Critical Reflection on Action @ Work

Critical Reflective Practice

Reflective practice is important but having the insight and ability to engage in Critical Reflective Practice at work is crucial. Especially if you are a person who must navigate between your workplace culture and also a professional culture.

What do I mean by this?

Let us use the example of a lawyer admitted to practice who is working in a private law firm. Of course they are working in an organisation with its own unique culture [who we are, what we do, what we know]. In addition this person is also a member of a profession and at the time of being admitted pledges to serve the rule of law. This situation potentially places the person in contested territory as they go about their daily work and learning.

My research participants raised this issue in the context of how they learn to traverse competing expectations and priorities. They shared rich insights into the means by which they arrived at deciding on the most appropriate work action.

By employing critical ethnographic research methods underpinned by appreciative inquiry theory and practice I was able to explore in depth how lawyers at all stages of a legal career are able to traverse competing expectations and priorities. In other words what worked well for them and why.

This research task complete it was then possible to produce a Critical Reflection at Work Model (CROW Model) and Guide that can be used by professionals at work. This model applies to any professional who is working in an organisation as an employee. It may also be useful to self-employed professionals when they are working with an organisational client. And to organisations that want to bring out the best in their people.

Critically Reflecting on Action @ Work (CROW) Model

Let us explore this further in the context of support for lawyers' learning at work. It is all very well for an individual lawyer to reflect upon their own work and performance. It is quite another to create a safe and constructive space in which lawyers can get together in person or virtually and undertake critical reflective practice

The key aspect of the CROW model developed by Hann, D., (2007) Lawyers Practising Learning: Reshaping Continuing Legal Education is that the role of the working culture of the legal practitioner's workplace is critical when considering the wellbeing of the individual lawyer and their opportunities to learn on the job. This applies to all kinds of legal workplaces and all levels of a lawyer's career.

As discussed in my PhD, Clinical Legal Education (CLE) is underdone in terms of a robust educational framework underpinned by adult educational theory. My PhD was the first to provide a cross-disciplinary account of both CLE and adult theory theory.

The relevant education theory term is “productive reflection”. Productive Reflection is a more holistic tool which involves:

1. a collective focus

2. recognition of the demands of production

3. the involvement of multiple stakeholders and

4. organisational intent (Boud 2006).

It is underpinned by a validation of the importance of both the individual’s and the organisation’s development. Therefore you can uncover the organisation’s stated, and on occasions, unstated beliefs, values and behaviours through the diagnosis, response and critical reflection stages.

In future blogs I will provide details of each of the 3 stages, namely:

1. Define the Work Issue

2. Invent and then produce a response

3. Critical Reflection - Recalibrate and review.

Dr Deborah Hann

February 2023