Stephanie Sturges, MA, PG Dip, Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Management

How do you engage a cohort of managers in reflective practice and take them on a journey towards self-awareness…!

Stephanie Sturges, MA, PG Dip, Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Management,

Linda Alker, PhD (Manchester); MSc, FHEA, MCIPD, Principle Lecturer in Leadership and Management. Email address:

Purpose:

To explore how students on a Masters in Leadership programme can apply their knowledge and learning of reflective practice obtained in the classroom back into their working environment

Design/Research Approach:

The researchers will be gathering the feedback from the students via their diaries and individual meetings as an ongoing process throughout the two years they are they are enrolled on the programme. All data is confidential to the students so no personal information such as names and organizational data will be included in the findings.

Findings:

Limitations

The researchers recognise that the study has limitations in terms of the size of the cohort, and that not all students will take up the opportunity to engage fully in reflective practice or have the capacity to engage!

Keywords: Leadership, coaching and reflection and self-awareness

Introduction

Bolton (2010) cites that reflective practice that can really make a difference to an individual’s lives needs confident facilitators and should be offered in a supportive environment. Reflective learning depends on discovering and challenging one’s own and other’s assumptions as a step towards establishing new meaning and perspectives (Kegan, 2000, cited in Taylor 2006:79).

The aim of this paper is to explore how students who are studying for a Masters in Leadership programme apply the knowledge and learning of reflective practice they have obtained in the classroom back in their working environment. The cohort of 20 students are all in a middle to senior leadership role working in a range of different employment sectors; only a two or three of the students have any prior experience of reflective practice. The emphasis on critical reflection is to enable the students to start on a journey towards self-awareness as a key component of their leadership development. The students have been encouraged to keep a reflective diary to review their experiences of applying their learning from the course back in their workplace.

The teaching environment is both a learning space for the facilitators of the programme and for the students. “Reflective practice leading to change only happens in learning organisations” (Gould 2004 in Bolton 2010:5) with the support of a coach, mentor or facilitator (Gray 2007). Larrivee’s (2000) work on reflective practice as a core component of teaching practice was designed with the aim of enabling teachers to bring about changes in their teaching practices. The model highlights the principles of change, which is enabled through reflective practice. Larrivee’s model illustrates this transformational process through the illustration of a spiral effect of raised awareness, dealing with chaos through the introduction of new information and transformation through internalising new information leading to new behaviours consistent with Mezirow’s view of transformation (2000).

Furthermore, the model is helpful in illustrating the complexity of the reflective process and the challenges presented in the change process. The model highlights how reflective practice could have the capacity to create discomfort and dissonance for our cohort of leadership students! Moreover, as tutors we need to be fully aware of the consequences of introducing the practice in a classroom environment. Reagan et al. (2000) advocates that the process of engaging in reflection should be seen as an ongoing spiral in which each element of reflective practice is constantly involved in an interactive process of change and development. .

Engaging in Reflective Practice provides the opportunity to step back, occupy a different perspective to make sense of the contents of the swamp (Schön 1991). In order to engage the students we use a variety of exercises and techniques to challenge their beliefs, assumptions and values around their understanding of a leader in their working environment. The students are introduced to the Myers Briggs Type Indicator and an Emotional Intelligence tool (Emotional Capital Indicator) as part of the personal development process. As tutors, we have found the use of these tools is both helpful to the student but equally helpful to us in terms of helping us to gain some insight into our cohort of students. Importantly, as tutors we need to be able to understand what components of student’s learning they can assimilate and translate back into their work as leaders. We recognise that there is a need for awareness of how we engage our students more effectively in reflective practice within a teaching context outside of a working environment! Reflective practice is in essence a practice that is about creating and enabling change. Engaging in reflective thought and actions increases knowledge, develops and improves practice, making it more responsive to the needs of others (Schön 1991) “even if this means letting go of some of the kudos gained from occupying the role of authoritative expert” ( Redmond 2006:39 in Kennett 2010).

The overall aim of this study is to gather feedback from the cohort as they progress through the two years of the programme with the intention of answering the following research questions:

· Will the students in line with Larrivee’s model be able to bring about changes in their working practice and their role as a leader back in the workplace?

· Will they be able to engage in reflective practice and be able to stand back from their roles as leaders?

· How effective will the students be in capturing their reflective practice in their diaries?

· Will there be a difference between the students who have prior experience of reflective practice and those who have no experience?

Methodology

The research has employed the diary interview approach (Zimmerman and Wieder, 1977) on the basis that this method was felt to be most appropriate in gathering rich, participant-focused data that would provide insights into the student’s experience of applying reflective practice and self-awareness back into their workplace (Lyons and Thorpe, 2008). The students were invited to participate in the study at the start of the Critical Reflections unit in October 2014, with the intention that they would provide the feedback as part of their learning and development on the leadership programme. The researchers will be gathering the feedback from the students via their diaries and individual meetings as an ongoing process throughout the two years they are they are enrolled on the programme. All data is confidential to the students so no personal information such as names and organizational data will be included in the findings. The researchers acknowledge that the study does have limitations in terms of individual’s ability and willingness to participate in the study.

Preliminary Findings

The following statements provide an example of the rich data we are hoping to gather from our ongoing study of leadership students. These statements were obtained from students who had made a deliberate effort to keep detailed diaries on their experience of transferring their learning back into their working environment.

(James – Senior Manager in the Public Sector)

“My leadership style prior to commencing the leadership programme had developed organically and was profoundly influenced by my life experiences. It was principally a manifestation of my personality, professional codes of conduct and professional values, and personal preferences. My former unacquainted approach to leadership was neither inherently good nor bad although it had its limitations. Reflecting on my leadership style, I have been able to draw similarities between my instinctive style and ‘authentic leadership’. My role is to inspire change, implement new strategies and create champions/leaders in each of the ten local authorities. James recognised that as a coach and an informed leader that his journey had only just commenced and that transformation does not have to be an active process, by simply modelling the behaviour and values you want to promote can have a powerful impact”

(Jane – Chief Officer in a Charity)

“By reflecting on past and present learning and making links such as these, I have realised that I have not always been using the skills and knowledge gained from my previous client facing roles in my current management position! The leadership programme has given me the opportunity to develop my confidence in coaching and my skills have increased. I have tried to bring my coaching skills into my everyday interactions with colleagues. One key point from my learning I have taken away was that I was letting previous negative experiences affect my approach to issues such as moving premises and dealing with staff who struggling to cope with the changes. After exploring the issues in the classroom, I was able to translate my learning back in the workplace with my staff”

(Sue, Matron in the NHS)

“Through my personal discovery on the programme I have learnt that there is a variety of leader styles, characteristics and opinions. Critically reflecting on leadership has enhanced my learning of leadership and how I may utilize a style for my particular gain for my organisation and ultimately to improves the lives of people affected by cancer; I have to accept that I may use styles that do not feel congruent to my values and beliefs, however can be effective to achieve my outcomes; I feel my leadership and coaching journey has facilitated me to grow in my recognition of myself as a leader and coach and my ability to critically reflect in a healthy way to facilitate continuous development”

Conclusions

The initial findings six months into this two-year study demonstrate that there can be benefits for professional students when reflective practice is incorporated as part of the learning outcomes of a Postgraduate leadership programme. The introduction of reflective practice in the classroom can provide professional students with the opportunity to step back occupy a different perspective and make sense of the contents of their work life experiences. The researchers recognise that the study has limitations in terms of the size of the cohort, and that not all students will take up the opportunity to engage fully in reflective practice or have the capacity to engage! As tutors we have to recognise that ‘reflective practice’ introduced in a classroom environment might not sit comfortably with all students as per Larrivee’s model; and for these reasons it does require students to be fully engaged and committed to the process. Therefore, the researchers are proposing to introduce the project as an ongoing process with all students who enrol on the leadership programme, with the aim of gathering data from as wide a cohort as possible during the next two years.

References:

Bolton, G., (2010) Reflective Practice – writing and professional practice 3rd Edition, London, Sage.

Gould, N. (2004) The learning organisation and reflective practice – the emergence of a concept in N. Gould and M. Baldwin (eds), Social Work, Critical Reflection and the Learning Organisation. Aldershot, Ashgate.

Gray, D. E. (2007) Facilitating Management Learning: developing critical reflection through critical tools, Management Learning, 38(5), 495-517

Kegan, R. (2000) ‘What forms transforms? A constructive-developmental approach to Transformational learning’, in J. Mezirow and Associates (eds), Learning as Transformation, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

Kennet, K. (2010) "Professionalism and Reflective Practice." The Lifelong Learning Sector: Reflective Reader

Larrivee, B. (2000) Transforming Teaching Practice: becoming the critically reflective teacher. Reflective Practice, Vol. 1, No. 3, 2000

Mezirow, J. and Associate (2000). Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in progress. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

Reagan, T. G., Case, C. W., & Brubacher, J. W. (2000). Becoming a reflective educator: How to build a culture of inquiry in the schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

. Redmond, B (2006) Reflection in Action. Aldershot, Ashgate.

Thorpe, L. and Lyons, H. (2008), ‘Diaries and Decisions: Placing the student voice at the heart of the developmental agenda’, Paper presented at BbWorld Europe ’08: Engaging Student, Engaging Communities, 12–14 May, Manchester, UK.

Schön, D. A., ( 1991). The Reflective Practitioner: How professional think in Action. Ashgate Publishing Ltd. Hants.

Taylor, K. (2006) ‘Brain function and adult learning: Implications for practice’, in S. Johnson and K. Taylor (eds), The Neuroscience of Adult Learning: New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, no. 110, Summer, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp. 71–85.

Zimmerman, D. H. and Wieder, D. L. (1977), ‚The Diary-Interview Method’, Urban Life, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 479–98.