Reflexive Practice, Leadership and Critical Thinking All

¶ … Reflexive Practice, Leadership and Critical Thinking

All three themes -- critically reflective practice, leadership, and critical thinking, can be summarized in the following snippet: An American president, as President Reagan's speechwriter, Peggy Noonan (1990), discovered experiences America by looking down. Much of his time is spent encountering his country and people via helicopter from which he sees tiny houses, tiny people, tiny cars, tiny roads. Noonan wondered how this affected Reagan's perspective. She later found out that it compelled him to see them as outside of himself and as himself as distinct from them.

This snippet, it seems to me, is somewhat what reflective thinking, critical thinking, and leadership are all about. Each concept contains a meta-analytic sort of substance, similarly to inhabiting a plateau where the air is more refined and where the person is separate from others.

Let's take these concepts one by one.

Critically reflexive practice: Pungently, Brookfield (1998) compares this to a dog trying to catch its tail. Being 'in' ourselves', it is utterly impossible for ourselves to see ourselves and our existence (or ontology) in a transcendental manner. The closest we can come to this, Brookfield (1998) suspects, is via four types of lenses: the lens of our own autobiographies as critical thinkers; the lens of learners' eyes; the lens of colleagues' perceptions; and the lens of theoretical, philosophical, and research literature.

1. The lens of our own autobiographies as critical thinkers -- Our habits of thoughts, decisions, and actions are, invariably, rooted in a mix of enculturation, personal experience, and social programming. Critically examining our autobiography may help us uncover certain roots to our habits.

2. The lens of learners' eyes -- welcoming criticism and attempting to see the piece of learning through the eyes of the other

3. The lens of colleagues' perceptions -- discussing and sharing our thoughts and perceptions with colleagues provides us with access to their original insights and illuminations.

4. The lens of theoretical, philosophical, and research literature -- Theory provides multiple perspectives on our one habitual perspective of 'reality'. Multi-faceted perspective points us in different directions.

A critically reflective practitioner has a strength that few possess: she can step outside of her perspective and ground her decisions on perspectives gained from external sources. This can help her become more reflective and calm as well as enabling her to make more rational decisions.

2. Leadership

Describing three exercises that he habitually uses in his workshops, Ayers (2002) demonstrates how (with 'The Uncritical Inference Test') we each tend to think in different ways to the other; each of us has our own particular way of thinking. The second exercise ('The Ladder of Inference') demonstrates how personal inferences are apt to trip us up and it were advisable to share our thoughts and perceptions with another. And, finally, 'Thinking Out of the Box' entails not only 'getting out of my box' but also 'crawling into the box of another'.

None of these exercises are simple or easy to do on a continuous basis. Nonetheless, the benefits of doing them are enormous since they make us into more effective communicators; hence better leaders who become more self-aware of ourselves and aware and respectful of others.

3. Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is developed through critical reading and critical reading is a skill. Elder and Paul (2003) suggest various strategies that can be used in order to acquire this ability. Strategies include: (1) Reading for a purpose; continuously keeping in mind the objective of the reading task; (2) considering the author's purpose; why has the author written the book / article etc. What does she wish to transmit. (3) Developing a map of knowledge, i.e. seeing the interrelated parts between interdisciplinary subjects. (4) Reading to understand systems of thought; not merely reading but endeavoring to understand what one has read; and (5) Reading within disciplines -- seeing the subject matter as a unit within a greater particular subsystem of thought.

A good reader looks for systems of meaning in a text and thinks into them and into the author's intention. This promotes critical thinking and enhances one's reflective abilities.

Identify possible applications or areas to explore further in the scholar-practioner-leader model.

What has always intrigued me -- and this is what I wish to explore further, is whether it is possible to step aside from one's instinctive schemas. I understand, and appreciate, that everyone has his or her own lens of perspective, and yet I wonder if there might not be some meeting ground, some premise of truth on which to base one's judgments on. To attempt to clarify: critical thinking implies thinking through something and arriving at the conclusion that the matter is either faulty or verifiable. It is, generally, considered that the ultimate lodestone (or tool of analysis) is logic that equivocates with math. However, both logic and math have proved non-reliable and faulty, besides which. logic is dissimilar to human thinking, has been shaped by human thinking, and is culturally-dependent (various cultures have their own form of logic).

If all is relativistic, as per assertion of relativism, then critical thinking is ultimately in abeyance for it is a soporific game, similar to that of the Greek Skeptics that stands on 'nothingness', for each one's perspective is ultimately as valid as the other.

I am intrigued by postmodernism, or rather I love its sprit: the endeavor of turning a tired concept inside out and perceiving it from a totally unexpected perspective. I would like to do that with the aspect of critical thinking or thinking in general. Turn humans, and our condition inside out, take a detached glance at the cog on which we suspend and see if I can see ourselves (including the I from which the I is doing the thinking) in an innovative, useful manner. This is where the 'scholar-practitioner-leader' concept fuses for critical thinking underlies all aspects of our lives.

-Describe specific, personal moments of discovery, action and behaviors that manifested growth or refinement of ones's doctoral identity