Reflective Inquiry Research Articles

British World Policy and the Projection of Global Power, c.1830–1960. Edited by T. G. Otte (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2019) 326 pp. $29.99

This book, published in honor of the late Keith Neilson, tackles the issue of Britain’s world power status, and its decline, from a variety of interesting angles. Its scope is more ambitious than the dates in the title suggest, as both Otte’s chapter about the Foreign Office (fo) and Kathleen Burk’s about Britain’s economic networks in South America deal with the period since 1800. The geographical coverage extends beyond “the British world” to include Japan as well as Russian views of Britain. Some, although by no means all, of the twelve chapters engage directly with Neilson’s work. For example, John H. Maurer, in his assessment of the British response to Imperial Germany’s naval expansionism before 1914, concludes, “As Keith Neilson argued, Britain was no weary titan but a formidable Great Power, fully capable of competing in the international rivalries of that troubled age and beating back challengers, its leaders committed to playing the leading role on the world stage” (172).One of the volume’s strengths is the way in which the contributors negotiate the balance between recognizing the reality of Britain’s long-term relative decline and acknowledging the ways in which the country continued to exercise its muscle even as its options shrank. Douglas E. Delaney’s chapter about the Imperial General Staff and the Dominions in the interwar years is especially illuminating in this respect. This was an era of financial stringency when the Empire was also subject to forces that weakened Whitehall’s (already limited) control. Yet although Dominion politicians had little appetite to continue the burden sharing of World War I in time of peace, inexpensive and politically opportune techniques continued to facilitate coordination of the various armed forces, including the sharing of information, exchanges of officers, and intelligent use of Staff Colleges. Thus, “in spite of the near-breakneck demobilization that followed the First World War, widespread war-weariness, declining defence budgets, and growing dominion autonomy, the British general staff managed to keep some long-proven strands of military cooperation intact” (228). This situation was of value when war came again in 1939.Such an approach is useful because historians’ attention can often be monopolized by episodes of drama and crisis at the expense of the study of the workaday or routine behavior that underpinned the successful projection of power. Otte’s chapter about the fo, which is exemplary in this respect, deals with the fo’s internal procedures surrounding the accumulation of policy-relevant knowledge. On the one hand, it developed a reasonably efficient system for processing paper, but on the other, as business grew in both speed and volume, the organization was sometimes stretched to its breaking point. Enormous backlogs piled up. Moreover, as one civil servant sagaciously observed in 1891, “You cannot invent a machine into which documents can be put at one end and conclusions ground out at the other by turning a handle” (99).The same is true of the writing of history; happily, all the authors in the book succeed in applying common sense and wisdom to the fruits of their archival industry. They do not, however, engage in any methodological reflection or interdisciplinary inquiry. Because historians are prone to assume that the use of archives is well understood and without need of explicit justification, they sometimes undersell their own work. In her chapter, “Views of War, 1913 and 1949: Second Thoughts,” Zara Steiner (who died not long after this book was published), however, remarks about changing assumptions within the historical profession since she first approached the topic of attitudes about the outbreak of World Wars I and II in a seminar paper of 1972: “The original paper was critically received; many members of the seminar believed that historians should not deal with the issue of public opinion” (174). In this way, the book obliquely raises the interesting question of what aspects of current historical practice will look strangely antiquated in fifty years’ time.

“RIPSSL”: A New Reflective Inquiry Protocol to Lift the Lid on Students’ Significant Extra-Curricular Learning Outcomes from Study Abroad

Education abroad generally has no overarching curriculum outside the formal study component. This paper presents the Reflective Inquiry Protocol for Surfacing Significant Learning (RIPSSL), a new approach for understanding and articulating significant learning from education abroad. Tests of RIPSSL show education abroad students use it to move beyond “it was great” when considering learning from their experiences. Our findings are important for educators and students as they work to recognize and articulate the value of education abroad. RIPSSL provides a reflective educational approach to evidence learning from life experiences by surfacing students’ significant learning in their own words.

Understanding values embedded in the leadership of reciprocal professional learning by teachers

ABSTRACT A starting point for realising connections between leadership and professional learning is to focus specifically on teachers and their conceptions of leadership. Typically, leadership is understood as a designated position with a defined role and responsibilities for individuals. An alternative conception is to view leadership as collective rather than individual work to enhance student learning. This article advances leadership for professional learning through explicit recognition and application of actions underpinning four professional values (professional discretion, collegial obligation, reflective inquiry and discourse and evidence-based practice). These values are intrinsic to collaborative learning cultures. The literature supporting them points to important actions for the creation and maintenance of these cultures. The article explores this literature and justifies particular teacher leadership actions that help collaborative learning cultures. These actions are captured in a sample survey instrument designed to stimulate in-school discussions on productive ways to work towards teacher leadership in cooperative settings. Sample data are analysed to indicate how teachers’ individual views produce a school profile, which can be used as a prompt to determine whether the basis for reciprocal professional learning by teachers is evident or requires further development. The survey tool makes explicit the foundations for teacher leadership as collective activity.

A Letter to Ludwig Wittgenstein

Lynda Gaudreau’s current artistic research on asynchrony emerged from her choreographic practice. Asynchrony is the modification or disturbance of perception caused by a slight change in space and/or time within a work, and which, like a pebble, slips inside a machinery. This tiny friction between space and time heightens the audience’s attention. During her doctoral research (2018), she elaborated her conception of asynchrony through specific parameters, such as the hole/ gap, short circuit and fake space. These were organized into three dynamic axes: desynchronization, destruction, and editing. Her project eventually took the form of twenty-five fictional letters to various individuals - artists, thinkers and characters. They include letters to Pier Paolo Pasolini, Cedric Price, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and a Sainte. The letter to Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the unpublished letters of this project. Begun during the live screening of the American presidential election in 2016, the letter integrates various recollections and texts about space, movement and time. It carries the reader into a choreographic and asynchronic experience, from one place to another, and into different times (live stream, recorded…). The letter to Ludwig Wittgenstein is a reflective enquiry into the relation between space and language, and the mobile nature of both.

CALM©:: A Customized Advanced Leader Model for Enhancing Career and Well-Being

Advanced nurse leader roles are key to the transformation of health care systems. In today’s challenging health care environments, there is a need for leaders to focus their development on the current and future role skill sets for success. This Customized Advanced Leader Model (CALM) provides a practical guide for leadership development and personal well-being. The model is based on identification of current and future role competencies, encourages reflective inquiry, and provides a process for the development of a customized plan that can be updated for each career stage or job change.

Collective action in SCM: a call for activist research

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the current focus of supply chain management (SCM) research; it considers field level and societal constraints and consequently the potential for change. It details the underlying assumptions in the field, considering the dominant paradigms and stakeholders, and how this has shaped the research we have engaged in as a community of scholars.Design/methodology/approachThis is a reflective inquiry that seeks to deconstruct the dominant discourses and paradigms in SCM. It offers alternative avenues of inquiry to “traditional” research, considering how different questions, perspectives and approaches might yield different learning for the field. offering alternative avenues to traditional research.FindingsThis is a call for collective action, for solidarity, for a re-imagining of what research in SCM could look like. Research activism is challenging and potentially risky but necessary for the research community to engage in, particularly in light of the global societal grand challenges. Change can take place in the SCM field through collective action and solidarity. Three levels of activism are explored here – acting to solve the grand challenges, acting to change the field and acting as individuals.Originality/valueThis is a “speak-out” piece, which embraces and encourages reflexivity, new methods of doing and writing research as well as different perspectives, and especially a consideration for context and multiple players in the supply chain. The authors contend that it is urgent to re-appropriate our own agency as SCM researchers.

Remixing Approaches to Experiential Learning, Design, and Assessment

Background: Experiential learning approaches applied in classrooms are often disconnected from theory and loosely connected in classroom practice. Given critiques of experiential learning, there is a significant need for process learning theory with a practice-driven model. Scholars have only begun to explore the enhanced learning that often emerges from educative experiences designed with the fullness of experiential learning theory—designing with context, meaning-making, and assessment equal to the learning. Purpose: Through the lens of scholar-practitioner reflective inquiry, we propose a remixed approach to designing experiential learning. By shifting approaches to experiential education (EE), experiential educators benefit from planning with intentional design, instruction, learning, and assessment. Methodology/Approach: We chose to interrogate our practice and conduct a methodological investigation to explore our questions through a blend of qualitative approaches, including collaborative and narrative inquiry, scholarly personal narrative, and transpersonal research. We explore approaches to process theory of learning and other influences on experiential learning. Findings/Conclusions: A shift in approaches in experiential education will benefit educators and students, specifically by attending to holistic design, instruction, assessment, and learning with context in mind. We remix familiar components of known theories to highlight a unique experiential teaching and learning mind-set. Implications: We commence with a discussion of the remixed framework of the Design–Instruction–Assessment–Learning (DIAL) model that promotes high-quality experiences for learners and instructors.

Broadening representations of rhetoric in Wikipedia: disciplinary praxis as graduate pedagogy and research (7682)

ABSTRACTResearch in rhetoric and writing has found that Wikipedia-based education allows for direct and transparent observation of practices and concepts related to writing process, research, social collaboration, and digital rhetoric while also providing opportunities for authentic writing situations. However, much of this literature has been focused on undergraduate applications. To expand this scholarship, this article centers on pedagogical applications for Wikipedia-based practices in doctoral education. Drawing from two methodologies, participatory action research and teacher research, and utilizing a method of collaborative reflective inquiry for the collection of data, this study examines graduate students’ reflective writing regarding their experience with a Wikipedia-based assignment. Qualitative analysis provides insight into students’ understanding of Wikipedia editing as a form of disciplinary praxis and teacher training that enables expansion of academic knowledge in the encyclopedia, while also highlighting specific challenges related to this form of pedagogy. Finally, this article offers specific recommendations for Wikipedia-based education and suggests avenues for future research.

‘Act Out Justice’: reflective collaborative inquiry on theatre for social change youth programming

ABSTRACTThis study outlines and analyzes the effectiveness of a reflective collaborative inquiry model developed for the programmatic and curricular revisions of ‘Act Out Justice’ (AOJ), a theatre for social change youth program through a partnership between Orlando Repertory Theatre and the University of Central Florida. The authors identify a nine-step process for collaborative teams utilizing a fusion of personal narrative, reflection, and dialogue. This account guides the reader through the AOJ reflection and revision process, articulating how the process revealed four concrete programmatic and curricular changes. The paper provides a model for collaborative reflective inquiry applicable to collaborative teams working with youth.

Implementation and evaluation of a training programme to promote the development of professional competences in nursing: A pilot study

BackgroundClinical narratives may be used as a means to improve the acquisition of clinical competences. Even though there are studies that recognize the potential value of clinical narratives to promote nursing professional development, there is no evidence that shows their value as a tool to improve nurses' competences to provide person-centred nursing care. PurposeTo evaluate the preliminary efficacy of narratives for the development of three nursing professional competences —respect, intentional presence and knowing the person— for providing person-centred care. MethodUsing a pre-post quasi-experimental design, a pilot study with a total of 34 nurses enrolled in a training course of nursing specialization was conducted between September 2016 and June 2017. All the nurses received a multi-component intervention based on the Critical Reflective Inquiry model. The strategies of this programme consisted of writing three narratives, attending two masterclasses, participating in a discussion group, and participating in a face-to-face interview. The NarratUN Evaluation tool was used to assess the outcomes. Changes among nurses were analysed using the Wilcoxon signed Rank test. ResultsThe difference in the means between the pre- and post-intervention scores were statistically significant for respect [0.59 (95% CI 0.23–0.95; p = 0.001)], intentional presence [0.75 (95% CI 0.32–1.17; p < 0.0001)] and knowing the person [0.62 (95% CI 0.25–0.99; p = 0.001)]. The difference in the mean score for use of the narrative and reflection also increased significantly [0.65 (95% CI 0.32–0.98, p < 0.001)]. ConclusionsThe use of narratives combined with other reflective strategies (masterclass sessions and discussion groups) proved to be effective for the development of professional competences of nurses.

The Impact of Critical Reflective Inquiry Education on Experienced Nurses' Insights Into Practice.

Successful succession planning necessitates use of innovative strategies to encourage and support knowledge recovery and transfer. This quality improvement project evaluated the impact of a critical reflective inquiry workshop on experienced nurses' insights into practice. Nurses assessed written clinical narratives using the Critical Reflective Inquiry Assessment Tool before and after the workshop. Guided reflection led by nursing professional development practitioners fostered insight into practice, which is an essential step in supporting knowledge transfer to novice nurses.

Integrating theory and practice in social work: An intervention with practitioners in Finland

How could social workers apply theory in their everyday practice? According to John Dewey, theories are helpful instruments in analysing situations and forming hypotheses which are tested in practical experiments. Inspired by Dewey’s pragmatist philosophy, we designed a “Practice and Theory” pilot intervention group in which social workers were provided external, theory-driven supervision. This research is a three-case study of the pilot intervention group. Based on a thematic analysis of reflective discussions during the last group sessions and follow-up group interviews, we investigate the difficulties the social workers described in applying theoretical knowledge to practice. We explore what consequences they recognized when reflecting on and experimenting with theoretical knowledge. Our study demonstrates that the major barriers were lack of time and access to theories, difficulties in changing one’s own practice and establishing supportive structures, the lack of competence to understand the role theories and having become estranged theories. However, the positive consequences experienced in the three Practice and Theory groups suggest that the pilot intervention could serve as a potential model for integrating theoretical research into practice. The participants considered that reflecting theories enabled new understanding as well as allowed experimenting with new ways of operating. Participating in the group also improved social workers’ argumentation, helping them to recognize their own expertise. It also raised professional self-esteem and enabled self-development. In the group, the dialogical, reflective and experimental inquiry were key to understanding how theoretical knowledge can open new perspectives.

Practising change together – where nothing is clear, and everything keeps changing

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the thinking and practice of ‘action inquiry’ an embedded learning practice that can help navigate complexity when practising change together. The paper uses examples from social contexts where there are concerns about community wellbeing and health care. These are drawn from collaborative or collective leadership development programmes within public services that seek to bring new attention to the qualities of how people think, converse and interact, as part of their collective professional practice. This treats social action as a relational and dialogical practice, something that we do together as professionals by engaging in reflective inquiry and action. The paper suggests that action inquiry offers a prospect of rekindling the links between ‘action learning’ and collaborative leadership by developing a co-mission and a mutual commitment to a new type of learning partnership. Action inquiry can be wrapped around and enmeshed within initiatives and programmes that work with complexity, anywhere where effective social action will depend on the quality of relationships that can be developed. This research was funded by two separate Scottish Government commissions, where the author was a learning partner. The paper also draws on the further reflections of some of the practitioners most centrally involved.

الاستقصاء التأملى القائم على بحوث العمل ودوره فى تنمية التحصيل والتفکير التأملى فى مادة العلوم لدى تلاميذ المرحلة الإبتدائية

هدف البحث تحديد دور الاستقصاء التأملى القائم على بحوث العمل في تنمية التحصيل بمستويات (التذکر- الفهم – التطبيق)، وتنمية التفکير التأملى الذى يشمل المهارات الآتية (التأمل والملاحظة – الکشف عن المغالطات – الوصول إلى استنتاجات منطقية – إعطاء تفسيرات مقنعة – التوصل إلى حلول مقترحة). ولتحقيق ذلک تم استخدام المنهج التجريبى ذات التصميم شبه التجريبى، کما تم إعداد أدوات البحث المتمثلة في الاختبار التحصيلى، ومقياس التفکير التأملى وتطبيقها على عينة مکونة من (91) تلميذ وتلميذة من تلاميذ الصف الخامس الإبتدائى بمدرستين تابعتين لإدارة أجا التعليمية بمحافظة الدقهلية، حيث تم تقسيمهم إلى (47) تلميذ وتلميذة للمجموعة التجريبية، و(44) تلميذ وتلميذة للمجموعة الضابطة، وأسفرت النتائج عن وجود فرق ذات دلالة إحصائية لصالح المجموعة التجريبية فى کل من التحصيل والتفکير التأملى يشير إلى دور الاستقصاء التأملى القائم على بحوث العمل في تنمية التحصيل والتفکير التأملى فى مادة العلوم لدى تلاميذ الخامس الإبتدائى. Acion Research – based – Reflective Inquiry and its role in Developing Primary Stage pupils’ Achievement and Reflective thinking in science Abstract: The research aimed at determining the role of Action Research –based- Reflective Inquiry in developing both achievement at levels of (Knowledge – comprehension – application) and Reflective thinking with these skills: (Meditation and Observation - Mistakes detection – Access to conclusions - Giving convincing explanations- Develop proposed solutions). To achieve that, the experimental method with the quasi-experimental design was used, achievement test, and Scale of reflective thinking were prepared, these tools were applied on a sample of (91) students of the 5th grade primary pupils distributed into two schools of educational Aga district at Dakahlia governorate, however, (47) pupils for the experimental group and (44) pupils for the control group. The results showed that there is a statistically significant difference in favor of the experimental group in both academic achievement and reflective thinking. So, these results indicated the role of action research – based – reflective inquiry in developing achievement and reflective think

Learning to Teach Diverse Learners Together: Results from an Innovative Placement Structure

We explore the ways in which preservice teachers (PSTs) develop a practice in practice (Darling-Hammond, 2010) with diverse learners when placed in classrooms with college writing mentor teachers. Analyzing survey data and instances of stated confidence in PSTs’ activity logs, we share results that reveal a significant increase in the novice teachers’ perceived ability to teach diverse learners when placed in this context. Results also demonstrate a model of Teacherly Reflective Inquiry Practice (TRIP). These results suggest that placements with college writing instructors acting as mentor teachers can facilitate the development of collective efforts to teach diverse learners.

Effects of Reflective Inquiry Teaching Method on Students’ Retention Ability in Domestic Installation Module in Technical Colleges of Yobe State, Nigeria

Effects of Reflective Inquiry Teaching Method on Students’ Retention Ability in Domestic Installation Module in Technical Colleges of Yobe State, Nigeria

The Notion of Absurdity and Meaning of Life in Albert Camus Existentialism

Camus unreservedly condemned and strictly criticized and rejected suicide and existential leap because suicide is a total surrender to absurdity and a total confession that life is too much on the individual. His interest in existentialism is to explain the meaninglessness of life through his explication of the absurd which is found in human existence; and which continues to torment man until the finality of his existence which is death. The knowledge that life is absurd is already a step towards conquering the meaninglessness of life. For Camus therefore, since absurd has no meaning, man must hold himself apart from it and revolt against it. This is why he suggested philosophical suicide as a solution to reverse the absurdity of life. The question then is, since man’s belief in the absurdity of existence, then how and where should he direct his conduct, does suicide solve this problem? The consequences of Camus’ submissions are enormous; but be that as it may, this work attempts a study of the absurdity inherent in human existence with a view to answering the following questions: How far did Camus achieve the idea of absurdity of life? How realistic is Camus’ attempt to analyze life as meaningless apart from the meaning we give to it? Did Camus actually succeed in his attempt to show that life is absurd? Finally, what are the implications of Camus’ absurdity to philosophy and to life in general? This work will adopt expository and analytic methodological approaches. Here we shall with a detailed and deep reflective inquiry expose the place of absurdity in Camus’ philosophy in order to fully understand his understanding of life.

Dilemma Situations in Teaching Practice: What Do Student Teachers Reflect?

It has been suggested that if student teachers formally reflect on teaching dilemmas they confront, it may be possible for them to uncover new understandings of the teaching and learning process. The starting point of this study is to help student teachers be aware of their own conflicts in teaching English and talk about them explicitly, which is thought to lead them to make theory-informed evaluation of their ways of thinking and to stimulate the habit of reflective inquiry. Employing the qualitative approach, this paper outlines and interprets how student teachers in a practicum course in Turkey reflected on their teaching dilemmas just after they completed their teaching practice in their practice schools. The dilemmas student teachers reflected on were on three dimensions of a lesson: planning, managing, and conducting the lesson. The interpretations included conflicting thoughts, values, or expectations of student teachers throughout the teaching process as a whole; and the issues that guided them in deciding on their courses of action.

The Model of Reflective Moral Inquiry Design on the PAI Learning

This article aims to explain the implementation of the model of reflective moral inquiry design in PAI learning. The reflective of the model of moral inquiry model design was developed based on reflective and self-analytical concepts with moral dilemmas approach that occur in daily life as a problem that must be solved by students through learning. This model is expected to make PAI learning more meaningful, students' knowledge about religious teachings can be a source of values ​​and driving behavior for students in real life. But in fact, the implementation of PAI learning is more dominant in initiating the achievement of the knowledge aspect because the teacher's mindset is still using teacher-centered in implementing learning.

Other people’s voices: a reflective inquiry into power and voice within the classroom and the implications of researching one’s own practice

Abstract The aim of this pilot case-study was two-fold: to explore the power and voice within small group interactions within a secondary school classroom and to explore the implications of researching one’s own practice as a teacher-researcher. Using Bakhtin’s theories of dialogism, audio recordings of one small group interactions were compared to student independent written work, in order to understand whose voices were used and how. Four main themes were identified: power and authority; positions of submission; silence and the voice of the text. The findings also highlighted how in the midst of teaching we can fail to see these power and identity dynamics; but the time and space of reflective research enables researchers to see beyond the moment and develop the capacity to see their teaching interventions and strategies anew to support the construction of new meaning.