The Critical Reflection Essay Structure
- Introduction: four key steps
SAMPLE
| 1. Start with the importance of reflective ‘praxis’ in general
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| 2. Introduce the importance of this practice for social worker-researchers
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| 3. State the key issues you will investigate in the reflection through the lens of which theories/approaches;
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| 4. Make a statement about your key discoveries – what the reader should look for in particular in the essay.
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- Body: integrating theory and practice (using one to comment on the other)
2.1 Possible structures
| Theory 1 | Example 1 (background) Example 2 (personal experience) |
| Theory 2 | Example 1 (background) Example 2 (my social identity formation) Example 3 (social work practice) |
| Theory 3 | Example 1 (my personal experience) Example 2 (what this means for social work practice) |
OR
| Background and worldview | Theories that underpin understanding of identity formation |
| Personal experiences I can analyse using ideas of intersectionality, privilege or oppression AND how this can/could influence my social work practice 1. 2. 3. | Theories that underpin critical reflective practice & power relations
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2.2 Critical reflection based on pr-axis: linking practice to theory, and theory to practice
Example 1: Using key aspects of a single theory to investigate one’s own worldview/practice
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Introduction
Para 1 One theory that helps to explain the ways in which I …. is X’s Blahblah theory (YEAR), which presents five indicators of …. The first is…. An example of this from my own belief system/experience is …..
Para 2 The second indicator is … In interaction with clients who are…, for instance, it is likely that…A study of XXX clients of YYY service in Australia also found that… This is important for my own practice because…
Para 3 …. Is the third indicator. If X occurs, then it is likely that Y will follow. Interestingly, this idea is not supported by recent studies, which show that… (Authors, YEARS); nonetheless, a close examination of my own reactions to … suggests that this is still an important issue to address. For example,…
Para 4 X (year) further claims that the fourth indicator, …., in combination with the others can affect clients in the following ways:….. Personal experience tells me that this is a critical factor in …, and this is supported by other writers in the field: XX(Year), for example, argues that…; and in a study by Y (Year) it was found that ….
Para 5 Finally, ….
Conclusion
Example 2: Identifying ‘critical incidents’ from experience or practice and explaining them using one or more theories.
Introduction
Para 1 e.g. Privilege is…(Author, year; author; year). An experience from childhood/school/the doctor’s surgery demonstrates how privilege impacts on communication. The situation – tell the ‘story’ – what happened?
Para 2Like a detective, ‘interrogate’ the story from the perspectives of each role/person in your ‘story’. What societal influences impacted on communication? How equal were participants? How does X theory or the studies of Y and Z help to explain this situation? What makes client-social worker relations similar or different to this?
Para 3 Oppression is… The situation – tell the story – What happened?
Para 4 Interrogate the situation as in Para 2, using references and examples that explain how oppression can be seen in this situation
Para 5 …. Intersectionality is… The situation – tell the story – What happened?
Para 6 Interrogate the situation as in Para 2, using references and examples that show how intersectionality can explain the situation.
Conclusion
- The conclusion
A conclusion:
- does NOT give any new evidence or information
- summarises how critical reflection using critical social work theories has helped to explain the visible and invisible assumptions that are part of your worldview and evident in your experience/practice
- offers a broad statement about how useful ongoing reflection can be to social work practice