I am currently experiencing everything that Louis has experienced
in the video above. Like Louis, my
organization is results based and fast paced and I cannot even begin
to fathom where I will find the time to reflect. In addition, it just seems as if the
organizational culture simply does not value the impact that a reflective staff
can have on efficiency. However, the
other option of surrendering to this environment and being an unreflective
teacher is certainly not desirable. I
understand now that this option leads to drone like behavior where teachers are
mainly concerned with solving problems that have been predetermined by
others (Grant & Zeichner, 2018).
Today I feel empowered with some new reflective skills, so I will go
through the process of reflection for this week’s post by using the What? So
what? Now what? framework to guide me.
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What?
I work at a school that is run and operated by a religious
sect called the Closed Brethren. All of
the Closed Brethren schools in the world are governed by an umbrella management
company which is known as One School Global. The management style is top-down and the
leadership style is autocratic. In this
organization the status quo is fiercely maintained by those in authority. The extent to which reflection exists in my
workplace is that it is stated as mandatory item on the end of year
checklist. However, any teacher knows
that the end of the year means mass grading, report writing and a million
other tasks. Therefore, what ends up
happening is that this mandatory task becomes not so mandatory as it is lost
and forgotten among everything else.
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So what?
I am guilty of putting this activity on the backburner as
well. It is just not a priority in my
organization. I guess it just looks good
on paper to have it is listed as an activity.
To be honest I have never seen the value in doing reflection especially
since the fruits of reflection done by staff are never truly considered. For example, last school year, I worked as an
advisor to several students who were completing individual research
projects. Our grade 12 students are
expected to complete this project in order to satisfy graduation requirements. Based on the guidelines given, students felt
pigeonholed into choosing research topics they had no interest in. I thought about the process, came up with an
idea where the students would develop business plans or proposals and pitch them
to a panel of businessmen from the community, in a style similar to Shark
Tank. I was told how wonderful the
idea was. However, this school year the
cycle continues. The same old format is being used and the
students continue to complain. This is
just one example of many and so I have adopted the attitude that I will simply do
what I am told, but this has made me quite uninspired. This situation describes another deterrent
to reflection where teachers just are not motivated to reflect because when
that reflection leads to fabulous ideas, or awesome solutions to challenges the
status quo always wins.
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Now What?
As I work on my blog entries my overall aim will be to focus
on how I can change the reflective landscape that currently exists in my
organization. I have become
disillusioned with reflection and sharing my ideas. Therefore, I know that the first thing that
needs to be adjusted is my defeatist attitude. My plan is to begin the change
process by taking baby steps. Initially
perhaps I need to focus on me first, as opposed to focusing on the
organization, and use reflection to become a better teacher and a better person
in general. During this process I will
aim to collect data so that when the time is appropriate I can demonstrate,
using concrete examples, how reflection has helped me. I will try to lead by example. In terms of the use of digital technology I
believe that it would be a good idea to use blogger.com in conjunction with PowToon and
other technology tools so that the evidence collected can be as engaging and as
easily disseminated as possible, when the time for sharing my journey comes. Another tentative idea could be to attempt to
encourage staff to utilize a WhatsApp group chat for reflection purposes. This eliminates the need for staff to meet
physically during the very busy course of the day. The chat can be ongoing and responses and
discussion can take place based on participants’ availability. The
question of how a teacher can avoid becoming complacent has been posed and the
response to this is to be inquisitive, to continue to question and investigate
things in order to move forward (Shandomo, 2010). This is the quest on which I aim to get started.
References
CIPD. (2017, February 13). Introduction to reflective practice
[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9hyWVEG2x0
Grant, C. A.,
& Zeichner, K. (1984). On becoming a reflective
teacher. Preparing for Reflective Teaching, 1-18. Retrieved from http://www.wou.edu/~girodm/foundations/Grant_and_Zeichner.pdf
Shandomo, H. M.
(2010). The role of critical reflection
in teacher education. School-University Partnerships, 4(1), 101-113. Retrieved
from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ915885.pdf
