Reflection on Critical Incidents

Abstract

After many years of teaching, some ESL teachers can feel a sense of isolation because they are but one person in a room with 20 or more students and as such many have a difficult time reflecting on their practice. However, the use of narratives for self-reflection offers these teachers “a safe and nonjudgmental support system for sharing the emotional stresses and isolating experiences of the classroom” (Jalongo and Isenberg, 1995: 162). McCabe (2002) suggests that stories can set off a dialogue about teaching that can offer strategies for dealing with problems many teachers may face as well as the successes they manage. Teachers can reflect on their practice by articulating their stories to themselves or others because these stories reveal the “knowledge, ideas, perspectives, understandings, and experiences that guide their work” (Johnson and Golombek, 2002: 7). By telling their stories, teachers can make better sense of seemingly random experiences because they hold the inside knowledge, especially personal intuitive knowledge, expertise, and experience that is based on their accumulated years as language educators teaching in schools and classrooms. These self-reflective stories can provide a rich source of teacher-generated information that allows them to reflect on how they got where they are today, how they conduct practice, the thinking and problem-solving they employ during their practice, and their underlying assumptions, values and beliefs that have ruled their past and current practices.