Models and theories of reflection on practice in teaching continue to be very influential in the training of teachers in all sectors of education. That influence is international in it's extent. In Europe, Carr ( 1985 ; 1986), Eliot (1991) from the United Kingdom, Korthagen (2001) from the Netherlands, Jakku-Sihvonen and Niemi (2006) from Finland and Seel (1999) from Germany have all argued for the practice of teaching to be based on the systematic reflection of teachers.

Advocates of reflective practice in teaching often argue from two perspectives. Firstly that to deal with the complexities and contingencies of the teaching situation, it is not feasible for teachers to be guided by a list of prescriptions on what they ought to do, but rather they should through systematic reflection find what actually works. In this the writers are much influenced by the work of Dewey (1933). The second perspective is that the promotion of reflective practice in teachers would help to oppose the spread of 'managerialism' and 'technical - rationalism' in education and training systems and organisations. This perspective draws heavily on the work of Habermas (1971;1984)

Given the continuing influence of the models and theories of reflective practice, the author wished to investigate the possibilities in actual teaching settings. Over the two years of a part-time In-Service initial teacher training course in an English university the author researched the development of reflective practice in the trainee teachers. The author wished to investigate  the extent of the opportunities and possibilities for reflective practice were for trainee teachers in the post compulsory education and training sector in the United Kingdom. He in particular wished to investigate the two major claims for reflective practice, that it is an effective way to deal with the complexities and contingencies of the teaching situation and secondly it helps give the teacher a 'professional voice' to oppose the dominant managerialist discourse.

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