ABSTRACT
The role of a classroom teacher involves a complex web of skills and relationships. The
development of educational issues and teaching practice means that a teacher’s work is never
finished. When this is coupled with the wider demands placed upon the practitioner, such as
meeting the prevailing ideology or dealing with less than perfect surroundings, it may seem
that the job is one where the conflicts can never be reconciled. Yet the reality is that teachers
cope to varying degrees of success in the situations that they find themselves. To help them
cope, there are a range of strategies, but for many years writers (Zeichner 1982; Costello
1990; Whitty and Willmott 1991) have begun to develop the notion of reflective teachers who
can view their own practice within the broader context of teaching and, through reflecting on
it, can then improve and enhance their own work.
