Building teachers' capacity for deepened reflective practice: A crystallised account of one school's journey

Abstract

Education in Australia is thwarted by complexities, compliance and unprecedented change. As schools rise to meet the needs of students in such a climate, teachers are faced with pressures from many stakeholders and an increasing plethora of expectations. There is a widely recognised need for teachers to engage in reflective practice, which is purposed to gain insight and improve student outcomes. There are a number of identified barriers to effective reflective practice. In addition, the concept of reflective practice is often misunderstood and underplayed, further reducing teachers’ capacity to engage in it effectively. The primary research question of this qualitative case study asked: "How can school leaders build teacher capacity for deepened reflective practice?". The secondary research questions explored the barriers and supports to teacher capacity from the perspectives of the school leaders and teachers in one rural K-12 Australian school as they engaged in a school- wide initiative requiring deep reflective practice. Data collection involved multiple site visits and interviews with school leaders and teachers. A crystallised approach applied triangulated analysis synthesising constructivist grounded theory, situational and heuristic analysis. Findings revealed nine overlapping and interdependent themes and identified a range of barriers and supports to deep reflective practice. In response to the primary research question, the overarching finding is that school leaders need to provide a dynamic web of support for their teachers, using relational and structural approaches to support teachers' reflective practices individually and collectively. The crystallised report format integrates the traditional academic genre with creative reflexive genres to express a nuanced account of the journey of this study, thus honouring the participants' voices and engaging the reader. This study contributes to an understanding of teacher capacity for deep reflective practice in the context of busy schools. It offers a literature-based descriptive definition of deep reflective practice, a multifaceted model of reflective practice, a model for a dynamic web of support as suggested in the overarching finding, an exploration of metaphors to enhance shared understanding of reflective practice for schools and a list of recommendations for school leaders to consider.