The Social Work Pocket Guide to...: Reflective Practice
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About this ebook
Siobhan Maclean
Siobhan Maclean BA CQSW PQSW is a registered social worker, trainer, and consultant with a passion for the profession. Since qualifying in 1990, she’s held various roles and continues to maintain practice skills as an independent practice educator to around six students a year. She founded Kirwin Maclean Associates to publish accessible, affordable social work books, reflecting the sector’s values. The company runs on a not-for-profit basis, aiming to support students and practitioners rather than sell glossy brochures. Siobhan encourages practitioners to theorise from their own experiences and believes social work knowledge should be co-produced, not left solely to academics. All contributors are experienced professionals committed to sharing knowledge in a clear, engaging way. “I’m a social worker, not a salesperson,” she says. “It’s not about selling books—it’s about making professional knowledge accessible.”
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The Social Work Pocket Guide to... - Siobhan Maclean
WHAT?
It is generally agreed that reflective practice is an essential aspect of good practice in social work and increasingly in social care. However, there is very little agreement on the concept and defining reflective practice is not straightforward.
This pocket guide therefore begins by exploring the following questions:
• What is reflection?
• What is reflective practice?
• What is critical practice?
• What is reflexivity?
• What are the origins of reflective practice?
Thinking through these questions should help you to be clear about perhaps the most important question of all:
Reflection is:
the mental process of trying to structure or restructure an experience, a problem or existing knowledge or insights.
Korthagen (2001 : 58)
a process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe, analyse, evaluate and so inform learning about practice.
Reid (1993 : 305)
active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends.
Dewey (1933 : 118)
A reflection in a mirror is an exact replica of what is in front of it. Reflection in professional practice, however, gives back not what it is, but what it might be, an improvement on the original.
Biggs (1999 : 6)
Reflective Practice is:
In its broadest sense, reflective practice involves the critical analysis of everyday working practices to improve competence and promote professional development.
Clouder (2000)
something more than thoughtful practice. It is that form of practice that seeks to problematise many situations of professional performance so that they can become potential learning situations and so the practitioner can continue to learn, grow and develop in and through practice.
Jarvis (1992 : 180)
Critical reflection is:
In social work the meaning of critical practice is complex and implies an enrichment of ideas going beyond reflective practice.
Adams (2007 : 37)
The important difference [between reflection and critical reflection] is that critical reflection places emphasis and importance on an understanding of how a reflective stance uncovers power relations and how structures of domination are created and maintained.
Fook (2002 : 41)
A window through which the practitioner can view and focus self within the context of his/her own lived experience in ways that enable him/her to confront, understand and work towards resolving the contradiction within his/her practice between what is desirable and actual practice.
Johns (2000 : 34)
Reflexivity is:
a process of looking inward and outward, to the social and cultural artefacts and forms of thought which saturate our practices.
If something is taken for granted, if we are no longer aware of it, how may we open it up for study? This links to a larger, recurrent question from social science and philosophy – to what extent can we know ourselves?
White (2001 : 103-104)
a form of self reflection, or other reflection and a processual way of making sense of social circumstances and social life.
It contains three elements:
• selt reflection
• search for explanations of our actions
• monitoring actions of ourselves and others
Sheppard (1995 : 173)
Reflexivity is a concept from research. Very simplistically it could be seen as researchers being critically reflective about their work. In many ways social work can be viewed as a form of action research and so the ideas behind reflexivity can be usefully applied to reflective practice in social work.
It is generally agreed within research that there are two forms of reflexivity:
• Personal reflexivity (exploring the way that our values, experiences, interests,