Becoming a Reflective Practitioner, 6th Edition

CHAPTER 1Envisaging Reflective Practice

Christopher Johns

The woman’s comments suggest her care was unsatisfactory. You might accept her word that the chiropodist wasn’t listening to her and ponder the reason for that. Had the chiropodist’s practice become routine requiring little thought and engagement with the patient? The bottom line is that every professional, no matter what discipline, must take responsibility for ensuring the most effective and desirable practice. This requires practitioners not only to be reflective after the event but more significantly, to have the ability to reflect within the practice to ensure best practice. This is the stance of the reflective practitioner.

Sitting in the train the other day a woman hobbles on. Finds a seat to put her leg up. She says to her mate ‘They just don’t care anymore. She didn’t look properly at my foot. She wasn’t interested. Told me it was probably a corn. Wasn’t listening to me. Told her the pain was in me’ eel. In the end she said ‘Your 10 minutes are up got to see someone else’.

Her mate rolls her eyes ‘Bloody awful ain’t it, chiropody on the NHS’.

Professional Artistry

Before exploring the nature of reflection, it is necessary to consider the type of knowing it generates, what I term professional artistry stemming from Schön’s description as the ‘kinds of competence practitioners sometimes display in unique, uncertain, and conflicted situations of practice’ (Schön 1987, p. 22). Adding to Schön’s description ...