Abstract
This chapter situates the Irish Probation Service within history of ideas that have helped to shape it. The author will draw from a recent study (Halton 2007), to identify some of the challenges and opportunities facing probation officers in their work today. A core objective of the study was to uncover the frameworks of understandings and meanings that probation officers use to make sense of their work practice in a changing social and political landscape. In this chapter, the author will makes links between changes in social and political ideologies, alterations in the structure of the probation organisation and modifications in the roles, function and practices of personnel. She examines the literature on reflection and the texts of probation officers to highlight important themes and to explore the potential for fostering reflective practice in the Probation Service.
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Halton, C. (2010). Fostering Reflective Practice in the Public Service: A Study of the Probation Service in the Republic of Ireland. In: Lyons, N. (eds) Handbook of Reflection and Reflective Inquiry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-85744-2_12
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