A teacher's story of personal and professional growth and development through the use of reflection

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The research question I wondered about was whether becoming areflective practitioner/teacher could contribute to a sense ofempowerment and greater effectiveness in practice. I am telling my ownstory in this study and have chosen to do this through the use of avariant of Life History Research called Narrative Inquiry. This is aqualitative approach to research and makes use of narratives. Fieldtexts (journal entries, family stories, teacher stories) were producedthrough conversations, observation and journal writing. These field textswere then presented in narrative form. Analysis of the field texts, as wellas the story was done throughout the research process. I usedconceptual tools developed within Narrative Inquiry to analyse thenarrated data in order to foreground the two main areas namelypersonal and professional growth. Based on this study of my personalexperience of the use of reflection, it would seem that becoming areflective practitioner could indeed contribute to a sense ofempowerment and more effective classroom practice by supportingpersonal and professional growth and development.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University