Reflecting on "Reflective Practice for Teachers" using Smyth's Reflective Framework.

             When I first started this course and participated in the ‘on campus’ day, I left the workshop feeling a little uneasy about the content and direction this paper was taking me.  Discussion throughout the day was around lenses and gazes, either/or/AND and these were things that I’ve never really delved into in my role as a teacher.  Call me old fashioned, call me a conformist, but I’ve always just followed the leader in my job as a teacher.  Taught what the curriculum says, in a way the specialists preach it always with the goal of raising student achievement. 

I’ve never been asked to question things and I love what I do and enjoy new learning, so am one of those people that jumps in boots and all and gives it a go.  That’s not to say I don’t recognise when things don’t work, and that’s not to say I’ve never bent things to fit the mould of the students I teach - that’s probably as deep as reflection of my practice ever went.  As part of our school practice, we write a weekly reflection attached to our planning.  My reflections were usually a recount of things that happened in the classroom during the week.  A brief overview of things that worked and things that didn’t in my programme and how I might change them next time, children’s behaviours and how I might address them, and any special events that may have happened in the school.   The most significant part of the learning I have gained since being on this course is without a doubt, the depth of my reflection now.  The importance of ‘critical reflection’ in what, how and why I do things in my own practice and the effects it has on those I work with is so much more magnified in my thoughts, more so now than it ever has.  

            On this learning journey I have come to understand that reflection is about contemplation.  It’s about growing as an educator through understanding where we come from and how our past so inextricably influences and impacts every decision we make - tied to this is having the ability to examine how our culture, beliefs, values and assumptions impact on our ‘espoused theory’ versus our ‘theory in use’ (Argyris & Schon, 1974).  I have discovered throughout this course, that this new learning has opened my mind to the assumptions I make as a manager within the school I work.  I am stopping myself from ‘waiting for my turn to talk’ to ‘listening’ to others thoughts and opinions - all the while reflecting on my thought patterns and contemplating theirs.  Throughout this course whilst carrying out the readings and especially throughout dialogue (both online and ‘on campus’ days), I have developed a deeper understanding of the depth and breadth of reflection.  The breadth of reflection I’m referring to here is the lenses, gazes, stances, spaces, ‘isms’  we have examined, read about and discussed since the beginning.  Most of these I have never consciously considered before in my role as an educator.   Smyth’s framework for reflection gave me a pathway to opening up my consciousness to reflection, it added clarity to the mixed up thoughts, opinions and grey matter that our initial discussions had stirred up.  

            One of the first readings of the semester, John Smyth’s (2011) ‘Teachers as intellectuals in Neoliberal times’, was my first foray into questioning where my ideas on teaching and learning come from and the socially construed nature of these ideas.  I have never questioned the political, social and moral imperatives that influence my teaching and having put these under more of a microscope, I have come to realise that questioning, examining and critiquing these things leads to a transformation or a more fluid liminal space that allows growth and change.  Being in this liminal space is something that requires work and effort, as I have to consciously stop myself to re-examine why I’m thinking the way I am, it’s still new to me and there is no automaticity in my actions yet. 

Bronfenbrenner’s (1994) ecological systems theory encouraged me to contemplate my own upbringing and the microsystems and mesosystems that moulded and shaped me into the person I am today, I now see more clearly how and why these form expectations and presumptions in my role as a manager.  I never realised how narrow my views were around how and why I taught my classes the way I did.  I have always considered where the students I work with have come from.  A large part of best practice is ‘knowing the learner’, and I’ve always considered myself strong in this area - having taught in the Pacific Islands I could make a connection with the many of the students and families I work with.  Now I have a new understanding of the influences of the ‘exosystems’ that function within our families and the direct effect they have on the school I work in.  It was through this reading that I realised schools weren’t as insular as I had taken for granted they were.  I was forced into looking at a much bigger picture than I’d ever considered before.  There is so much more to the school context than what is in and immediately surrounds it.  The idea of governmentality was enlightening for me.  I realised how much of a conformist I really am and how important it is for me to ‘find my power’ through advocacy, open mindedness and autonomy.  This particular stance became real to me through the problematised issue I researched and reflected on for assignment one – Manaiakalni: The Hook from Heaven. Keeping it Human.

Kincheloe (1991) opened my mind to the idea that the pursuit of excellence could be crushed by the search for efficiency.  As a school manager, this led me to confront the bureaucratic element of my job hindering the creative autonomy of the teachers I lead.  My awareness of hierarchies in the workplace lead me to examine our own environment and the structure of management in our school.  In the article, Kincheloe encourages teachers to become ‘researchers’ and to explore what that means for teachers.  I believe that we are heading down this path in my workplace, but that teachers are at different places on this researchers spectrum.  Recently, an advent of my learning from this course, we have extended our weekly reflections to ‘professional reflections blogs’.  During a teacher only day, we had a session on Smyth’s framework for reflection. 

The session was introduced with a quote - "Reflective practice is a deliberate pause to assume an open perspective, to allow for higher-level thinking processes.  Practitioners use these processes for examining beliefs, goals, and practices, to gain new or deeper understandings that lead to actions that improve learning for students (York-Barr)”.  Teachers were given an opportunity to discuss what this quote means and how important reflection is to best practice.  Now, every teacher on our staff has a reflections blog, and many dove straight into blogging the night after our session.  Smyth’s framework will be a pathway for our teachers to grow in their reflective practice and the power knowledge of themselves and their critical pedagogy.  This course has given me the confidence to talk about reflection with knowledge and understanding around how beneficial it is, not just to professional but to personal growth and development as well. 

The idea of ‘living pedagogically’ struck a chord with me.  In reading ‘Burgeo and Back’ (A.Clark, 2012),  I was taken with the idea of being conscious of the learning opportunities that take place around me outside of the workplace.  The idea that tending to ones inner life as an educator is connected to ones success as a teacher in the classroom resonated with me.  I began to wonder if I live pedagogically and I came to the conclusion that while I sometimes am attentive to interactions such as those noted in Burgeo, I don’t often remember or retell the experience, which has been identified as the most important thing.  Being aware of this, has only made me more attentive to opportunities to recognise pedagogy and to recall and verbalise the interaction. Having a professional reflections blog gives me a platform to do this and is something I have already put into use...living pedagogically is new learning I am now living.

The discourse that took place on line in opening up (unpacking to deconstruct) and complexifying ideas was totally enlightening.  Being able to participate in and follow discussions, while carrying out the readings was empowering.  It was almost like connecting the dots.  Kit’s discussion around ‘Synergy’ was completely mind boggling to me initially.  How can we use synergy in an educational system?  Our system is black and white, synergy gives nothing to measure or sign post!  Whilst the idea of synergy and subjective epistemology is very abstract to my thinking, through the discourse which took place, I was able to reflect on my understanding of the idea of ‘either/or….AND’.  It was in part through this line of discussion that I gained a whole new level of thinking around the traditional ideology of our education system versus a more abstract system.  Who controls the big picture and how does change this?

I found that each conference linked to another, just as Kit’s linked up to Molly’s questions around Maori education and where it fits in our education system.  Why are we trying to make people fit the system?  Shouldn’t we be shaping a system to fit the people?  Why can’t Maori just be Maori? The idea’s around synergy and subject epistemology fit with this topic.   This conference really reflected the idea of ‘tensions’ and the never ending arguments that surround this issue. 

How can Maori be Maori when many students don’t know what being Maori is?  When I looked through the microscope lens, I realised that although I am part Maori, I truly don’t know what being Maori is.  I was definitely brought up in pakeha culture, so I was then confronted with what do I know about being Maori and what could I bring to this conference – not just as an educator, but as a Maori/Pakeha? 

This assignment is a personal narrative of my learning and as Diti Hill (2011) suggests it has given me the opportunity to think deeply about the theories/ideas that flow into my practice in a connected, personally meaningful and storied way.   I was able to draw on the literature and connect and confront my own beliefs and assumptions.  I found this a little scary because it did reveal some things that I didn’t know about myself, but also gave me insight into the hows and whys of me - that was both enlightening and empowering.  I think there has been quite a bit of self-transformation taking place on this journey, and the tools that this course has given me has opened up a refreshingly new and exciting path through ‘critical reflection’ that will benefit my practice as a teacher and manager in a school. 

            Argyris, C. Schon, D. (1974).  Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness.  Jossey-Bass Publishers.

            Bronfenbrenner, U. (1994).  Ecological models of human development. International Encyclopedia of Education. Vol, 3. 2nd Ed. Oxford:Elsevier.

            Clarke, A. (2012).  Burgeo and back! or Living pedagogically: Catching oneself in the act of being attentive to pedagogy. In A. Cohen, M. Porath, A. Clarke, H. Bai, C. Leggo & K. Meyer (Eds.), Speaking of teaching... :Inclinations, inspiration, and innerworkings (pp. 55-62). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

            Kincheloe, J. (1991).  Teachers as Researchers: Qualitative inquiry as a path to empowerment. Chapter 2. Routledge

            Hill, D. (2011). Theory as a Story: An invitation to engage with the ideas the nourish practice. The first years: Nga Tau Tuatahi. New Zealand Journal of Infant and Toddler Education. Vol.13, Issue 1.

Smyth, J. (2011). Critical Pedagogy for Social Justice. Teachers as intellectuals in neoliberal times.  Bloomsbury Academic.

           

York-Barr, J. (2001). Reflective Practice according to York-Barr et.al. Retrieved from ppt Reflective Practice. HTML -  http://www.specialed.ccsu.edu/nicoll-senft/A%20Brief%20Introduction%20to%20Reflective%20Practice.ppt.