Philosophers have warned of the perils of a life spent without reflection, but what constitutes reflective inquiry - and why it’s necessary in our lives - can be an elusive concept. Synthesizing ideas from minds as diverse as John Dewey and Paulo Freire, theHandbook of Reflection and Reflective Inquiry presents reflective thought in its most vital aspects, not as a fanciful or nostalgic exercise, but as a powerful means of seeing familiar events anew, encouraging critical thinking and crucial insight, teaching and learning. In its opening pages, two seasoned educators, Maxine Greene and Lee Shulman, discuss reflective inquiry as a form of active attention (Thoreau’s "wide-awakeness"), an act of consciousness, and a process by which people can understand themselves, their work (particularly in the form of life projects), and others. Building on this foundation, the Handbook analyzes through the work of 40 internationally oriented authors: - Definitional issues concerning reflection, what it is and is not; - Worldwide social and moral conditions contributing to the growing interest in reflective inquiry in professional education; - Reflection as promoted across professional educational domains, including K-12 education, teacher education, occupational therapy, and the law; - Methods of facilitating and scaffolding reflective engagement; - Current pedagogical and research practices in reflection; - Approaches to assessing reflective inquiry. Educators across the professions as well as adult educators, counselors and psychologists, and curriculum developers concerned with adult learning will find the Handbook of Reflection and Reflective Inquiry an invaluable teaching tool for challenging times.

This book sets out to explain how the reflexive inquiry model can be adapted to research so that consultants can continue to evaluate their work and learn from the process. It draws out some implications of the principles, arguments, models, and tools presented for undertaking research.

Susan Groundwater-Smith is one of the most influential voices in the world of educational practitioner inquiry. The convener in Australia of the Coalition of Knowledge Building Schools, she is a staunch advocate of innovative methods of practitioner inquiry with a particular emphasis upon student voice and the use of images in capturing young people’s perspectives on their learning experience. So it is more than fitting that this unique text on practitioner inquiry and teacher professional learning is dedicated to her. Rethinking Education Practice Through Reflexive Inquiry is a compilation of essays that explore contemporary issues in practitioner inquiry and action research from the perspective of both university-based and school-based authors. The essays discuss the practical, political and theoretical dimensions of practitioner inquiry, advancing the argument that the adoption of an inquiring approach to practice is both an integral dimension of teachers’ work in the modern school as well as critical to effective and authentic professional learning. And the essays draw on the work of Groundwater-Smith to demonstrate the benefits brought to bear on schools, teachers and learners when the complex nature of the relationship between inquiry and practice is understood and acted upon in pursuit of democratic knowledge interests.

This collection includes critical, qualitative, creative, and arts-integrated chapters attentive to the ways in which reflexive inquiry supports explorations of teacher identity. The explicit aim of this manuscript is to advance teacher self-study and, through it, the teaching and learning experience.

Reflexive Narrative is latest addition to the Qualitative Research Methods series. Author Christopher Johns describes this unique qualitative method and its developmental approach to research to enable researchers’ self-realization, however that might be expressed.

This book provides insight into the value and process of reflexive inquiry for facilitating and exploring teacher learning and development, broadly defined. The authors' reflexive inquiry framework is constructed around notions of personal empowerment, self-directed learning, the primacy of practice, and personal history. The book contains numerous stories of teacher-researchers exploring their own experiences within the context of professional development inquiry.

Questions that concern gender and violence against women have been placed firmly on the agenda of interdisciplinary research within the humanities in recent years. Gender-based violence against women has increased exponentially in South Africa and in other countries on the African continent, particularly those with a history of political conflict. Researchers who explore such gender issues have paid limited attention to the intersection between the social contexts of the researched, the positionality of the researcher and the research product. This book brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars and scholar-activists to explore new terrains of knowledge production, interrogating the connection between the intellectual project of this kind of research and the process of its production. Some chapters draw on theoretical insights and provide new ways of thinking about the kinds of questions that should be asked when conducting research in the field of gender. Other authors grapple with an acknowledgement of their multiple social positions in the world, the ways in which they experience these ever-shifting boundaries, and how this influences their theoretical and practical work. Some contributions go further, discussing the ways in which the researcher and the researched influence each other, and the link between feminist research and social change. These chapters contribute to an understanding of how social movement activism can be developed. Overall, this book represents an important combination of scholarly insights, and provides multiple reflections about practical aspects of conducting gender research in the African context. The work of the contributors to the volume is situated within a post-structural feminist agenda, and, collectively, the chapters link scholarship and activism in a way that pursues a social change agenda in research on gender and gender-based violence.

This edited book is for relationally reflexive practitioners who want to research practice with inspiring innovative research methodology and research in ways which reflect the sensitivity, creativity, values and practices from their everyday working lives. The chapters offer practical and theoretical help in forging connections between relationally sensitive practice, reflexive inquiry and the wider field of post-positivist qualitative inquiry. Reflexivity weaves systemic social constructionist, collaborative dialogical and narrative practices in the fields of therapy, consultation, teaching, supervision, leadership, organisational development, community work and activism. Mary Gergen - Foreword Part 1 - Systemic Methodology Gail Simon - Systemic Inquiry as a form of Qualitative Inquiry Alex Chard - Orientations: Systemic Approaches to Researching Practice Harlene Anderson - Collaborative-Dialogue Based Research as Everyday Practice: Questioning our Myths Sheila McNamee - Research as Relational Practice. Exploring Modes of Inquiry John Shotter - Methods for Practitioners in Inquiring into "the Stuff" of Everyday Life and its Continuous Co-Emergent Development Part 2 - Innovations in Systemic Inquiry Vikki Reynolds - A Solidarity Approach: The Rhizome & Messy Inquiry Saliha Bava - Performative Practices, Performative Relationships - in and as Emergent Research Jacob Storch & Karina Solso - Reporting from inside the emerging process of becoming research consultants Lisen Kebbe - Writing Essays as Dialogical Inquiry Kevin Barge, Carsten Hornstrup & Rebecca Gill - Conversational Reflexivity and Researching Practice Ann-Margreth Olsson - The Impact of Dialogical Participatory Action Research (DPAR). Riding in the peloton of dialogical collaboration Andreas Juhl - Pragmatic inquiry as a research method for knowledge creation in organisations Christine Oliver - Using Coordinated Management of Meaning to Define Systemic Reflexivity as a Research Position Sally St George & Dan Wulff - Research as Daily Practice Ann L Cunliffe, Professor of Organization Studies, University of Bradford, UK "This book connects research, relationships and ethics in a thoughtful and meaningful way. For anyone interested in taking a systemic constructionist perspective to researching and theorizing practice, the book is a great resource, offering practical guides, a range of methods, along with helpful examples from the experience of authors who are carrying out research in a variety of contexts. What is also important is that each chapter illustrates the 'realities' of doing research - that inquiry is not the structured, de-humanised process many research methods books convey. Instead, it is often a messy, challenging, reflexive and ultimately rewarding experience." Peter Lang and Susan Lang, Systemic Founders of KCC, London, UK "Here is a comprehensive bringing together of thoughts and practices involved in creating knowledge through doing systemic social constructionist research. A rich and inspiring resource for the practitioner. Travel in and enjoy your research activity " Frank J. Barrett, author "Yes to the Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz" "This collection is a hopeful reminder that reflexive research can be a powerful and transformative intervention in social life. What an exciting and important book " Peter Stratton, Emeritus Professor of Family Therapy, University of Leeds, UK "This important book has assembled leading thinkers and researchers to usher in greater coherence to the imaginative thinking that has emerged as the postmodern social constructionist shift is applied to practitioner research.""

Explores the range of issues and perspectives about the nature of knowledge and reflexive knowing, this book shows how a concern with reflexivity can inform research methodologies and practice. The text is intended for academics and researchers in communication and the sociology of knowledge.

`A really fine book... an impressive work that adds much to the development of the use of qualitative methodology in social work research′ - William J Reid, University at Albany ′The back cover of the book proclaims that "Qualitative Research in Social Work will be essential reading for all students, practitioners and researchers undertaking social work research." That just about sums it up for me′ - British Journal of Social Work `This book is a significant milestone in the development of social work research. It is characterized by an unparalleled command of the field of qualitative research in social work, and by a commitment to an understanding of the demands and potential of day-to-day social work practice′ - Mike Fisher, Director of Research, National Institute for Social Research `Qualitative Research in Social Work edited by Ian Shaw and Nick Gould, provides a state-of-the-art exposition and analysis of qualitative inquiry in relation to social work.... The book has an unusual degree of coherence for one with several authors. The five chapters by the editors (parts one and three) do an exceptional job of providing the necessary background information and setting the context for the six application chapters and of highlighting and discussing the issues raised in those chapters. The editors are respected scholars well-versed in the theory and practice of qualitative research. Similarly, the contributing authors represent both considerable experience in this field and a diversity of interests. This combination makes Qualitative Research in Social Work an excellent text for students, practitioners, and researchers alike. It is a benchmark for social work progress in this area and points the way for the continued development of qualitative inquiry′ - Professor Stanley L Witkin, Department of Social Work, University of Vermont There is a clear need for a book which treats qualitative research as a substantive theme within social work, setting epistemological and methodological issues in a context whereby the agenda is set by, and is relevant to, social work. Qualitative Research in Social Work is just such a book and will be immensely useful for students, practitioners and researchers interested in and undertaking social work research. In the introductory chapters the co-authors set qualitative research within a context of social work developments and problems. The central section provides additional topicality and directness through specially commissioned chapters from leading figures in this field each covering key qualitative methods and relating them to social work settings, and the final section which reviews qualitative research in social work, and aims to exemplify ways in which social work thought and practice can be advanced through research.