The Reflective Journeys of a Midwifery Tutor and Her Students

Abstract

This paper focuses on my journey in becoming a reflective practitioner in midwifery education. I embarked on a project seeking to develop my teaching, and was plunged into grappling with the concepts of reflection and reflective practice! The paper will show how these reflections led me to examine myself and my professional practices, painful at times. However, engaging in my 'lived experiences' in a structured way helped me gain a deeper understanding of professional problems and question the taken-for-granted. Strongly influenced by my personal experiences of learning through reflection, I explored its use as a teaching and learning strategy with a group of student midwives. The paper will draw on these experiences in considering how student midwives can be assisted to articulate and reflect on the dynamic, unique and unpredictable practice setting of midwifery care. In so doing, they can interpret and analyse clinical problems in a way which will assist them to recognise the contextual issues of clinical practice, thereby being 'coached' to deal with the complexities of midwifery practice. During the study, I encountered ethical dilemmas despite a tight ethical framework. These, I believe, were the direct result of the nature of reflecting on 'lived experiences'. The paper argues that though reflection may be a necessary process in the education of adults, engaging in it, and 'living' reflective practice, can be a personally profound experience. There is an element of risk taking. Educators need to be reflective practitioners themselves, and be able to provide support and deal with any ensuing difficulties, to empower the learner to reach new futures.