Abstract:
Critical Reflection in Health and Social Care is an edited collection of contributions from authors who write from a range of disciplinary and professional backgrounds. The editors, well published in the field of critical reflection and practice in the health and human services professions, state in the preface that their purpose in producing the book is to bring together a collection of contributions that assist in ‘‘interrogating practice in such a way that the hidden, tacit or taken-for granted aspects may be properly understood and debated’’ (p. xii). This critical inquiry into reflection as a practice is important; the terms reflection, reflexive and reflective practice, and critical reflection are all easily used interchangeably or uncritically in our profession. Since Ixer’s challenge in 1999 to the unquestioning use of reflection and argument that the notion of reflection lacked a coherent unifying theory, many researchers have tackled the problems (e.g., Baldwin, 2004; Redmond, 2004). This new collection provides a useful vehicle for presenting both a review of the practice of critical reflection and some new insights through the presentation of new ideas and interpretations.
