Which One is Better: Saying Student Teachers Don't Reflect or Systematically Unlocking Their Reflective Potentials - A Positive Experience from a Poor Teacher Education Faculty in Ethiopia

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine

This paper frames teacher professional learning through Deweyean pragmatism, critical pedagogy, Marxist humanism, and social constructivism, treating reflection as a process of constructing knowledge and identity through critical interdependence. It presents the philosophical basis and a structure for engaging student teachers in reflective processes, along with outcomes from efforts to unlock student teachers’ reflective potentials in a weak teacher education faculty in Ethiopia. A theoretical and methodological framework guides analysis of reflective data. The paper advises teacher educators to set clear objectives and expectations, provide methods for structuring and evaluating reflections, and apply theoretical frameworks carefully and flexibly.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Australian Journal of Teacher Education | Volume 31 | Issue 2 | Article 1 | | --- | --- | | 2006
Which One is Better: Saying Student Teachers Don't Reflect or Systematically Unlocking Their Reflective Potentials: A Positive Experience from a Poor Teacher Education Faculty in Ethiopia
Jeylan Wolyie Hussein Haramaya University, Ethiopia | | Recommended Citation Hussein, J. W. (2006). Which One is Better: Saying Student Teachers Don't Reflect or Systematically Unlocking Their Reflective Potentials: A Positive Experience from a Poor Teacher Education Faculty in Ethiopia. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 31 (2). [http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2006v31n2.1](http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2006v31n2.1) This Journal Article is posted at Research Online. [http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol31/iss2/1](http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol31/iss2/1) WHICH ONE IS BETTER: SAYING STUDENT TEACHERS DON'T REFLECT OR SYSTEMATICALLY UNLOCKING THEIR REFLECTIVE POTENTIALS: A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE FROM A POOR TEACHER EDUCATION FACULTY IN ETHIOPIA Jeylan Wolyie Hussein Haramaya University Ethiopia ABSTRACT This paper is informed by Deweyean pragmatism, critical pedagogy, Marxist humanism and social constructivism, all of which see teacher professional learning as a process of constructing knowledge and identity through critical interdependence. In addition to presenting the philosophical root of the reflective approach to teaching and the structure for engaging student teachers in reflective processes, I present the outcome of my own and my colleagues’ attempts to unlock the reflective potentials of student teachers ata poor teacher education faculty in Ethiopia and a theoretical/methodological framework to deal with the reflective data. I hope that teacher educators who work with student teachers in the practicum can benefit from the experience presented in the paper. The implication of the paper for teacher educators is that before they complain that student teaches are unreflective, they should set clear objectives and expectations for themselves as well as their student teachers and supply their student teachers with methods of structuring and evaluating their reflections. They also need to be careful and flexible when they employ theoretical frameworks proposed by some teacher educators to identify, structure and determine the reflective levels of what their student teachers write. INTRODUCTION At the heart of critical pedagogy are the humanistic conception of people as learners and active participants in their world and the view of education as a practice of freedom. Critical pedagogues argue that: 'The educator is not the found of wisdom' trying to fill the empty buckets: education is not a process of banking received knowledge. Rather education is an active process in which the teacher controls neither the knowledge nor the learning outcomes' (Jarvis, 1995 , p. 151) . This view urges us to redefine or to carefully examine what we mean by: teachers are at the centre of educational enterprise or, in the words of Beyer (1987), the‘linchpin of educational improvements’(p. 26, emphasis added) . If the main reason why we offer education is to help people liberate themselves we have to shift teacher education from a place where student teachers collect a grab-bag of techniques and tricks to a place where they start to think critically about issues surrounding the social and individual purposes of schooling. Any democratic teacher education program transgresses beyond the process of essentialising purportedly justified moral views that in fact merely serve individual or factional interests and strives to inculcate open-mindedness and free expression. We have to see classroom not only as an arena of indoctrination and enforcing submission into the dominant beliefs and ideologies, but also as ' a cultural terrain that promotes learner empowerment and self-transformation’(McLaren, 1989, p. 167) . This position calls fo

FAQs

How does the paper explain teacher professional learning?

Teacher professional learning is described as constructing knowledge and identity through critical interdependence, guided by Deweyean pragmatism, critical pedagogy, Marxist humanism, and social constructivism.

What does the paper contribute to student teachers’ reflective processes?

It provides the philosophical root and a structure for engaging student teachers in reflective processes, including outcomes from efforts to unlock their reflective potentials.

What recommendations does the paper give to teacher educators?

Teacher educators should set clear objectives and expectations, give student teachers methods to structure and evaluate reflections, and use theoretical frameworks carefully and flexibly to identify and structure reflective levels.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Jasmine