Reflective practice in contemporary social work classrooms

Social work literature provides analysis and strategies about teaching social work practice and its interrelationship with a diverse society. In this paper, we present a framework to aid instructors' understanding of and response to conflict in the classroom, which is unavoidable. We propose the reflective practitioner paradigm along with the contributions of mindfulness, as useful for social work instructors in examining their practice as educators. We conclude with practice principles that integrate 3 bodies of knowledge: reflective practice, mindfulness, and social work pedagogy on diversity. These principles apply to the individual educator, communication among educators, and social work departments.