TY - JOUR
T1 - The reflective housing practitioner
T2 - the role of qualifications for building empathy and person-centered approaches in the housing sector
AU - McCall, Vikki
AU - McKee, Kim
AU - Theakstone, Dianne Dominique
AU - Gallagher McCulloch, Carol
AU - Taylor, Helen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2025/1/22
Y1 - 2025/1/22
N2 - Tragic events in the UK have led to a call to increase the “professionalism” of those managing and delivering housing-related services. As part of this process, there is a need to build and integrate empathy, solidarity and person-centered approaches into housing learning to support teaching and practice. However, compared to other professions such as education and health, the housing sector has a limited reflective practice foundation to support this. In response, this paper offers a bespoke model of reflection for the housing sector, which we argue is pivotal to driving forward sector-wide ambitions to raise professional standards through education and qualifications. The “pyramid of housing reflection” model is informed by experiences of the UK higher education context and empirical evidence that takes practitioners and learners through the journey of contextualizing their position (description), impact and positionality (feelings), person-centered practice (empathy and solidarity) alongside engaging with power and critical thinking (structural impacts) to become a reflective housing practitioner. The paper outlines the powerful nature of reflective practice to support personal and professional growth, development and to raise service standards for tenants and other service users in the UK housing sector.
AB - Tragic events in the UK have led to a call to increase the “professionalism” of those managing and delivering housing-related services. As part of this process, there is a need to build and integrate empathy, solidarity and person-centered approaches into housing learning to support teaching and practice. However, compared to other professions such as education and health, the housing sector has a limited reflective practice foundation to support this. In response, this paper offers a bespoke model of reflection for the housing sector, which we argue is pivotal to driving forward sector-wide ambitions to raise professional standards through education and qualifications. The “pyramid of housing reflection” model is informed by experiences of the UK higher education context and empirical evidence that takes practitioners and learners through the journey of contextualizing their position (description), impact and positionality (feelings), person-centered practice (empathy and solidarity) alongside engaging with power and critical thinking (structural impacts) to become a reflective housing practitioner. The paper outlines the powerful nature of reflective practice to support personal and professional growth, development and to raise service standards for tenants and other service users in the UK housing sector.
KW - housing services
KW - learning
KW - power
KW - Professionalism
KW - teaching
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85215588714&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/08882746.2024.2448407
DO - 10.1080/08882746.2024.2448407
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85215588714
SN - 0888-2746
SP - 1
EP - 22
JO - Housing and Society
JF - Housing and Society
ER -