Teacher Reflection in a Hall of Mirrors: Historical Influences and Political Reverberations

Abstract

This article traces the genealogy of reflection in teacher education by seeking the conditions of its emergence through the influences of Descartes, Dewey, Schön, and feminism. Drawing on the critical lenses of Foucaultian genealogy and the sociology of scientific knowledge, the analysis investigates how the complicated meanings of reflection get played out in complex and contradictory ways through research practices. The purpose of this article is to highlight the diversity of meanings that constitute understandings of the term and then to critique the effects of power that reverberate through current reflective practices.