Developing Reflective Practice

1. Developing Reflective Practice February 3rd 2007 Johannesburg

2. Donald Schon .. • Reflexive practice for practitioners • Reflection – in – action • Generative metaphor ..’urban blight.’ • Worked extensively with Argyris on organisation learning • Interested in how professions introduce artistry • Improvisation, jazz highly favoured

3. Discipline How do I know what I think till I see what I say? Weick K Revelation Record, source of data Authenticity not faking it Psychodynamic leap Going deeper Surprise, well spring uncover Fun, cathartic Private/ public boundary Taking self seriously Why do we journal?

4. When do we journal? • Early morning, coat tail on dream state • Before serious writing, warm up • After serious writing, warm down • Retrospective sense making • Snatched moments • In between things, let it flow • High moments, low moments

5. Journal formats might include • Mind maps • Dialogues • Vignettes • Sketches • Different perspectives; the theatre critic, the restaurant reviewer, the soap opera • Critical incidents

6. Can also be used for… • Day book • Notes to self • Feelings exploration • Goal setting • Messy writing • Quality check on self .. authenticity

7. Other random thoughts • I like it when it is pen on page • It does not have to be deathless prose • Can mix left brain with right, but we prefer right brain applications • Best to be naturalistic • Be confident that you will find your voice • It is satisfying to look back on!

8. We can only access the past through the present ‘We read the past by the light of the present, and the forms vary as the shadows fall, or as the point of vision alters.’ (Froude 2004).

9. Life must be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards • This narrative explores the reality of living life forwards, but understanding it backwards. In the midst of these tensions the narrative drives relentlessly onward, playing its part in the existential struggle to move life forward. The sense while writing the auto-ethnography was that I was living at least three days in one day, processing yesterdays experiences and the memories evoked therein; re writing the notes from the day before, and crafting the narrative from the day before that; while attending to the experiences of today, still keeping a weather eye out, anticipating the events of tomorrow.

10. ‘How can I know what I think until I see what I say • Writing into the text, discovery not planned • Thinking with the text, not thinking about it

11. Writing in expanded time, polychronic time, in the zone. This passage speaks to the ‘writing ritual’, to the process of capturing the ebb and flow of the writing life, evoking the feeling of ‘wording your world’. It captures the interplay between the external stimulus and the interior reflexive response. It demonstrates that the nearer you move towards a sense of your ‘inner process’, the greater the likelihood that you find ‘your voice’. This is the moment where synchronicities are invited.

12. Aims of the Day • Experience reflective writing practice • Share and develop learning • Build skills and confidence .. Make it a habit • Contextualise within theory background • Transfer of skills to dissertation and assignments, and preparation thereof

13. Aims once more • Explore research degree related phenomenon .. • Deep experience of experiential learning • Be part of creation of learning community, and reflect upon that • Collaborate in research project .. The last DRP effort created a ‘research centre.’

14. Ground rules for our writing day • What is said in the room stays in the room. • No preambles to writing … just begin • Keep writing …. Do not censor • Just read aloud …. No need to apologise.

15. Ground rules • Be sensitive to each others expression • Allow others air time • Constructive commentary • Feel free to say no , or to walk away at any time. This is voluntary. • It is ok to be sceptical ..this is not a religion!

16. A great opportunity to practice .. • Free writing, weaving theory and impressions, fleeting images • Contact inner dialogue, sense making • Developing a rich picture, inner and outer • New type of writing, unlearning how you were taught to write, old injunctions • Writing through blocks • Dealing with emotions on the page • Identifying and dealing with inner critic.

17. Plan for the day • Introduction, contracting • First writing cycle, warm up • Review learnings from first cycle. • Second cycle … • Review • Third cycle .. Writing on writing!!

18. First prompt question … • Something I notice about coming here on a Saturday is ……

19. Dealing with my inner critic • My inner critic … looks like, sounds like feels like smells like touches like knows like .. Presents him/ herself as … • Whatever you like to say.

20. IMM group reflections • The power of direct speech, quotation • Powerful use of humour • Light and shade, ebb and flow of prose • Capturing the rhythm, feeling the rhythm within the prose, its pulse • Writing has a physical component .. Feel it quicken your heart, or raise the hairs… • We naturally paint an establishing shot of the scene in words before we immerse

21. IMM continued • Writing into the chatter, the two voices in our heads, chatting, debating arguing • We write into the chatter, go deeper, begin to hear the true voice, often the underdog • How can I write when I am overwhelmed with so much life stuff? This is a part of the chatter. • Critical incidents are powerful ..the BMW !

22. IMM 3 • Writing from our dreams, cpturing the tail end of our dreams, take us into the psyche • This could be therapeutic • Recollections not in traquility, but in hot emotion, in feelings .. Anti poetry notion? • Tapping collective unconscious through this means … what is driving us?

23. IMM 4 • Who is running the show? My story or not? • The story of my life? Or my life story? • Standing outside of myself • Amazed ar how much comes out so quickly … at such speed • Never thought I would express so much so quickly • Everyone has there own voice all voices are valid, equally so.

24. Autoethnography thoughts • Write first read later? Different people have different takes on this • Safeguarding my vulnerability …. Don’t bleed when there are sharks about … Ellis. • There are many ethical issues attached to this.bypassing the inner critic.. Speed helps with this • Practice will attune you to your own voice • Reflection takes discipline • Work in first language first to find voice

25. Reflections on free writing • Emergence of common/ different themes • Courageous risk taking writing • Sense making ..when I see what I say, and when I hear myself say, and when I hear others comment • Our inclinations towards beginnings middles endings ..natural curve of a narrative • Surprise at what we discover

26. Reflections continued • Surprised at which ideas stories come out • What happens when you go with the flow • Balance of inner/ outer focus, weaving between the two • Throwing the first half hour away • Dealing with self consciousness • Dealing with the inner critic • Using the same phrase time and again for impact

27. Feels chaotic while writing it, doesnt come out as chaotic, seems natural order • Description ..defend against ‘all on one side of A4 constraints’ • Connection to the aesthetic, the lyrical • There is a connection to beauty we seek it • Descriptive building up rich pictures • Appealing to all the senses

28. reflections • Writing in colours, using colours to appeal • Who is the audience/ in reflective writing, journal work is the audience primarily me? • Is it merchant ivory or a Robert Altman movie? Going all over the place? • Capturing a rhythm, a beat • Getting beyond jargon • Power of the confessional • Getting to the personal stuff quickly?