Curriculum

Many professionals report finding it difficult to work in ways which feel incongruent to their value system, ie. when organizations struggle to find adequate resourcing. Sometimes in these contexts organizational cultures develop which devalue the expertise of individual professionals, causing people to lose morale, or to feel disempowered, bullied or abused.

Is it possible to survive, and indeed preserve professional integrity in such potentially toxic environments or cultures? How might this be done? Are the only options to leave or to conform?

This workshop does not propose to give answers. Instead it will involve participants in critically reflecting on their experiences in a way which might help them to develop alternative ways of understanding their situation in order to develop potentially ways to work with it.

Participants need to be prepared to share a specific example of an incident which has occurred in their experience in order to practice critical reflection (details of preparation work to be done below).

Program Outline

Date: TBD

12.00 – 1.30 – Welcome and introductions. Brief overview of the critical reflection framework and model

1.30- 1.45 – BREAK

1.45 – 3.00 – Details of the critical reflection process, exercises and modelling by the facilitator

3.00 – 3.15 BREAK

3.15 – 4.00 – Practicing stage one critical reflection with a volunteer from the group

4.00- 4.45 – Practicing stage one critical reflection with another volunteer from the group

4.45 – 5.00 – Debrief and discussion

Date: TBD

12.00 – 1.30 – Welcome and introductions. Brief overview of the critical reflection framework and model

1.30- 1.45 – BREAK

1.45 – 3.00 – Details of the critical reflection process, exercises and modelling by the facilitator

3.00 – 3.15 BREAK

3.15 – 4.00 – Practicing stage one critical reflection with a volunteer from the group

4.00- 4.45 – Practicing stage one critical reflection with another volunteer from the group

4.45 – 5.00 – Debrief and discussion

Preparation work 

Participants are asked to identify an example of an event (critical incident) they experienced, which they felt was significant to their own integrity as a professional. They should choose an incident which they are prepared to share in a group, and which they would like to learn from. The incident can have happened in the past. The experience should be a specific event, and should be described clearly, in writing (no more than half a page). This description of your incident may be used in the group as raw material for you to critically reflect upon. Please bring your written description to the workshop.

Please:

  • Try to preserve the confidentiality of other people in the story (change names/identifying features of main people in the story if you need to)
  • Describe:
    • A brief background/context of the story
    • Why you chose it (ie. why it is critical/significant to you)
    • A clear description of the incident (ie. a factual statement of what happened, what you felt/did, rather than your reflections on it