Deconstructing critical reflection in social work and business: Negotiating emotions and opinions in reflective writing

Critical reflection is considered a highly valued graduate attribute in higher education. Assignments that assess critical reflection skills often require students to focus on subjective and personal experiences, attitudes and dispositions. In addition to being typically less valued than objective and theoretical knowledge, reflective writing is often viewed as unstructured and ‘creative’, therefore challenging to teach and learn. This paper makes visible the means by which high-achieving students in social work and business successfully engage with subjective meanings in reflective writing. Drawing on the Appraisal framework from Systemic Functional Linguistics, this paper shows how successful students move from common sense understanding of problematic situations to demonstrating discplinary knowledge and values in their fields of study. The paper concludes with consolidating the findings to make visible successful critical reflection practices as well as associated ethical concerns in order to advance equitable outcomes in higher education.