Description:
This chapter advances the contention raised throughout the book, that reflective practice, despite its pervasiveness in teaching and teacher education, is often applied to a wide range of distinct, and sometimes incongruent practices. In this chapter, the work of the authors contributing to this volume is drawn upon, alongside extant literature in the field, to examine what is meant by “reflective practice” and what forms of reflective practice are appropriate for whom, and when. Consideration is also given to who and what is driving the reflective practice agenda evident in teaching and teacher education, globally. The implications for teacher education and teacher professional learning of these considerations is examined, and a call for less politicized and more authentic and transformative approaches to reflective practice and its concomitant outcomes is argued.
Description:
This book offers a detailed examination of reflective practice in teacher education. In the current educational context, where reflective practice has been mandated in professional standards for teachers in many countries, it analyses research-based evidence for the power of reflective practice to shape better educational outcomes. The book presents multiple theoretical and practical views of this often taken-for-granted practice, so that readers are challenged to consider how factors such as gender and race shape understandings of reflective practice. Documenting approaches that enhance learning, the contributions discuss reflective practice across the globe, with a focus on pre-service, in-service and university teachers. At a time when there is pressure to measure teachers’ work through standardised tests, the book highlights the professional thinking that is integral to teaching and demonstrates ways it can be encouraged in beginning teachers. Aimed at the international community of teacher educators in schools and universities, it also includes a critical examination of methodological issues in analysing and evaluating reflective practice and showcases the kind of reflective practice that empowers teachers and pre-service teachers to make a difference to students.
Description:
The purpose of this chapter is twofold – first, to examine the ways in which critical incident identification and analysis can reveal more about the sophisticated complexity of teaching and, second, to provide an exemplar of reflective practice inquiry in teacher education based primarily on experience and reflection (Dewey J, How we think: a restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. Henry Regenry Co., Chicago, 1933). In this chapter we examine the influence of using critical incident identification and analysis to reflect in and on our practice as teacher educators. Critical incidents were defined as incidents in our practice as teacher educators that caused us to pause and reflect on our work and were collated during an intense period of institutional change. Using self-study methodology, we collated and analysed 32 critical incidents and identified key themes including: the tensions evident in institutional and personal expectations, contrived versus organic collaboration and valuing the teacher as a researcher. In this chapter, we highlight the way the combination of a reflective inquiry lens, a research methodology (self-study of practice) and custom-designed strategies and tools highlights the practicalities and powerful influence of reflective practice.
Description:
In the current business scenario, firms need to increasingly focus on environmental sustainability issues, as a result of stricter regulatory enforcements that lay emphasis on cleaner production, and also due to growing pressures from the stakeholders. This paper aims at understanding the organizational factors that contribute towards the successful implementation of sustainability initiatives in a process industry setup. A qualitative case study from a major cement manufacturing firm located in India helps us to identify the key drivers in the context of sustainability. The case findings reveal that organizational culture and practices followed lead to the emergence of innovative and economically viable solutions, which help in achieving the sustainability targets. These exploratory results obtained can be further analysed in the backdrop of other industries.
Description:
In the current business scenario, firms need to increasingly focus on environmental sustainability issues, as a result of stricter regulatory enforcements that lay emphasis on cleaner production, and also due to growing pressures from the stakeholders. This paper aims at understanding the organizational factors that contribute towards the successful implementation of sustainability initiatives in a process industry setup. A qualitative case study from a major cement manufacturing firm located in India helps us to identify the key drivers in the context of sustainability. The case findings reveal that organizational culture and practices followed lead to the emergence of innovative and economically viable solutions, which help in achieving the sustainability targets. These exploratory results obtained can be further analysed in the backdrop of other industries.
Description:
This chapter begins a conversation about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the concepts of rights, diversity, equity and inclusion that underpin them, and the ways in which they are enacted in a variety of contexts. There is a specific focus on SDG4 “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. Based on examinations of the SDGs, the conversations throughout the book give voice to those who work at times within and sometimes outside mainstream education discourse people who use inclusive approaches to teach early childhood, primary and secondary school and higher education students, parent-educators, parents and carers, academics teaching and researching in the field of inclusion and teachers and academics who themselves have impairments and disabilities. In this chapter, we investigate the policies, discourses and epistemologies that are foundational for the concepts of rights, diversity, equity and inclusion. To examine issues of social justice, epistemic injustice, equity and equality, the authors describe a framework of discourse and intersectional analysis.
Description:
This chapter begins a conversation about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the concepts of rights, diversity, equity and inclusion that underpin them, and the ways in which they are enacted in a variety of contexts. There is a specific focus on SDG4 “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. Based on examinations of the SDGs, the conversations throughout the book give voice to those who work at times within and sometimes outside mainstream education discourse people who use inclusive approaches to teach early childhood, primary and secondary school and higher education students, parent-educators, parents and carers, academics teaching and researching in the field of inclusion and teachers and academics who themselves have impairments and disabilities. In this chapter, we investigate the policies, discourses and epistemologies that are foundational for the concepts of rights, diversity, equity and inclusion. To examine issues of social justice, epistemic injustice, equity and equality, the authors describe a framework of discourse and intersectional analysis.
Description:
The chapter offers a road map that charts the key issues raised in this edited collection that contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) series. Throughout the book, questions are raised, tensions observed, and practices highlighted, often through passionate discussion, regarding the ways in which considerations of equity, inclusion, and social justice are configured, challenged, observed, or ignored in a range of educational settings. All chapters address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education which advocates for the provision of inclusive and equitable education and the promotion of lifelong learning for all. This chapter extends the focus of diversity, inclusion, and social justice to examine the inclusive approaches embedded in the production of the book. Rejecting potentially exclusionary publication processes, the editors mobilized inclusive approaches to selecting, reviewing, and editing chapters and the development of edited scholarship. Focusing on connections and capacity building, a diverse range of authors, reviewers, and editors worked together in a supportive, inclusive, and encouraging framework to produce an interwoven contemporary narrative about the state of diversity and inclusion in mainstream education settings.
Description:
In this chapter, we synthesise the interwoven narrative presented in this edited collection that interrogates discourses and policies of inclusive education, foregrounds the lived realities of diverse cohorts, and offers new ways of thinking and acting through a process of capacity building. Through thematic analysis, we analyse emergent themes pertaining to diversity and inclusion to illuminate the divergence between rhetoric and practice where the provision of quality education is concerned. Ultimately, we question whether the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 of quality education for all is being actualised in the twenty-first century and offer provocations on the possibilities of actualising a sustainable, responsive, inclusive, and diverse education future globally.