Sept. 12 Entrance Slip - On Becoming a Reflective Teacher

Grant and Zeichner present some very progressive ideas for their time. I was shocked to hear two scholars in the 1980s alluding to colonial histories of holidays and industry gender roles in their argument for reflective and mindful teaching. It's interesting to fast forward to now, 50 years later, and see some of these same issues still at the forefront of education debate (particularly for Canada, the discourse around the celebration of Canada Day).

One important factor missing from this discussion is the personal philosophies of those teachers Grant and Zeichenr would label "unreflective." I find it hard to believe that any teacher would choose to be intentionally unreflective and a mindless agent of tradition. How do these teachers perceive their classroom impact? How would they describe their role(s) and responsibilities? The usual arguments of time and institutional constraints were presented as the main barriers to reflective teaching, but how are teachers "on the ground" reckoning (or failing to reckon) with these barriers? Time and institutional constraints are still huge issues in education today. And aside from saying there is in fact some time and you do have some autonomy, these two scholars have not offered concrete, actionable solutions.

Obviously, the "Reflective Teacher" is a worthwhile and desirable goal to strive for, but I think they are underestimating some of the challenges of this goal. For example, on page 113, they describe the need "to question" the teachers at a school you are joining to discover the reasons for school practices and policies. To me, this tone is rather interrogative and fueled by an air of superiority. It feels loaded with the assumption that there is no reason and the existing teachers have been asleep at the wheel, so to speak. Overall, I agree with the ideology of reflectiveness as a teacher, but there are some fundamental omissions and unjustified dismissals within their argument.