Asst.Prof.Dr.
Asst.Prof.Dr.
Bengi
Bengi
Sonyel
Sonyel
Faculty of Education
Faculty of Education
EASTERN
EASTERN
MEDITERRANEAN
MEDITERRANEAN
UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY
Asst.Prof.Dr.
Asst.Prof.Dr.
Bengi
Bengi
Sonyel
Sonyel
Faculty of Education
Faculty of Education
EASTERN
EASTERN
MEDITERRANEAN
MEDITERRANEAN
UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY
“Building reflective communities
through exploring the role of teachers’ and senior managers’ voice in decision making”
Introduction
• The aim of this research is to
understand more about the nature of reflective practice and in particular the contribution of teachers’ and
senior managers’ voice in a reflective school community.
• The focus is on exploring the views of senior managers (or
administrators, as they are the decision makers within an
educational institution) and of
teachers on their understanding of teachers’ voice within the context of building a reflective community.
Literature Review
• In the first part, I explored key
constructs (teaching and reflection, understanding voice in reflection, and building a reflective community) in
the literature pertaining to this
research before presenting the data and analysis.
Teaching and reflection
• Teaching is a complex activity that requires teachers to think, take certain actions and reflect within a given context. As Goodson indicates:
• “Teacher thinking, action and knowledge are of vital importance in the endeavour to understand how classrooms are the way they are. How teachers’ thoughts, actions and knowledge have evolved and changed throughout their personal and professional lives will help us to
understand how classrooms have come to be the way they are and how they
might become otherwise.” (Goodson,
As Jackson et al allude more explicitly to the moral
responsibilities of teachers:
• “ …teachers must be seen as occupying key
roles in classrooms – not simply as
technicians who know how to run good discussions or teach encoding skills to beginning readers
• but as persons whose view of life, which includes all that goes on in classrooms, promises to be as influential in the long run as any of their technical skills. It is this extended view of teacher’s
responsibility that makes it appropriate to speak of teaching as a moral
• Furthermore, Day recommends:
“A necessary condition of
effectiveness as a teacher is regular reflection upon the three elements that make up teaching practice: the
emotional and intellectual selves of the teacher and students; the conditions that affect classrooms, schools and students’ learning and achievements; the experience of teaching and
learning.” (Day,1999, p.116)
Building on these tenets from my own perpective as researcher and teacher educators, the purpose of reflective practice is three folds:
• to engage teachers to be more aware of their teaching styles
• to help attain professional self awareness • to focus on, identify and engage in
Reflective practice and building up reflective communities
It is fundamental to community building, that we, as teachers need to engage in professional discourse and reflective action to adjust
ourselves into the developing and changing era and avoid becoming alienated from our own needs and feelings.
B.S, November 2006
This engagement is fundamental to promoting not only reflective
teachers/senior managers but also reflective communities in a school setting.
B.S, November 2006
This could be achieved through building up networks between teachers teachers, senior ↔
managers teachers and senior ↔ managers administrators in the ↔ Ministry of Education and
teachers administrators in the ↔ Ministry.
The significance of voice in reflective practice and
building up reflective communities
In order to achieve breaking
The ‘typical collusion of silence' teachers need to voice their
Therefore, the notion of voice is fundamental to reflective practice when it is perceived as being
situated in a wider social context.
Hargreaves (1996) and Goodson (1992) stated that:
‘Voice’ is an inclusive idea. It
recognizes different ‘voices’ and the diverse nature of individual experience.
‘Voice’ is about issues of
participation and empowerment. ‘ ‘A key consideration of any
approach concerned with ‘voice’ is the need to examine and challenge the process that silence people.’
Research Questions
•
How are teachers and senior
managers engaged in reflection?
•
How do teachers and senior
managers in reality use their
voice in decision-making
• What is the role of voice in building a reflective community?
This study was carried out in the Eastern Mediterranean High
School with teachers and senior managers.
B.S, November 2006
In the school there are 363
students ranging in their age from (13-17) and 41 full time teachers, including senior managers
(administrators) and 18 part-time teachers.
Methodology
• In order to explore further these issues a small-scale investigation in a private 13-17 college of North Cyprus, Eastern Mediterranean High School, was taken as a case study and the senior managers and teachers of this
school were interviewed.
B.S, November 2006
Participants
Four teachers (T1, T2, T3, T4) and four senior managers (SM1, SM2, SM3, SM4) were selected
randomly for face to face semi-structured interviews.
Findings and Discussion
• Teachers and senior managers agreed on the issue that being engaged in continuous reflection enables individuals to be responsible, give and receive
effective feedback, reevaluate actions, ideas and develop self professionally.
B.S, November 2006
• Both teachers and senior managers supports the idea of building up
‘reflective communities’ in schools, in
order to voice their voices during the decision-making process and, at the same time, to develop themselves further in their professional lives.
• There was a consensus between both teachers and senior
managers that teachers’ voice is crucial in community building and that, moreover, this can be facilitated through reflective practice.
B.S, November 2006
Recommendations
As it is supported in the literature by scholars like (Day 1999,
Osterman and Kottkamp 1993, Argyris and Schön 1974), keeping journals is one of the best
techniques used to reflect and evaluate the views of individuals.
B.S, November 2006
• As a reflective practitioner, I believe that the process of carrying out
research into reflective practice can help researchers to develop their own voice as a researcher, teacher educator and theoretician through both the content and process.
B.S, November 2006
THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION & ATTENTION... B.S, November 2006 B.S 206
