researching
critical reflection: Multidisciplinary perspectives, 11-22.
• Chaudhary, D. R. (2008). Reflection as a key concept for teacher development,
vol.13.No.1-2. Journal of NELTA. Kathmandu.
• Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2000). Clandinin, D. Jean, and F. Michael Connelly,
Narrative Inquiry: Experience and Story in Qualitative Research. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass, 2000.
• Cooperrider, D. (2002). Appreciative inquiry and organizational transformation: Reports
from the field. Greenwood Publishing Group.
• Jasper, M. (2003). Beginning reflective practice. Nelson Thornes.
• Larrivee, B. (2000). Transforming teaching practice: Becoming the critically reflective
teacher. Reflective practice, 1(3), 293-307.

17. • Richards, J. C., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2005). Professional development for language teachers.
New York: Cambridge University Press
• Richards, J. C., & Lockhart, C. (1994 ). Reflective teaching. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
• Rushton, I., & Suter, M. (2012). Reflective Practice For Teaching In Lifelong Learning: n/a.
McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
• Stetsenko, A. (2015). Theory for and as social practice of realizing the future: Implications
from a transformative activist stance. The Wiley handbook of theoretical and
philosophical psychology: Methods, approaches, and new directions for social
sciences, 102-116.
• Underhill, A. (1991). Best of British ELT. Plenary talk on Teacher Development