Becoming a reflective practitioner: a continuing professional development strategy through humanistic action research

Abstract

This article seeks to show how Human Resource Management and Development practitioners can develop an ethics of practice by adopting a Humanistic Action Research approach toward their Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Central to this approach is the development of reflective practice skills, in itself a journey of development. I aim to give a flavour of what this practice has meant for me as a professional educator by sharing an account of my own CPD using this approach. This approach is for the mature practitioner and it is located within Humanistic Action Research: to be appropriate, it necessitates a maturity of ego and not simply professional maturity and status. The article will discuss what this maturation process involves and will show its centrality to reflective practice. Within this framework of human inquiry, CPD requires an undertaking to engage in first person Action Research, where ‘I’ am the subject and object of my inquiry. At the heart of this approach is the pragmatic question at the centre of any approach to CPD ‘How do I improve my practice?’