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230 It is also important to note that as project implementers or evaluators we are never value neutral or value free. Your choice of area (whether A or B) was probably informed by your past experiences in these areas, perhaps also your interaction with people who live in similar areas, your beliefs and values about people who live in such areas and properties that they might have or not have. These assumptions, values and beliefs that we all have are shaped by our experiences, which impact on our daily lives; how we interact with those who we serve or work with, decisions we make and these in turn affect ways of seeing reality or indeed ways of engagement. Thus, in a quest to find a reason why this project should be implemented where you thought best (whether A or B) your assumptions, values and beliefs informed your decision, clearly attesting to the fact that we are never value neutral. Four activities are considered central to critical reflection. Let us draw on the above examples for insights on what is involved in critical reflection: 1. Assumption analysis - Is it“rich area i.e. area A or poor area B. Assumption analysis involves thinking in ways that challenge our beliefs, values, and cultural practices. Remember that in every project we have assumptions on what activities we need to implement to bring about change. Always question yourself on what was your original assumption. 2. Contextual awareness – Realising that our assumptions of women in these two areas are shaped by our experiences or beliefs that are socially and personally created, we are probably making an assumption that people in poor areas have no property hence there is no need to teach them how to write a Will and yet we forget that people in rich areas may not have property of their own or we might assume that because they are educated they know the importance of writing a Will when in fact not. 3. Imaginative speculation - Imagining alternative ways of thinking about phenomena in order to provide an opportunity to challenge our prevailing ways of knowing and acting. 4. Reflective skepticism or reflexivity - Questioning of universal truth claims (for example, people in poor areas have no property or people in rich areas have property) or unexamined patterns of interaction through the prior three activities; assumption analysis, contextual awareness, and imaginative speculation. It is the ability to think about a subject so that the available evidence from that subject's field is suspended or temporarily rejected in order to establish the truth or viability of a proposition or action. In sum, critical reflection promotes critical self-awareness; realisation that our assumptions about problems, situations and people have practical consequences. The process also promotes questioning of personal practice and knowledge. Critical reflection involves more than thinking and requires deeper

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