Critiquing Teaching: Developing Critique Through Critical Reflection and Reflexive Practice

Author(s):  
Susan V. McLaren
2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 1495-1512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Griet Roets ◽  
Laura Van Beveren ◽  
Yuval Saar-Heiman ◽  
Heidi Degerickx ◽  
Caroline Vandekinderen ◽  
...  

Abstract Social work scholars have argued that poverty reminds us of the necessary commitment to educate professional social workers. Being inspired by a conceptual framework that captures how poverty-awareness can be the subject of teaching in social work programmes, this article offers a qualitative analysis of the reflections being made by a cohort of students about their learning process in a post-academic course. Five common themes are discussed: (i) from recognising micro-aggressions to tackling macro-aggressions; (ii) poverty is an instance of social injustice and requires collective indignation; (iii) notions of commitment and solidarity are ambiguous; (iv) poverty is an instance of social inequality rather than merely social exclusion; and (v) from being heroic agents to social change ‘from within’. Based on these findings, we raise the lessons learned for social work educators. First, they should invite students to reinvigorate the social justice aspirations of social work practices and take a stance in relation to their environment and the wider historical and socio-political circumstances. Secondly, a poverty-aware pedagogy requires collective and long-lasting supervision at the frontline individual, organisational and societal/social policy level. Collective critical reflection and supervision might open up avenues to collectively challenge and change socially unjust rhetoric and practice.


Author(s):  
Nicholas B. TORRETTA ◽  
Lizette REITSMA

Our contemporary world is organized in a modern/colonial structure. As people, professions and practices engage in cross-country Design for Sustainability (DfS), projects have the potential of sustaining or changing modern/colonial power structures. In such project relations, good intentions in working for sustainability do not directly result in liberation from modern/colonial power structures. In this paper we introduce three approaches in DfS that deal with power relations. Using a Freirean (1970) decolonial perspective, we analyse these approaches to see how they can inform DfS towards being decolonial and anti-oppressive. We conclude that steering DfS to become decolonial or colonizing is a relational issue based on the interplay between the designers’ position in the modern/colonial structure, the design approach chosen, the place and the people involved in DfS. Hence, a continuous critical reflexive practice is needed in order to prevent DfS from becoming yet another colonial tool.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-86
Author(s):  
Justin J. Rudnick

As a reflexive practice, hindsight enables a subject to re-observe how moments in the once-present past come to bear on a now-present future. Such observations enable us to make (new) sense of our life's trajectory, re-casting seemingly inconsequential moments as “prophetic” happenings. In this essay, I revisit a series of connected moments in my past to examine how actions I took as a then-heterosexual man influenced the construction of my now-queer identity.


2011 ◽  
Vol 34 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 130-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Rixon
Keyword(s):  

2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 120-126
Author(s):  
Jennifer Brady

Purpose: To explore dietetic practitioners’ perceptions of their education and training in the knowledge, skills, and confidence to understand social justice issues and to engage in socially just dietetic practice and social justice advocacy. Methods: An online semi-qualitative survey sent to Canadian dietitians. Results: Most respondents (n = 264; 81.5%) felt that knowledge- and skill-based learning about social justice and social justice advocacy should be a part of dietetic education and training. Reasons given by respondents for the importance of social justice learning include: client-centred care and reflexive practice, effecting change to the social and structural determinants of health, preventing dietitian burnout, and relevance of the profession. Yet, over half of respondents either strongly disagreed or disagreed that they were adequately prepared with the knowledge (n = 186; 57.4%), skills (n = 195; 60.2%), or confidence (n = 196; 60.5%) to engage in advocacy related to social justice concerns. Some questioned the practicality of adding social justice learning via additional courses to already full programs, while others proposed infusing a social justice lens across dietetic education and practice areas. Conclusions: Dietetic education and training must do more to prepare dietitians to answer calls for dietitians to engage in social justice issues through practice and advocacy.


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