Inform Your Practice, Inform Your Community – Reflections in Education Call for Papers

Professional reflections on education in a global context serve a two-fold purpose (Sellars, 2012): 1) generate changes that improve practice (Calderhead, 1989; Gay & Kirkland, 2003; Kemmis, 2011; Rolfe, Freshwater, & Jasper, 2001; Scanlan & Chernomas, 1997; Schon, 1991; Schuck, Gordon, & Buchanan, 2008; Wildman & Niles, 1987) and 2) foster personal wisdom on one’s practice (Abell, Bryan, & Anderson, 1998; Akbari, 2007; Boud, et al., 1985; Gay & Kirkland, 2003).

The support of reflective in global education practices denote several essential concepts, 1) practitioners have an equal part in creating knowledge (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993), 2) competent practitioners offer knowledge-in-action expertise (Schon, 1983), 3) the sense-making process improving one’s practice initiates from self-reflection and experiential wisdom (Zeichner, 2008), 4) enables practitioners to internalize training and empowers their willingness and skills in gleaning from personal experience throughout their careers (Feiman- Nemser, 2001).

Zeichner (2008) offers several failures of current reflective educational practices that undermining genuine development: 1) a focus on research practice replication neglecting, rather than empowering, practitioners practical judgment (Schon, 1983, Valli, 1992, Zeichner, 1995, Boud & Walker, 1998), 2) a means to an end thinking rather than thinking about the ends toward which practitioners have directed their attention, thus limiting profound reflection and analysis to technical technique questions, 3) an emphasis on facilitating isolated reflections regarding personal practice and ignoring the social and institutional their practice’s context (Grossman, Wineburg, & Woolworth, 2001; Little, 2002; McLaughlin & Talbert, 2006.)

Call for Reflections in Education

This Call for Reflections in global education seeks to mitigate those failures by noting these errors and asking educators to critically reflect on and analyze a specific practice or experience through a founded model of reflection that is guided by the practitioners goal instead of being justified by the reflection’s completion and is in connection with other educators actively reflecting and sharing their experiences.

A variety of reflective models or frameworks for reflection exist (see Models of Reflection) encouraging a structured, guided reflection that draws the practitioner towards a more critical experience analysis. While no right model exists, the practitioner, we encourage practitioners to use the model with which they feel most comfortable to base their submission on. Additionally, we asked that practitioners offer a brief review of the literature to situate their contact, experience, and challenge aptly within the reflection.

The Journal of Research in Global Education (RiGE) invites educators and or administrators to submit program or course reflections of their current practices within your specific educational setting.

Submissions

Submission should contain the following descriptive information to aid the readers in your context:

Brief Program/Course Description
Brief Description of your role & responsibilities
Discussion of your goals
Discussion of your opportunities
Discussions of issues / challenges / obstacles
Discussion of strengths
Reflection

Guiding Questions

Questions to consider for inclusion in your reflection.

Discussion of actions taken (by whom)
1. Causes – What initiated the action
2. Literature Review – Action/intervention support
3. Description of the Action/intervention
Discussion of Effects (what worked or didn’t; why or why not)
Discussion of Next Steps
1. What do you need (Support or Resources)?
2. What actions will you take (why)?
3. What do you hope to achieve?
4. What is your timetable?

Submissions will be double, blind peer-reviewed, should include an abstract up to 500 words, up to 10 references utilizing APA style formatting, and be between 1500-and 6000 words long.

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