Exploring Muslim preservice teachers' reflexive practice : a critical action research in Southern Thailand

Abstract

The reflexive practice is used in initial and pre-service teacher education to enhance teachers’ capacity towards self-observation, self-analysis, and self-evaluation. In this study, the notion of reflexivity is developed from a critical reflection which results in the transformation of knowledge. It is described as an active analysis of past situations, events, and products with inherent goals for critique and revisions aimed to achieve an understanding that can lead to change in thought or behavior (emancipation). Its purpose is to find strategies to question our own attitudes and determine how we make decisions, values, assumptions, prejudices, and habitual actions in an attempt to understand our complex roles in relation to others (teacher empowerment). This action research makes use critical action research to explore the reflexive practice of Muslim preservice teachers in Southern Thailand. The study was conducted in two cycles focusing on five pre-service teachers who were tasked to record, criticise, and question their reflexive practice during their teaching practicum. A further aim is to determine how reflexivity contributes to the improvement of the Murabbi who also possesses the elements of teacher empowerment as well as the emancipation of education. The qualitative data from this study were analyzed using critical discourse analysis (CDA) which is a linguistic approach to convey social issues and the power of social relation. The findings from this study have answered the research questions on the meaning of reflexive practice by questioning and criticizing, self-examination or introspection, mutual and cooperative force, and change and transformation. The participants were also able to process the reflexive practice in their teaching process evidently showed in examining their journal entries, classroom observation, and interview output. The results show that all of the three types of reflexivity, namely, epistemic, systematic, and hyper reflexivity, have played an important role in supporting the construction of critical pedagogical elements among preservice teachers which include enlightenment, empowerment, and emancipation, as well as accessing the criteria of a Murabbi. In the end, the study suggests the potential to enrich the development of teacher professionalism as well as the improvement of teacher training programs at the university level. Keywords: reflexive practice, preservice teacher, teacher empowerment, emancipation.