“On Becoming a Critically Reflexive Practitioner” Redux

Reflexive learning and performative failure

“…We seek to elaborate upon the idea that individuals come to knowledge and learning through interactions with others. In particular, we seek to build upon Cunliffe's (2016) explicit alignment with a broadly social constructionist ontology and emphasize the importance of considering that which is already institutionalized (Berger and Luckmann, 1966) within a particular setting, rather than focussing on the eventual act of reflexivity. In other words, we seek to contribute to the reflexivity literature by highlighting the role of the 'others' that make up the audience for critique and how reflexivity emerges contextually within this setting.…”

“…Allen et al, 2019;Corlett, 2013;Cunliffe 2002Cunliffe , 2003Cunliffe , 2004Hibbert and Cunliffe, 2015) or more collective (e.g. Cunliffe, 2016;Gray, 2007;Keevers and Treleaven, 2011;Reynolds, 2009) understandings of reflexivity to one that highlights and examines the role of context in enabling (through performative failures) and constituting (through 'others') reflexive practice.…”

“…Noticeable in this early work is a strong reliance upon the individual who conducts the reflection and the subsequent critique of their own praxis. Recently, the reflexive learning literature has started to consider the role of others in this creative and critical endeavour (Cunliffe, 2016, see also Gray, 2007 andKeevers andTreleaven, 2011). For instance, Hibbert and Cunliffe (2015) discuss 'critical-reflexivity' as a form of reflexivity that encourages the questioning of social practices and organizational policies that allow and constrain certain forms of action.…”

“…Contexts, in this sense, are spatially bound, whether in the sense of material or lived space, and are based on social relations. We therefore seek to build upon Cunliffe's (2016) alignment with a broadly social constructionist ontology but emphasise the importance of considering the performative role context and others play within any setting, rather than focusing on the eventual act (and performer) of reflexivity. In particular, we highlight the importance of the receptiveness of the context in which students are struck and the role context plays in the forms of critique and engagement they undertake.…”

“…The paper is structured as follows. First, we start by exploring research on critical dialogical practice and the critically reflexive practitioner (Allen, 2017;Allen et al, 2019;Cunliffe, 2002Cunliffe, , 2003Cunliffe, , 2004Cunliffe, , 2016Hibbert and Cunliffe, 2015). We then build on the reflexive practitioner literature by drawing on Butler's ideas on performativity and performative failure to highlight the importance of context in sites of reflexive learning.…”