While there has been international interest in reflection, it remains associated with western societies, where Parker (1997) argues, western rationality, with its post-Cartesian legacy,influences the process of reflection. Reflection has been advocated within nursing education since the 1980s. Nevertheless, it is vital to be clear about the nature of reflection ‘in use’ in contemporary times. This is important because there have been concerns over the definition of reflection and the potential influences exerted by organisations on the meaning and communication of the concept. Few contemporary studies have investigated the construction of reflection by nurse teachers and students. O'Donovan's (2007) study described students' perceptions of reflection — reflection was seen as a process of deliberative thinking, looking back, examining oneself and one's practice in order to improve future practice. The only contemporary study identified that specifically explored nurse teachers' perceptions of reflection was O'Connor et al. (2003), whereby reflection was seen as a way of reviewing clinical experiences and developing and professionalizing practice knowledge. Thus whilst research reviews by Ruth-Sahd (2003) and Gustafsson et al. (2007) demonstrate a growth in
empirical work, there is a need for further research exploring the construction of the concept of reflection in nursing in order to critique and develop its use for the profession.