Donna Frost

Chapter 2 42 1 . Professional artistry occurs in complex and challenging practice situations Complex, uncertain unique. Hidden conundrum. Tumbling rush. Challenge. Professional artistry occurs in what Schön ( 1987 ) termed the ‘ indeterminate zones of practice’ (p. 6 ): those practice situations characterised by complexity, uncertainty and unpredictability in which, as professionals, we are ‘ pushed to the edge of what we know’ (Austen, 2010 , p. 3 ). Beeston and Higgs ( 2001 ) stress the plurality of responses available to the practitioner and that these may seem ambiguous. Often none of the multiple possibilities seems immediately self-evident (Cowan, 2007 ). Such situations require the professional to exercise discretion and professional judgement (eg. Finfgeld-Connett, 2008 ; Wilson, 2008 ). A reliance on pre-prescribed and standardised responses in such situations is likely to be inadequate, and may even be harmful (Fish and de Cossart, 2006 ; 2007 ; Baker, 2015 ). This first aspect of professional artistry forms a reference in that it describes the kind of situations in which professional artistry may occur: one in which the professional situation is sufficiently challenging but in certain important ways recognisable for the professional. Although Schön ( 1987 ) suggested that gifted professionals could display professional artistry in their day-to-day practice, he did differentiate between those situations amenable to more linear and technical problem solving methods and those which required professional artistry. According to Schön, some problems are like being on the ‘ high ground’ of professional practice: the professional recognises both the situation and what needs to be done. There is a suitable procedure or protocol available and familiar to the professional, with which the practice problem can be effectively tackled. It is in the ‘swampy lowlands’ of practice, when either the problem or the solution, or both, are less clear cut, that the professional needs to draw on their professional artistry in order to practise effectively and safely. Other sources have characterised complex and unpredictable practice situations as being the norm within professional practice (eg. Goldstein, 1998 ; Titchen and Higgs, 2001 b, Lehmann, 2008 ). Henderson ( 2001 b) argues that such situations are characteristic of and ubiquitous within teaching, and Grainger ( 2003 ) that the extent of the complexity in teaching is largely covert. Similar claims have been made within fields such as management and leadership (Cowan, 2007 ), anaesthesiology (Smith, Glavin & Greaves, 2011 ; Flynn et al., 2017 ), social work (Lymbery, 2003 ),