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enabling organisational patterns over time. Torbert (ibid) saw this as
organisation learning or research dissemination.
Early in the inquiry in 2003, I chose these three levels as part of the
research design because I found there was a concentration in the nursing
literature relating to the individualisation of reflective practice. While there
were some studies about group reflection the emphasis focused on
individual learning within a group process 9 and not the process of
dialogue, that is, a two way dialectic exchange. There was very little if
anything about how organisational, political and systemic change could be
arrived at through reflective practice. By considering reflective inquiry on
these three levels I was beginning to shift my thinking so that I was
noticing the complexity and consequences for individuals changing their
practice and influencing their organisations. Before learning about
systemic inquiry and Bourdieu‘s work, I had a humanistic standpoint
inspired by authors such as Rogers‘ (1980) ―A Way of Being‖, Heron‘s
(2001) ―Helping the Client‖ and Egan‘s (1994) ―The Skilled Helper‖ which
focused on self actualisation and individual change processes. I had not
meaningfully considered the implications of the systemic influences on the
person. Rather, I tended to assume change would happen as a
consequence of a practitioner raising practice issues. I began wondering
about the age old sociological debate concerning the relationship between
agency and structure and its potential relevance for understanding nurses‘
experiences of reflecting. To what extent did reflection happen in nursing
teams? Was there any second person inquiry happening in practice? And
what might be the significance of the structure agency dialectic for
understanding nurses‘ reflecting while giving care?
In the nursing literature I found only one study (Jenkins, 2007) using the
three levels of inquiry cited above which was not available at the beginning
of this research. However, there are some studies based on Heron‘s work
9 See for example: Glaze 2001, 2002, Platzer et al 2000b, Durgahee, 1996
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