The development of critical being? Reflection and reflexivity in an action learning programme for health promotion practitioners in the Netherlands

Public health is a major focus of government policy worldwide and an expanding area of practice that includes an array of professionals and disciplines. Since the 1980s ‘empowerment’ of individuals and communities to gain greater control over the factors that influence their health has become the focus of many national and local policies and practices. In The Netherlands, where the current study is undertaken, empowerment has only recently found its way in the health promotion discourse and a review study found that practitioners feel incapable to transform their current practice in line with the new discourse. Therefore, an action learning programme on empowerment was developed to support practitioners in this process and evaluated using a qualitative case-study approach. In this paper, the process and outcomes of reflection as experienced and described by the practitioners in the action learning programme, are discussed against the background of notions of reflection and reflexivity, critical being and critical pedagogy.