A self-critique of facilitating dialogic reflective practice with novice teachers

ABSTRACT

Reflective practice (RP) is known as a cyclical process of identifying issues, discussing how to resolve them, and acting. RP is not supposed to be solitary but rather collaborative between teaching colleagues or supervisors and teachers. Thus, research on teacher development advocates a dialogic approach for mentoring novice teachers in which the participants mutually construct knowledge. The culture of the feedback event, though, can interfere with the participants’ intentions for collaborative discussion given the status of the supervisor. In an 18- month ethnographic research project on three first-year teachers, I attempted to engage in dialogic RP with them to identify issues they were experiencing and discuss how to resolve them. In ethnographic research, the researcher is part of the field being studied. Through field notes and interview transcripts, I constructed three critical incidents, or episodes, in which dialogic RP was not attained. Through my recounting of critical incidents with these teachers, I argue that collective understanding of issues and use of the teacher’s expertise are important, and that pushing for quick solutions is ill advised. The study shows the subjective side of conducting dialogic RP in a school setting in which participants have different backgrounds and educational perspectives.

KEYWORDS:

• Dialogic reflective practice
• critical incidents
• English education in Japan
• ethnography

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the teachers who participated in this study. This paper is based on part of my PhD dissertation. I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Fiona Copland, for encouraging me to publish.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the MEXT Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) [20K02845].

Notes on contributors

James M. Hall

James M. Hall is an Associate Professor at Iwate University. He has worked as an English teacher educator in Japan for 17 years. His recent research and pedagogical interests are using ePortfolios and lesson study to encourage reflective practice and teacher development.