Appendix C: The reflective practitioner
with the first purpose, providing a framework for understanding, since thinking about an educational issue in a
particular way may imply certain ways of dealing with it in practice.
A third purpose of a published article is to advocate ideas and persuade others to take actions benefiting
students and society. It might take a position about important issues in education: Is it a good idea or not to retain
(or hold back) a student in grade level for another year if the student fails the curriculum the first time? Should
schools teach about sexuality? Should girls learn science in classrooms separate from boys? In advocating for ideas
or policies about such matters, the article may express concern about what is good, ethical or desirable in
education, not just about what is factually true or practical. The author may seek explicitly to persuade readers of
the author’s point of view. These features do not mean, however, that you need to give up thinking for yourself. On
the contrary, when reading an advocacy-oriented article, reflection may be especially important.
Whatever its purpose—understanding, advice, or advocacy—an article or book about a professional issue can
stimulate thinking about what you know and believe about teaching and learning. It should therefore create, rather
than undermine, your individuality as a teacher. Think of professional reading as a dialogue or conversation about
education: some of the comments in the conversation will probably be more helpful than others, but each
participant contributes somehow, even if none can give a final answer or everlasting truth. It is the same with
publications; some may be more helpful than others, but none will be so perfect that you can afford to cease further
reading or further thinking. If you are about to begin a teaching career, for example, you may be especially
interested in anything published about classroom management, but less interested in the problems of
administering schools or in the political issues that usually accompany educational systems. Yet some publications
may discuss these latter issues anyway, and eventually you may find yourself more concerned about them than at
the start of a career. Your job, as a reflective teacher, will be sort out the currently useful articles (or parts of
articles) from ones you cannot use immediately.
To experience educational publications in this way, however, you must think of the authors as your collaborators
as well as general authorities. As a reader, you need to assume that you are entitled to consider an author’s ideas,
but not obligated to accept it without journals related to professional education question. There are several
strategies for developing this attitude, but to keep the discussion focused, we will look at just two. We have already
discussed the first strategy, which is to understand the purposes of any particular piece of research which you
encounter, in order to assess its current usefulness to your daily work and your long-term professional goals. We
have already indicated several general purposes of educational research publications, but we will go into more
detail about this in the next section. The second strategy for relating to authors as collaborators is to think about
how you yourself might contribute to professional knowledge by engaging in research of your own, even as a
classroom teacher—an activity often called action research (Mills, 2006; Stringer, 2007). At the end of this chapter
we discuss what action research involves, and how you might consider using it.
Authors’ assumptions about readers
Authors of professional articles and books also make assumptions about their readers, and it helps to be aware of
these while you read. The assumptions affect the style, content, and significance of the author’s ideas in ways that
are both obvious and subtle.