Reflective practice has been "disenchanted": New research calls for a return to teacher flourishing and the virtue of phronesis
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 1-Jun-2026 13:16 ET (1-Jun-2026 17:16 GMT/UTC)
Reflective practice is often seen as a golden standard in teacher development. This philosophical critique, drawing on Foucault and Aristotle, shows that reflection has been disenchanted from an antique ethics of care of the self into a secularised epistemology, a techne for production, and even a neoliberal governance technology. The authors call for re‑enchanting reflective practice as phronesis that is a three‑dimensional virtue ethics and for teacher flourishing as students' in loco parentis.
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