Critiacal Reflective Practice and Workplace Learning : Impediments and Possibilities in Teacher Education

Professional practica are an essential part of teacher education and other professional education programs, but university staff often express concern that prac experiences are fundamentally conservative, emphasising preparation for the status quo rather than for what might be. In recent years other forms of workplace-based university learning have been devised, where staff have sought to build units of study around a core of reflective practice, action research and professional development. This paper describes one such initiative, a final semester internship for fourth year education students which enabled them to design and negotiate their own professional development plans in any one of a wide variety of educational settings. These included educational publishers, seniors programs, mining companies, environmental education projects, grief counselling, performing arts and community literacy programs, among others. The Internship was conceived as a collaborative action research project, so the experiences of all participants including our own have been used as part of the ongoing process of shaping and improving the Internship as an opportunity for self-directed personal-professional development.