Gillie Bolton - Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development

Writing and Professional Development

Fifth Edition

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Gillie Bolton and Russell Delderfield 2018

First edition published 2000. Reprinted 2003 (twice), 2004

Second edition published 2005. Reprinted 2008, 2009 (twice)

Third edition published 2010. Reprinted 2010, 2012, 2013 (twice)

Fourth edition published 2014. Reprinted 2015, 2017 (twice)

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017952666

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-5264-1169-3

ISBN 978-1-5264-1170-9 (pbk)

Editor: James Clark

Assistant editor: Robert Patterson

Production editor: Tom Bedford

Copyeditor: Elaine Leek

Proofreader: Bryan Campbell

Indexer: Martin Hargreaves

Marketing manager: Lorna Patkai

Cover design: Sheila Tong

Typeset by: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd, Chennai, India

Printed in the UK

This new edition of Gillie Boltons Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development demonstrates its enduring relevance for practitioners. Reflecting on the meaning of events and constructing experience from these is as old as human thought and, I would argue, central to any attempt to lead a significant life. Indeed, as Habermas argues, the interesting question is not so much how this happens, but rather when it doesnt happen what political forces are preventing it?

Of course being reflective is not necessarily inherently accurate or valid. After all, we can live through any number of events and construct bizarre or harmful interpretations of these. In my practice as, variously, a community developer, adult educator, university teacher and academic leader, I have reflected on how to respond to silence in multiple situations, only to discover later that my readings of its cause and meaning were wildly inaccurate. My personal life is full of misplaced reflection, such as thinking for many years that the way to deal with my depression was to tell myself to snap out of it, or my lifelong belief that I have successfully resisted any socialisation into the ideology of White supremacy.

We all make micro-decisions in the middle of meetings, case conferences, lesson units, consultations, ward rounds and conversations. Clinicians call the quick scan of situational cues, and the decisions and actions that are framed by these, the process of clinical reasoning. All of us do this constantly and we often rely on posing a mental checklist to ourselves to ensure we have done it well. Are my assumptions about why this is the right thing to do accurate? Have I missed a perspective on this situation that would reframe it differently? How can I draw on lessons Ive learned from previous similar situations Ive negotiated?

Gillie argues forcefully and persuasively that conducting these kinds of internal dialogues is not enough and that an essential component of reflective analysis is writing. Individual introspection and talking to colleagues and comparing notes are certainly crucial but there is something fundamentally different about writing down your understanding of, and reaction to, a situation. As you see the words appear on the screen or page in front of you, you are confronted almost with a second self and you often learn both pleasurable and disturbing things about that self that take you wholly by surprise.

In clear and lively prose Gillie builds her case for the importance of writing and provides numerous examples of helpful activities and exercises, not only in this book but also in the website constructed to accompany it. Narrative and story are powerful tools in multiple human contexts, conveying the essence of what we are trying to accomplish. We remember stories far more readily than we do mission or goal statements. Similarly, metaphors can galvanise a group, communicating in a shorthand way a vision of where we wish to go in a project. When we write our reflections on events we not only create meanings for ourselves, we produce a version that can be communicated to others.