ABSTRACT
Knowing who we are as ourselves is significant for being a teacher in PCE; without self-knowledge and reason how can we be autonomous teachers? Reflective practice may play a part in making sense of our lived reality; however it does not fully provide the political space for negotiation, collaboration or freedom.
This chapter offers a critique of reflective practice using the work Hannah Arendt and her notion of ‘natality’. For Arendt, natality is the human capacity to create new ideas, institutions and frameworks in different contexts and in the moment. Natality is a condition of human existence in that we have the potential to act and start something new regardless of the persuasive and, at times, powerful discursive practices within the sector.
