Maintaining the ability to be unsettled and learn afresh: what philosophy contributes to our understanding of ‘reflection’ and ‘experience’

In this paper, Heidegger’s and Gadamer’s examinations of the terms ‘reflection’ and ‘experience’ are explored in depth in order to contribute to discussions about the benefits of critical reflection of practice for practitioners in the helping professions. The importance of maintaining humility and an undogmatic stance is stressed since this allows helping professionals to learn afresh from critical reflection of their practice. As Gadamer points out ‘being experienced’ does not consist of knowing everything or knowing more than anyone else. Rather, he suggests that a truly experienced person is someone who is undogmatic. This encourages practitioners to hold knowledge tentatively and be willing to be surprised by new ways of thinking and being.     

Implicated reading: a method for reflecting on practice

This paper evaluates an attempt by the author to operationalise the theory of reflective practice within the context of initial teacher education. Whilst an integral element of many teacher education programmes, the problematic of ‘how’ to reflect on practice remains a concern. In response, and taking inspiration from the work of Deleuze and Guattari, specifically their critique of representational thought and common understandings of text, the author experiments with a method for reflecting called implicated reading. The method involves the reading of students’ lived experiences as beginning teachers (recorded in written form), against a variety of other texts. The author draws on interview data to analyse and discuss the merits of the approach. The paper concludes that the method of implicated reading has the potential to unsettle the common tendency to focus on meaning and interpretation when reflecting on events and experiences. It is argued that the student teachers involved in the project instead begin to experience reflection as a process of connectivity, rethinking pedagogy as a result.     

Transformative professional learning: an ecological approach to agency through critical reflection

Within the global economy, education leverages social and economic improvement. Teachers are positioned as drivers and agents of compliance within change processes. Addressing this concern, we investigate intern teacher agency, as transformative professional learning, that occurs through a process of critical reflection. Critical reflection is conceived as an important element of teacher agency within the current political milieu. This article addresses the role of critical reflection in school-based intern teacher professional learning (PL). It is argued that intern teacher agency is inherent in transformative PL characterized through partnerships, which provide scope for decision-making and critical reflection.     

Critical reflection on the ESL teacher’s subjectivity

This study explores the possibility of raising the author’s own critical awareness as an ESL teacher by reflecting critically on his subjectivity involved in the implementation of critical literacy in the reading classroom, especially examining not just his thoughts and feelings but also his teaching practices. It highlights discrepancies between his expectations and realities, and conflicts between his own beliefs. It also highlights not just effective aspects of his teaching, which show his contribution to enhancing dialogue among students and their engagement with critical social practices, but also less-effective aspects of his teaching, which show his failure to push participants for more information and his distortions of participants’ statements. Further, the study demonstrates the need for encouraging teachers to reflect critically on themselves as transformative beings.     

“There’s Beauty in Brokenness”: Teaching Empathy Through Dialogue with Art

Empathy, a core element of helping skills training, is vital to the development of the therapeutic alliance and positive counseling outcomes. This article presents a classroom exercise developed to increase students’ empathy. The exercise features imaginative dialogue by members of a counselor education beginning skills class with art works in an exhibit curated by a museum educator. Presented are the details of the teaching exercise, student and faculty reflections on the exercise, and suggestions for further research.     

Autonomy,free speech and automatic behaviour

One of the strongest defences of free speech holds that autonomy requires the protection of speech. In this paper I examine five conditions that autonomy must satisfy. I survey recent research in social psychology regarding automatic behaviour, and a challenge to autonomy is articulated. I argue that a plausible strategy for neutralising some of the autonomy-threatening automatic responses consists in avoiding the exposure to the environmental features that trigger them. If this is so, we can good autonomy-based pro tanto reasons for controlling exposure to certain forms of speech. Earlier drafts of this paper were presented in the 2005 Warwick Graduate Conference in Political theory, the 2005 ALSP Conference at the University of Strathclyde, and the Discussion Group of Political Theory at Warwick University. I am grateful for the many comments received on those occasions, especially to Peter Jones, Graham Long, Glen Newey, Fabienne Peter, Jonathan Seglow and Will Smith. Two anonymous referees for Res Publica gave me helpful comments that benefited the argument defended here. Especial thanks are due to Matthew Clayton and Susan Hurley who provided me with detailed written comments and fruitful discussion.     

死亡提醒对员工绩效的双刃效应：压力交互理论的视角

职场内外部死亡提醒对员工绩效具有双刃效应已得到诸多研究的支持,但该现象背后的统一理论解释缺乏深入探讨。基于压力交互理论构建的模型指出,死亡提醒通过压力源认知评估与状态死亡意识的链式中介影响员工绩效。具体而言,员工对死亡提醒这一压力源的威胁性评估与挑战性评估分别影响其状态死亡焦虑与状态死亡反思,进而对任务绩效、组织公民行为和反生产行为产生双刃效应。最后,基于模型梳理了个体资源与情境资源等相关边界条件,并提出未来可探析死亡提醒双刃效应的过程机制、边界条件以及组织干预策略。     

科学划界视域下心理学学科焦虑与学科自觉

心理学科学划界是心理学发展史上的根本问题,构成了心理学发展历史研究的出发点和逻辑起点。心理学科学划界观点多样,争论不休,导致心理学处于学科焦虑当中。当前,心理学需要以文化文思促进学科自觉,这其中隐含的不仅仅是对心理学科学化追求道路的深入思考,同时,也是实现心理学话语方式转换以及与科学关系的深刻把握。     

向死存在对智慧的影响:观点、机制及评价

向死存在对智慧产生了怎样的影响?三种观点及相关证据回答了这个问题,并提供了解释机制:(1)向死存在助推智慧,使人谦卑、超越、利他、公平和宽容等,其主要解释机制是创伤后成长理论;(2)向死存在阻碍智慧,引起心理不健康、自我服务偏见、内群体偏见、贪婪、物质主义等,其主要解释机制是恐惧管理理论;(3)向死存在是否助推智慧受到如自尊、权力感、自我构念、政治信念、宗教信仰等多种因素的调节。文末评价了过去研究中存在的问题,即概念界定问题、向死存在的心理阶段性问题和文化世界观的内涵问题,并提出了化解之道。     

A Planetary Crisis of Consciousness: The End of Ego-based Cultures and Our Dimensional Shift Toward A Sustainable Global Civilization

This essay presents central themes from my forthcoming book, The Awakening of the Global Mind. This book seeks to open a new frontier of Global Consciousness that has been long emerging in human evolution through the ages. When we step back from our more localized perspectives and expand into a more integral, holistic, and global space through the awakening of the global mind we are able to discern striking mega-trends in cultural evolution across diverse cultural and religious worldviews and perspectives through time. One striking finding through this global lens is that the collective wisdom of humanity is quite clear that we make our living realities through the conduct of our consciousness: our technology of minding. And when we make ourselves and worlds through egocentric patterns of thinking we get polarized and fragmented worlds that are not sustainable. This essay joins a growing chorus of visionary thinkers and futurists which recognizes that in the 21st Century we face grave planetary crises and that our ego-based cultures are at a tipping point and not sustainable. The primary crisis on the planet now is a crisis of consciousness, and our global wisdom suggests that humanity is in a painful transformation toward a more healthful integral technology of mind that ushers in a new sustainable global civilization wherein the whole human family may flourish together on our sacred planet.