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In response to the increasing demand for social and welfare services created by the economic, social and cultural changes in the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong, government, semi-government organizations and Non-Government Organizations have actively sought ways to develop new knowledge to improve the quality of their services. In the action research tradition, creating a community of reflective inquirers within a community of social work practice has been regarded as the basic mechanism for developing organizational knowledge which can innovatively address the problems arsing from rapid social, economic, and cultural changes. The community of reflective practitioners is considered as a learning system which is capable to seek knowledge that serves action. To practise reflection means that the community engages in a creative, critical process through which the practitioners vigorously experiment with existing knowledge and generate new knowledge to address the uncertain and conflicting practice situations.

This paper aims at discussing the facilitative processes which are crucial to the development of a community of practitioners by drawing on the insights gained from our empirical studies conducted in China and Hong Kong. Another focus of the paper is on delineating the barriers to the effective building of a community of reflective practitioners. These barriers can be examined from three different sources. The first source is at the level of the larger social environment. This includes the kinds of dominant social and cultural discourses that prevent the practitioners from developing into an effective learning community which is committed to develop new knowledge to tackle newly emerging social problems. The second source is related to the institutional level. Organizational culture plays a significant role in influencing the capacity of an organization to practise critical reflection for promoting organizational changes. For example, the prevalence of the cultural practice of dependence and concealment often inhibit the development of a community of reflective practice in China. The third source of threat is at the level of the individual practitioner. This refers to the individual experiences and preferred approach to organizational changes. For example, the individual’s experience of Cultural Revolution greatly hinders his/her practice of reflection with others in a community context.

In this colloquium, the first three authors will each present a case from her/his consultation experiences with the semi-government organizations in China while the last three authors will focus on their reflection on their experiences in working with non-government organizations in Hong Kong. The panel of presenters will conclude their presentation by discussing the implications for promoting organization change in China and Hong Kong through comparing the experiences of semi- and non-government organizations in the two Chinese societies.

Stream: Change

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Pauline's one major contribution in professional education is to introduce a philosophy of educating reflective practitioners with the vision of pursuing scholarship in practice in Chinese societies. Since the early 1990s, she and her team have endeavored to educate practical scholars in China through consultancy projects, research studies and establishment of a first of its kind Master program in Social Work with Peking University. With the support from her doctoral thesis supervisor, Professor Donald Schon of MIT, Pauline developed a groundbreaking theory in 2000 to explain how experienced social work practitioners learn new knowledge. Her long-term research interest is to promote partnership between academics and non-profit-making organizations to pioneer the use of collaborative-action research to promote organizational change and generate actionable knowledge. Some of her collaborators in China include Peking University, China Women College, Yunnan University, Nakai University, Medical School of Tongji University, All Federations of Women, and Ministry of Civil Affairs. Pauline’s academic and recent research interests include organizational learning and change, collaborative action research, systemic family therapy, practical knowledge development, and educating reflective practitioners.