Critical Reflective Practice and Philosophy

A teacher reflecting honestly in a school where honest reflection is punished produces shallow reflection. A teacher reflecting in a school that protects honest reflection produces deeper work. The school is part of the reflection. Without seeing this, reflective practice looks like a private activity. With it, reflective practice becomes a project that has to take its surroundings seriously.

Critical reflective practice is what reflection becomes when it accepts these surroundings as part of the work.

External constraints on reflection

Reflective practice does not happen in a vacuum. It happens in a complicated social field with competing habits and constraints that affect teachers in the school environment.

Three observations about this.

Rules of being a teacher, written and unwritten

Every school has rules. Some are written: dress code, attendance, lesson plan format, exam policy. Some are not written but are still enforced: how teachers speak about students, what is acceptable to disagree with in a meeting, how much the principal expects to be told.

Both kinds of rule constrain reflection. A teacher who has noticed that the school’s exam-prep approach hurts learning will think twice before saying so. The rule is not on paper, but it is real.

Teachers do not exist in a vacuum

All a teacher’s experiences are different because the school environment they exist in, the colleagues they work with, and the habits they bring are all different. Two teachers in different schools, doing the same kind of work, are having different experiences.

This means that what works for one teacher’s reflection may not work for another’s. The methods are general, but the application is local.

Reflection cannot be understood without the social environment

To understand a teacher’s reflective practice, you have to understand the social environment around them. A reflection done in isolation from this environment misses most of what is shaping it.

This is one reason a critical friend or mentor matters so much. The friend’s role includes naming the environment, not just helping with technique.

Three fundamental processes of reflection

Models of thinking and reflection involve three fundamental processes. These appear across many of the more well-known models, in different language.

Retrospection

Thinking back about a situation or experience. This is the foundation. Without retrospection, there is nothing to reflect on.

Retrospection includes recalling what happened, what was said, what was felt, and what the teacher noticed. It is harder than it sounds, because memory smooths things over. A reflection done two days after a class often misses what a reflection done within an hour would catch.

Self-evaluation

Critically analysing the actions and feelings associated with the experience, using theoretical perspectives. This is where the reflection deepens. The teacher is not just remembering. They are evaluating, with the help of theory.

A teacher reflecting on a difficult lesson might use the theory of cognitive load to explain why students disengaged at a particular moment. Or they might use Schon’s theory-in-use to explain the gap between what they said they were doing and what they actually did. The theory provides a frame the teacher would not have on their own.

Reorientation

Using the results of self-evaluation to influence future approaches to similar situations and experiences. This is the action step.

Without reorientation, retrospection and self-evaluation are an interesting exercise that produces no change. With reorientation, they become reflective practice.

Part of being critical is to transform problems into constructive ideas. Part of it is to translate the processes of reflection into questions that challenge you further.

Three useful challenge questions:

1. Did the analysis look broadly enough?
2. Is the issue something the students would recognise?
3. Does the proposed improvement actually address the original problem?

A reflection that cannot survive these questions has more work to do.

Critical reflective enquiry from a philosophical perspective

There is a deeper way of thinking about reflection that comes from critical philosophy. From this perspective, teaching practice is viewed as a form of social life in which different kinds of domination, distortion, and misunderstanding are possible.

The implication: any study of practice needs to include an emancipatory focus, through which social life can be freed from domination and distortion. Reflection is not only about getting better at the job. It is about working out where the job is being shaped by forces that should not be shaping it.

This is a strong claim. It has practical consequences.

Three phases of critical reflective enquiry

Critical reflective enquiry has three phases.

1. Descriptive. What happened? What did the teacher and the students do? This phase produces an accurate, undistorted account.

2. Reflective. What was going on under the surface? What assumptions, frames, and theories-in-use shaped the lesson? This phase produces understanding.

3. Critical or Emancipatory. Where are the distortions? Where are values and practice in conflict? Where are intentions and actions misaligned? Where are students’ needs and the teacher’s actions out of step? This phase produces change.

The Critical/Emancipatory phase in detail

The Emancipatory phase is the deepest. It moves from the reflective phase to action that corrects and changes ineffective practice, or that moves forward to absorb new ideas emerging from practice.

It involves discussion about the nature and sources of distortions. Three kinds of distortion show up most often:

1. Values and beliefs versus practice. The teacher believes one thing and does another.
2. Intentions and actions. The teacher means to do one thing but actually does another.
3. Students’ needs and teacher’s actions. The students need one thing and the teacher provides another.

The Emancipatory phase names these gaps and works to close them. It is the most uncomfortable phase, because the gaps are usually held in place by something the teacher has not been ready to face.

Flashcard

What are the three phases of critical reflective enquiry?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Descriptive, reflective, critical/emancipatory

Descriptive captures what happened, without distortion. Reflective surfaces the assumptions and frames behind the practice. Critical/emancipatory names the distortions between values and practice, intentions and actions, students’ needs and teacher’s actions, and works to correct them.

Why this matters for a working teacher

The philosophical framing can sound abstract. Three concrete consequences make it more practical.

Reflection has to take the school into account

A teacher who reflects only on their own actions, ignoring the school context, misses much of what is shaping those actions. Reflection that includes the school is harder, but it is also more useful.

Theory has a role

Reflection without theory is description. Reflection with theory can see patterns that pure description misses. The teacher does not have to be a theorist. They have to be willing to use theory as a lens.

Discomfort is part of the work

Critical reflection produces discomfort because it surfaces gaps the teacher would prefer not to see. A reflection that produces no discomfort has probably stayed at the descriptive level.

A reflective teacher learns to tell the difference between productive discomfort (the kind that comes with insight) and unproductive distress (the kind that comes from a hostile environment). The first is part of the job. The second is a sign that something else is wrong.