Teacher Reflexivity: An Important Dimension of a Teacher’s Growth

Abstract

Reflective practice is often linked in teacher education courses with the expectation of reflection on moments of teaching which typically favour writing about personal experiences which tend to be limited in terms of critical reflective practice. Such limited introspection on lesson plans and ‘what happened’ then leads to a focus on success or otherwise. Such uncritical reflection on the implementation of technical tasks framed by ‘standards’ inevitably limits the potential of reflection. What is missing is theoretically guided reflection. A solution to this very limited sense of reflection by drawing on Paulo Freire’s practice of doing education in terms of his more critical awareness of his—and hence teachers’—being both in and with (or among) others. To be so engaged opens an awareness of both the constraints which keep people in their place—ideologies—and the possibilities of confronting those ideologies in ways that open visions of new ways of being in the world and new pedagogies for achieving these new freedoms. Teachers are to go beyond technical goals in teaching to concern themselves with their own attitudes, values and aspirations.