Department of Educational Psychology

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A teacher's story of personal and professional growth and development through the use of reflection
(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2003-12) April, Lynne Celeste; Newmark, R.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Educational Psychology.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The research question I wondered about was whether becoming a reflective practitioner/teacher could contribute to a sense of empowerment and greater effectiveness in practice. I am telling my own story in this study and have chosen to do this through the use of a variant of Life History Research called Narrative Inquiry. This is a qualitative approach to research and makes use of narratives. Field texts (journal entries, family stories, teacher stories) were produced through conversations, observation and journal writing. These field texts were then presented in narrative form. Analysis of the field texts, as well as the story was done throughout the research process. I used conceptual tools developed within Narrative Inquiry to analyse the narrated data in order to foreground the two main areas namely personal and professional growth. Based on this study of my personal experience of the use of reflection, it would seem that becoming a reflective practitioner could indeed contribute to a sense of empowerment and more effective classroom practice by supporting personal and professional growth and development.