Engaging the reflexive self: the role of reflective practice for supporting professional identity development in graduate students
Reflective practice can enhance the professional identity development (PID) of graduate students. Struggling with one's self awareness and SUPPORTING THE SUCCESS OF ADULT AND ONLINE STUDENTS 54 55 Literature Review Researchers have studied how reflective practice affects students' professional identity development in the fields of medicine (Goldie, 2012; Sharpless, Baldwin, Cook, Kofman, Morley Fletcher, Slotkin, Wald, 2015) nursing (Bulman Schutz, 2013) teacher education (Roffey Barentsen Malthouse, 2013; West, 2012) and social work (Wilson, 2013) Counsellor educators have analyzed PID's link to reflective practices, citing the importance of transformative experiences for counsellor development (Shuler Keller Dupree, 2015) the need for reflective learning within a counsellor training curricula (Tobin, Willow, Bastow, Ratkowski, 2009) and the need for reflective practice to encourage self awareness and competent practice (Rosin, 2015) Counsellor education in Canada is often underrepresented in the literature, but foundational work by Collins, Arthur, and Wong Wylie (2010) has drawn scholar practitioners' attention to the utility of reflective applications for training counsellors in multicultural competencies and how certain activities in graduate school can contribute to one's development as a counsellor (Chang, 2011) Some educators have written about the necessity of including emotional growth and awareness as part of professional training programs (Pompeo Levitt, 2014) Educators also acknowledge that encouraging emotional growth without ethical guidelines and emotional safety can be detrimental to students. In their observations about teachers in training, Ronfeldt and Grossman (2008) indicated that these students often felt insecure, lonely, and disillusioned about their profession before even finishing their field experiences and linked this to poor student retention. They proposed that students in certain professional fields including teaching, the clergy, and psychology be given opportunities to practice their skills in facilitative environments with structured feedback from both peers and instructors (Ronfeldt Grossman, 2008) Instructors who teach reflection must model genuineness, reflexivity, and emotional awareness in their teaching and professional practice (Matteson, Taylor, Valle, Fehr, Jacob, Jones, 2011; Ronfeldt Grossman, 2008) Quiros et al. (2012) highlighted the necessity of students, instructors, and field supervisors co creating a sense of emotional safety so that students may learn the nuances of their chosen professions. Matteson et al. (2011) indicated that faculty must be willing to model the qualities they are attempting to draw out in students to enhance student retention. Lastly, related academic assignments are part of a necessary process for ensuring student success as developing professionals. Yet, there are many salient barriers that can interfere with graduate students undertaking this process. Graduate students need to have the opportunity to engage in a reflective process, but they also require emotional safety to take the risks required. Appropriate faculty involvement and modeling of desired qualities is also fundamental. Strategies are suggested to address student needs.