Reflective practice

Task: Refer back to the Code of Ethics

Read and review these clauses from the Code of Ethics, as listed here.¹

18.2 Youth workers actively reflect on their practice with others and maintain support from supervision and co-workers.

18.3 Youth workers are aware of any personal circumstances that may affect their ability to work safely and effectively.

18.4 Youth workers understand and reflect on their own culture, values, attitudes and beliefs and the impact of these on young people. Where this creates conflict in the Youth Work relationship, a youth worker may refer the young person to a more appropriate support person. The relationship with the young person should be maintained during this process with consideration for who is the appropriate person to do so.

24.1 Youth workers actively reflect on attitudes and methods and are open to learning from a variety of spaces, including indigenous, informal and evidence-based mātauranga.

Think about these questions:

• What do you currently do in your practice in relation to these clauses?
• How do you know when you are having difficulty in relation to these clauses? Can you think of some examples, from either your own practice or others’ experiences that you know of?

Task: Reflection and ethical maturity

Read the section titled 6 Components of Ethical Maturity for Youth Workers on page 60 in the Code of Ethics. How would you answer the questions raised by the first three components? You may not have all the answers now! However, over time and through experience you will develop answers to these questions as your approach matures and changes. As part of your professional practice, set aside dedicated time to reflect on and learn from your experiences.

Using a reflective practice framework sets up an ongoing learning journey throughout your career. Here we explore what reflective practice means for youth workers and why it is essential for professional development, safety, improving practice and making you more effective in your role.

Basics of reflective practice

Reflective practice is something you already do formally in supervision or with a mentor. You are also engaging with reflection informally in conversation with colleagues, or even just inside your own head.

Why is reflection useful? Because reflection helps us to clarify and make sense of a situation. In reflection, you interpret what is happening and use this new understanding to create meaningful change and growth. Reflection enables learning from experience, so that we can transfer that learning to our future practice. Reflection helps us develop new understandings, deepen existing ones, and it help us as youth workers to discard outdated, inaccurate or even damaging beliefs and assumptions.

Reflection can be recorded in reflective journals or supervision logs and reports. This can be used to help meet a professional body’s evidence requirements or professional development records. Youth workers often keep reflective journals in which they externalise their thoughts before sharing them with others, or just for themselves. Putting your feelings and reactions into words can bring some clarity, objectivity, and emotional order to a challenging situation. Putting events into a story can help you to observe things about a situation, or about yourself, that you could not see clearly before.

Reflection through conversations with colleagues, supervisors or mentors can also provide this, but with the added benefit of feedback from others’ perspectives. It’s also a way to hold yourself accountable and seek guidance on how to improve.

A reflective practice framework is also part of formalised learning (including in this programme), and it is used as part of research methods for academic study into youth work practices.

Reflective practice informs professional development and our day to day work in many ways. You can use it to ask questions like:

• Where are the gaps in my practice, skills, knowledge, or approach?
• What are my triggers at work or in youth work relationships?
• What do I need to work on to develop more fully as an experienced and effective practitioner?

Learning through reflection on experience

Kolb’s experiential learning theory² is an influential theory in reflective practices. Many reflective frameworks are based on Kolb’s original work from the 1980s. Read and study the diagram below to see how Kolb imagined learning as a continuous four stage cycle:

1. Concrete experience: experience a situation and take stock - what do I know?
2. Reflective observation: reflect and observe the context - what do I need to know?
3. Abstract conceptualisation: learn from the experience and reach conclusions (may include feedback and evaluation) - how much and how well do I now understand?
4. Active experimentation: take action or experiment with what you learned - how can I take this learning further or transfer it to future situations?

Task: Apply Kolb’s theory of experiential learning

Think about how you might use this theory of learning as a reflective tool in your own life or youth work practice:

Think of a recent situation - a new experience or repeat experience you would like to reflect upon. It does not have to be work related. Quickly note down what you can remember about what happened – What happened? How do I feel?

Reflect on and observe this situation. Notice any assumptions or beliefs you had going into the situation that did not align with your experience (even small inconsistencies between your actual experience and what you thought it would or should be).

Think about the full context:

• What did I need to know?
• What was not quite lining up with my previous experience?
• What did I find surprising or frustrating?
• Was there anything that was pushing my buttons, or messing with my comfort zone?
• Was there anything that ‘did not feel quite right’?

Explore vague feelings of unease, discomfort, and things you cannot quite put into words. This is learning – to put what was previously unarticulated into words.

Engage with abstract conceptualisation. You may want to include feedback from outside observers or evaluation at this point. Try to give shape to new ideas and abstract concepts. Aim to organise your thinking and come to some conclusions. What are you learning from this experience? What do you understand now about the situation that you did not know before?

Apply your learning. Make a plan to take action or try out new ideas to see what works. Focus on how you can transfer your learning from this one situation to similar future situations. What action will you take next based on your learning from reflection?

Explore Further

If you would like to learn more about Kolb’s theory of learning, this article is a good place to start: Kolb’s Learning Styles and Experiential Learning Cycle.²

Process of learning through experience

Kolb’s model, as applied to reflective practice in youth work, views reflection as a tool for experiential learning.[3] It helps provide a structure made up of three key components:

• Do – What happened?
• Think – How did it go wrong, or well?
• Act – What am I going to do about it, what next?

Reflection is part of a learning cycle in which you learn not only about your own areas for growth, but you also learn about how to effectively engage in reflection itself. As you progress in your learning journey, you will eventually work alongside new colleagues to help facilitate their reflective practice and support their development. As you continue to explore different models and tools for conducting reflection, keep in mind that you are gradually becoming a person that others will one day look to for guidance and support with their own reflection, supervision, and/or peer evaluation. Here is a more detailed explanation of the ‘do, think, act’ steps described above. Consider how you could apply this to your own work, and how you could use it to support a colleague:

Do – What to reflect on?

Not everything needs reflection – there are only so many hours in the day! But here are a few guidelines for deciding what to reflect on:

• Something happened and I did not know what to do – I want to know why I feel anxious, angry with someone, afraid, unsafe, confused or unable to make a decision.
• Things did not go well – I want to know what I could have done better.
• Things went well – I want to know why, so it can happen again.
• There are situations I really want to avoid again in the future.

After you identify a situation to reflect on, first establish what happened (the sequence of events, who was involved). And highlight your responses – what you did (or did not do) and how you felt. Identify how your emotions and triggers influenced your response.

Think – What do I need to know?

Once you have a clearer picture of your response, you can identify the gaps.

• What knowledge did I not have?
• Which skills were not at the level required for the situation?
• Was it an issue of professional ethics and values?
• Do I need to adjust my beliefs or assumptions about something?

Act – What do I need to do next? How can I change?

The purpose of reflection is to initiate active learning; to act in response to learning. What needs to change? What do I need to do differently?

It is one thing to recognise a need to upskill or behave differently, but what are you going to do about it? How are you going to use your insights from reflection to inform your behaviour and interactions going forward? If you identify what it is about a situation or relationship that triggers you, how are you going to respond and work effectively? How will you deal with similar situations in the future?

Change is not easy. We need to challenge barriers to change. These may be internal psychological barriers that require personal work. Or they could be structural issues within an organisation that we work on with others for institutional change. Or they may involve interpersonal situations with colleagues that require difficult conversations to resolve.

Reflection is not passive. A full learning cycle requires actions and decisions informed by honest, deep reflection on experience.

Explore further

Kolb’s learning cycle is often used to provide structure for reflection when learning from experience. However, Kolb’s model does not apply to all situations or account for much nuance. If you would like to explore this further, you may find this short article interesting: John Dewey and Experiential Learning: Developing the theory of youth work³

Best practice in youth work

Ethical practice needs regular reflection. You can set this up with a supervisor, more experienced colleague, or a mentor. Meet regularly, possibly once a month, for a debrief on how things are going. Depending on experience when starting out, you may want supervision more regularly – ideally weekly. Someone who is experienced and competent at their job would usually have supervision monthly.

At minimum, reflection should become part of professional practice. For example, as part of your supervision, in between sessions you may be asked to reflect on and unpack a particular situation or event you found difficult while it’s fresh in your mind. To get it out of your head you could write in a journal, complete a worksheet, or discuss the event with colleagues. This enables you to look at the situation and how you are responding more objectively. At the next supervision session, your supervisor will ask prompting questions that enable you to then reflect and discuss your insights in more depth. The aim is to use what you learn from the situation to improve your practice going forward without judging yourself or others.

Reflection is part of managing self-care and safety in a crisis or if something major happens. Have plans in place to deescalate yourself and your response. In a situation that triggers or upsets you emotionally you need someone you trust to step in and help you take a step back. It is a sign of professional maturity to know your limits and to have plans in place that guide how you deal with difficult or unsafe situations. A crisis can be the basis for reflection. You can use it as an opportunity to learn from experience to improve future practice.

All youth workers, regardless of experience level, use reflection with themselves, with colleagues and with a supervisor or mentor to help improve their practice and understand complex situations they may find themselves in. Colleagues can provide different perspectives and knowledge about a situation, family, or young person you may not have been aware of. No one has perfect knowledge but sharing with others can help to complete more of the picture.

Blurred boundaries

Managing ethical boundary issues is a common, but difficult, situation for inexperienced youth workers. It is normal to get to know your young people well and for this to include highly emotional or sensitive areas of vulnerability. Maintaining professional boundaries can be difficult when you connect well with someone you care about and who has started to trust the relationship. Yet, as the adult, it is critical you take responsibility for maintaining boundaries, especially with vulnerable youth who may not have much experience with healthy boundaries. You become the role model for what good, consistent, trustworthy boundaries are.

If you start to feel too enmeshed with a young person, their family, or their overall situation, it is your professional responsibility to know when and how to step back and check in with yourself both internally and then with a supervisor, mentor or colleagues as necessary:

• Do I need to strengthen boundaries with the young person?
• How can I communicate this clearly to them?
• What could I do differently to avoid this situation again going forward?

Use self-reflection, supervision, and peer conversation to help keep yourself in check. Take time to step back and notice the influence of your internal emotional state and outward behaviour on situations. What boundaries do you need to maintain or put in place? What is the best way to communicate and enforce those boundaries?

Boundaries and perceptions

How do your actions and relationships appear to other young people? You need to regularly check in with yourself. Am I giving preferential treatment or connecting better with some young people over others? While you may not intentionally set out to have favourites, it does happen. However, the perception of special treatment is one you need to avoid, as it makes working well with everyone more difficult than it needs to be.

Boundaries with difficult youth

Conversely, you may find some young people a challenge to work with as something about them triggers you, or you simply don’t get on well with them. Yet, you have a professional responsibility to find a way to work with all young people in a manner that is accepting, non-judgemental, and with their best interests in mind. Use reflective practice to identify what it is about the young person that is causing your reactions, so you can move past them. Your role is to support and find solutions for all those you work with to help them onto a meaningful life path – to be the type of youth worker you aspire to be.

Boundaries and gender

Another common but difficult boundary issue can arise when male youth workers work with females, or the other way around. It can become an issue of physical or psychological safety, unhealthy attachment, or external perceptions. It is very important to set and reset clear boundaries from the beginning. As the adult, you must be alert to safety or boundary issues and respond appropriately. Reflection can help identify when there is a boundary issue and the best way to respond. Note: similar issues can also arise when a youth worker and young person are the same gender.

Guidelines for reflection in youth work

Experienced youth workers can sense when a situation needs reflection, but it takes time and experience to get to that point. A new youth worker may struggle to know when reflection is needed and how to go about doing it. Here are some suggestions you may find useful:

• Regularly check in with yourself as to how you are dealing with boundaries, perceptions and rapport or connections (the kinds of relationships you have with young people).
• Put a reflection plan in place. Include a strategy for your own personal reflection (journaling, keeping records, and questions to ask yourself about a situation). Also, include regular reflection with others – supervisors, mentor, colleagues – to get different and more experienced perspectives on your practice.
• Put a plan in place so you have people you trust and respect to turn to in a crisis or unexpected situation. When you need help, reflect with someone who knows how to listen, ask the right questions, and support you to develop insights and learn from your experience.
• Trust your gut. If you feel uneasy, fearful, or uncomfortable, explore why, even if it seems minor at first. Ask for help with reflection if you are not sure what to think or where to start. All youth workers go through similar experiences, they have all been in your shoes at some point.
• Peer reflection does not have to be formal. It can be as simple as asking colleagues to have coffee and talk through something that happened. The inciting event does not have to be dramatic. It could just be a feeling that something is a bit off, or not quite right with a family. It might just be a suspicion that a young person is playing games. Sharing information and thoughts can help clarify a situation, so you can better decide what to do. Remember to maintain client confidentiality. It is appropriate to seek support from colleagues who are bound by the same ethical and professional guidelines as you are. Take care not to breach client confidentiality in any conversations with people outside of your workplace or profession.
• Do not limit reflection to mainly self-reflection. Regular checking in with peers, colleagues, mentors, supervisors, and other professionals helps you to develop a sense for when a situation is normal or not. It also helps you to understand triggers (we all have them) and when you might have issues coming up that you need to address.
• Peer and group reflection enable you to explore a wider range of insights, solutions and action plans based on your learning from reflective practice. As the saying goes, two heads are better than one!
• Reflection with others helps keep yourself accountable, even informally. For example, a colleague could check in with you by casually asking about what happened with the situation you talked about two weeks ago. If it is still ongoing, you can talk about why it hasn’t been resolved, and what you should be doing about it.
• Peer reflection also helps with safety. When others are aware of situations you are in that may be unsafe, they can follow up with you.

Note: Peer reflection with colleagues assumes you have high trust relationships. Yet this is not always the case. If you have concerns about colleagues or your organisation, you may not trust them to participate in your reflective practice. Judgement from colleagues, concerns about confidentiality, boundaries, conflicts of interest, and safety are all valid concerns. However, you still need others who can be part of your reflections. This is another reason why having a mentor or supervisor outside your organisation is so useful. You may feel safer talking openly with them and allowing yourself to be vulnerable. And as mentioned above, stay mindful of client confidentiality in these circumstances.

The power of reflection

Watch the short video below (04:39) to keep learning about the power of reflection.⁴ This video presents a model for reflection. It focuses on self-reflection, but this model can also be adapted for a pair or group. Think about the following as you are watching this video:

• How does this relate to the reflection you are currently doing?
• What can you take from this video that is useful?
• Take note of the five spokes shown in the model, so that you can apply them to the scenario in the task below.

Task: Boundaries and a reflective practice framework

Read the scenario and think about the questions below.

Scenario

A youth worker finds herself in a youth justice situation working with a younger family member. She has been assigned to work with her 19-year old nephew. The young man refused to work with anyone but his aunty, which influenced the decision about who was assigned to his case. The youth worker, his aunty, is doing her best to be firm with him and to ensure he is not getting any special treatment. However, other young people have started to make angry comments about why he gets to work with his aunty and get away with everything. The youth worker aims to separate the two roles, but it is difficult. Her intention is to keep herself and her nephew safe. The youth worker is also having some conflict with social services who are asking her to do things outside of her youth work role and that she does not feel are in the best interests of the young man. Other family members are also trying to talk with her about the situation. The youth worker is finding the whole experience very stressful.

Think about these questions:

• What are the issues in this situation? What has the potential to go wrong?
• How might a reflective practice framework help this youth worker?
• Imagine that you are the youth worker in this situation, and write some brief notes using the five spokes reflection model that you learned about in the video.
• Define what the youth worker could reflect on in relation to boundaries, perceptions, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, and relationships.
• How might the youth worker try to resolve this situation? Who she could talk with?
• How might the youth worker learn from this situation to prevent something similar happening again in the future?

Task: Reflection questions

Think about how to answer these questions. Choose two or three to make notes about:

• How are you currently engaging with professional reflection practices?
• How are you using reflection to improve your practice?
• How does reflective practice help protect your mental health or physical and emotional safety?
• How do you decide which experiences to use for reflection? What are one or two you could use right now?
• What are your preferred methods for reflective practice?
• Do you keep a reflective journal? Examples for what to write about include what is going well, what is not working so well, what could I be doing differently.
• List some things you have learned about yourself, your role or your work with young people as a result of reflection on your youth work experiences.

Explore further

If you would like to better understand the relationship between reflection and supervision in youth work, please read this article: Reflective practice meets youth work supervision by Margo Herman.⁵

Next, look at pages 58 and 59 of the Supervision Scrapbook that you can download from the Ara Taiohi website.⁶ We will explore this document more in a later topic, but for now look at the section Organising the Daily Round. It provides a model for categorising different types of daily work carried out by a youth worker, including reflecting on practice, which includes:

• Supervision
• Recording our work
• Journaling
• On-going training
• Debriefing with colleagues and managers
• Exploring youth work practice with others

Use the model provided on page 59 in the Supervision Scrapbook to reflect on how you use your time and identify how reflection currently fits into your workday. Do you want to change this? If so, how might you go about it?

You are now ready to complete Task 1 in Assessment 5.2, 5.3, 5.4. In this task you will complete a programme review to look back over your learning journey in this course.