Leadership can too often be unwisely influenced by interpretation. While, active reflection can engender understanding of our beliefs which guide our thoughts and behaviour.
It is only with active reflection that we can strive to understand how our values and assumptions guide our thinking and responses. Reflection which integrates experience with new learning and knowledge from different academic disciplines is an opportunity for pedagogical and leadership development. Reflective practice brings about innovative and resourceful thinking for the progress of students, educators, and schools.
The practice of reflection is an extremely effective tool for gaining conclusions and generating ideas from an experience, involving open-minded and personal searching for why and how. And from reflection, a questioning approach for teaching and learning and leadership forms (Kolb, 1984 and Gibbs, 1998).
As educators, we need to imaginatively stimulate enquiry in young children, foster eager minds to ask questions, be interested in, and richly engage with their learning for them to achieve their personal best and experience deep contentment and love for what they are doing. I would argue that the same is fundamental for leaders in relation to their colleagues. Both of Schön’s (1983) recommendations of ‘reflection-in-action’ and ‘reflection-on-action’ seem thoroughly worthwhile. As the former suggests, reflection might most constructively be practised ‘in the moment’ when something surprising or unexpected takes place.
To create ideas for the future, carrying out reflection after an event would be better served. Indeed, a mix of the two could be more instinctive, remembering that reflection is not to be prejudiced by personal and reactive feelings and thoughts but instead, an examination of self and others in a given situation for higher learning. In agreement with Fording (2017), reflective leadership diverts from an action bias to collaboration, and therefore prevents imposition and autocracy on others.
A constructivist approach (Densten and Gray, 2016) to learning enables progress by recognising that concepts are not static and by encouraging the process to be the learner’s responsibility. This too can empower and promote autonomy for educators, and also create a culture of collective ownership for learning and everyone contributing to the development of the school. It is important for all members of staff to feel a sense of worth and purpose in working together for a unified ethos and vision.
For individuals to feel safe they need leaders to provide respectful space for them to work things out for themselves. When trust from leaders has been instilled even resistance to change can be welcomed as a pause for contemplation. Listening to reasons for resistance not only values the person(s) who is/are resisting but opens up dialogue for facilitating reflection, which could ultimately lead to a different but shared understanding and inspired path. Sometimes resistance can be one person’s demonstration of consideration for change and thus, being interested in it is just as important as cooperation (Hardingham, 2004).
Reframing through different lenses is a creative and productive outcome of reflective practice. As a Headteacher, I was curious about my own and colleagues’ values in action, personality qualities, and their motivations, and this curiosity helped us to better understand each other, to identify any potential hindrances leading to the fruition of plans for celebrated outcomes. When learning how to develop deeper self-awareness, Bachkirova (2011) offers three points of reference: phenomenology; biology and neuroscience; and social psychology. Firstly, asking oneself how we experience something, secondly, how we act, and thirdly, how we describe ourselves.
One’s experience will be personal and could easily be very different from how another individual experiences the same event. Then in turn is as subjective as our self-perception, which is often in contrast to how we are externally perceived. How we respond can be influenced by the past or how we infer the situation rather than objectively assessing the facts we observe. An observation, if not “specific to time and context” (Rosenberg, 2005) can too easily be diluted or reshaped by interpretation. Inferring what someone else is thinking is very different from noticing the way they behave, and in a lesson or in a meeting with colleagues it could lead to miscommunication, delay, withdrawal, dissent, and other counterproductive behaviours.
Add to this the complexities around remote working and indeed, straying from the facts of what is observed at a distinct time in a particular circumstance could negatively impact relationships even more difficult to resolve when not in-person. Responses we give can be biased if we are not exercising the muscle of observation and reflection.
I believe that reflection in education is “learning through and from experience towards gaining new insights of self and practice” (Finlay, 2008). Three strategies for practising reflection for enhancing the experience and success of learning, and for invigorating and bringing about transformative leadership are effective questioning, providing affirmations and using active listening. Padesky (1993) favoured conversations with no predetermined destination so that detours were not missed and shared dialogue could lead to a more creative and fitting solution.
And with this, educators and leaders need to employ the art of effective questions which avoid slipping into a telling mode. Learners and colleagues should be enabled to rethink their assumptions, consider their values, identify alternatives and draw upon different modes of thinking when problem-solving (Clutterbuck, 2013). As we learn and work in teams, affirmations can strengthen a sense of alliance and collaboration, and for the greatest positive impact, should be specific and observation-based. Attentive listening, which reflects what is heard, can demonstrate benevolence and compassion towards individuals. Being present as the process of learning is unfolding creates deeper empathy and working together for a jointly invested goal.
Too often, decisions and indeed, changes are made without reflection and have rather been reached from confusion with interpretation. And therefore, if we build psychological mindedness, we can increase our capacity for separating the specifics about what we observe from evaluation influenced by innate personality traits, from what has happened, and principles we uphold. Without reflection, individuals could exist in a vacuum of ego, conflicting with external perceptions of them. Time to reflect needs to be carved out and reflection encouraged as important and valued for both learners and leaders. Indeed, we as leaders are always learning!
Kirsty Knowles
Founder of Think Being®
Accredited Coach, Consultant & Author – Humanistic change for People, Leadership and Culture
References
Bachkirova, T. (2011). Understanding yourself as a coach. From Passmore, J. (2020) ed. The Coaches’ Handbook: The Complete Practitioner Guide for Professional Coaches. London: Routledge. Section 4.
Clutterbuck, D. (2013). Powerful Questions For Coaches And Mentors: A practical guide for coaches and mentors. Liverpool: Wordscapes.
Densten, I and Gray, J. (2016). Leadership development and reflection: what is the connection? From www.researchgate.net
Finlay, L. (2008). Reflecting on ‘Reflective practice’. Practice-based Professional Learning Paper 52. The Open University. From www.cambridge-community.org.uk
Fording, S. (28th November 2017). Reflective Leadership. From www.engageforsuccess.org
Stein, G. (2018). What Does It Mean to be ‘Psychologically Minded?’ From www.drgeraldstein.wordpress.com
Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford Polytechnic.
Hardingham, A. (2004). Understanding your clients. From Passmore, J. (2020) ed. The Coaches’ Handbook: The Complete Practitioner Guide for Professional Coaches. London: Routledge. Section 5.
Kolb, D. (1984). Kolb’s Learning Styles and Experiential Learning Cycle. From www.simplypsychology.org
Padesky, C. (1993). Socratic Questioning: Changing Minds or Guiding Discovery? From keynote address presented at the 1993 European Congress of Behaviour and Cognitive Therapies. London: www.padesky.com
Rosenberg, M. (2005). Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life. California: PuddleDancer Press. pp. 28–33.
Schön, D. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. London: Routledge.
