From reflective practice to holistic reflexivity

Schon's formative and influential notion of 'reflective practice' is in danger of being widely adopted in higher education without rigorous interrogation of the central notion of 'reflection' itself. This article sets out to situate the notion of 'reflectivity' historically, and to critically examine its possible forms, interpretations and underpinning values. Schon's description of professional practice as an 'artistry' (rather than a technique) is formally progressed, teaching being described as a critically reflexive, aesthetic practice. The article notes four underpinning epistemologies for reflective practice: technical rational; humanistic emancipatory; post-modern deconstructive; and radical phenomenological, and offers an articulation of different forms of reflectivity. A proposal is made for a complex, synthetic 'holistic reflexivity'-distinguished from other kinds of reflection-as an aesthetic and ethical apprehension grounded in an ontological framework of radical phenomenology.