Reflective practice is seemingly ubiquitous in most people professions
(Finlay:2008) and a bandwagon that we are, understandably, reluctant to
jump off (Loughran:2000). Yet it has come under sustained criticism both
theoretically and in practice. Critical reflection, as articulated by Finlay
(2005) offers something beyond this, but remains under-theorized, and its
pedagogic practice, particularly for youth and community work educators,
remains largely unarticulated. This article argues that we need to go beyond
even the notion of critical reflection, exploring the idea of the pedagogic
practitioner, something practitioners are, rather than they just do, or say
they do. The pedagogical practitioner is beyond just a re-articulation of the
reflective practitioner, it is a necessary conceptual shift.
As educators we need to be involved in co-creating practitioners who know
how to traverse the shifting landscape and associated demand of modern
youth and community work, workers who can continually incorporate new
thinking while retaining professional integrity and staying true to the
principles of youth and community work. Yet accounts of teaching reflective
practice are remarkably absent in the literature. The article will go on to try
and begin to articulate characteristics of the pedagogic practice of a group
of youth and community work educators in a HEI in Birmingham’s in coproducing this pedagogic practitioner.