½¿É«µ¼º½

What are the challenges faced by professionals in primary schools?

Concerns about teacher recruitment and retention are well established within the primary sector. While the Department for Education in England has reported , retention rates continue to decline. For those working in schools, this trend is felt most acutely when experienced colleagues choose to leave the profession.

The challenge extends beyond the number of hours teachers work, although many report working weeks in excess of 50 hours (Dutaut, 2023). It is the qualitative nature of this work that proves most demanding. Planning, assessment and record-keeping are essential, yet the administrative burden generated by accountability processes often leaves teachers questioning the value of these tasks. As Thompson and Hogan (2025) argue, policymakers have tended to flatten the debate into a question of hours, neglecting how workload is experienced in practice.

Budgetary pressures (IFS, 2025) and the erosion of local authority services further intensify demands on schools, expanding their remit well beyond teaching. Reflective practice offers one possible response, not only for supporting individual wellbeing but also for reexamining how we define valuable work within teaching.

‌Why do teachers need reflective practice in this context?

Reflective practice and professional identity are intrinsically linked (Steadman, 2023). Meaningful reflective practice, therefore, needs to become more established across the profession in response to this increasingly fractured working domain. In addition to significant professional benefit, supporting the emotional wellbeing of colleagues now forms a larger part of a teacher’s role due to increased challenges in the sector (Education Support, 2023). Reflective practice directly influences key aspects of identity, such as self-efficacy, autonomy and accountability as well as supporting practitioners’ interactions with others (Sachs, 2005; Korthagen & Nuijten, 2022).

‘Space for reflection and the protection of professional identities has never been more important.’

Highlighted by Steadman’s (2023) stance on the pivotal nature of relationships, context and personal experiences in the formation and development of professional identities in a time of uncertainty, we argue that space for reflection and the protection of professional identities has never been more important. Reflective practice is common in early career teaching, yet Mockler’s (2011) claim that evolving teacher identities matter more than functionalist roles highlights the importance of identity formation and growth for sustaining careers in education.

How can schools promote and protect reflective practice in their settings?

For effective reflective practice to become embedded in a school’s culture, there needs to be an acknowledgment that engagement in reflective practices evolves during a career. Where systemic and structured reflection may be supportive in the early days of teaching, for experienced practitioners, this may take different forms and an ongoing focus on its value is needed.

Leaders might also consider the wider expectations placed on staff and seek to reduce administrative tasks or redistribute non-essential duties to provide the time required for ‘the deliberate, purposeful, metacognitive thinking and/or action in which educators engage in order to improve their professional practice’. (Sellars, 2017, p. 2).

‘Schools should protect time for staff to reflect by embedding this within their timetables.’

Schools should protect time for staff to reflect by embedding this within their timetables. For example, including designated slots within meetings or professional development sessions, or strategic timetabling to allow for shorter, more regular opportunities for reflection, in line with supervision in other caring professions. Such approaches may also reduce disruption to the wider functions of the school and encourage staff to engage more deeply in the process.

References

Dutaut, J. L. (2023, November 1). The knowledge. Workload reduction must come from the top. Schools Week.

Education Support. (2023). Teaching: The new reality.

Institute for Fiscal Studies [IFS]. (2025, January 8). Schools and colleges facing another round of belt tightening in this year’s spending review.

Korthagen, F., & Nuijten, E. (2022). The power of reflection in teacher education and professional development: Strategies for in-depth teacher learning. Routledge.

Mockler, N. (2011). Beyond ‘what works’: Understanding teacher identity as a practical and political tool. Teachers and Teaching, 17(5), 517–528. ÌýÌý

Sachs, J. (2005). Teacher education and the development of professional identity: Learning to be a teacher. In M. Kompf & P. Denicolo (Eds.), Connecting policy and practice: Challenges for teaching and learning in schools and universities. Routledge.

Sellars, M. (2017). Reflective practice for teachers (2nd ed.). SAGE

Steadman, S. (2023). Identity. Bloomsbury.