Reflective Leadership: Using Inquiry to Drive Team Learning

Aug 17
In OSHC, leaders are often expected to respond quickly. A transition is not working. An educator is unsure what to do. A family raises a concern. The program feels flat. The easiest response can be to step in with an answer. 

Sometimes that is exactly what leadership requires. 

But when every challenge is solved by the leader, the team may become more dependent on direction and less confident in its own professional thinking. 

Reflective leadership offers another approach: use inquiry to help people understand the situation, consider different perspectives and take thoughtful action. 

Reflective Leadership Is Not Hesitation 

Reflective leadership is the practice of pausing long enough to think about what is happening, why it matters and how the team might respond. 

It is not indecision. It is not asking endless questions when a clear direction is needed. And it is not transferring every difficult decision back to the team. 

A reflective leader still sets expectations, makes decisions and acts decisively when safety, legal obligations, professional conduct or children’s rights are at stake. 

The difference is that they do not treat every issue as something to fix alone. Where there is space to learn, they create that space. 

Connecting Inquiry With MTOP and the NQS 

My Time, Our Place V2.0 positions critical reflection and ongoing professional learning as connected professional responsibilities. It describes critical reflection as deeper thinking and evaluation, undertaken through an ongoing cycle of review that can involve educators, children, young people and families. 

Reflective leadership also connects with: 
  • Element 7.2.1 — Continuous improvement: an effective self-assessment and quality improvement process is in place. 
  • Element 7.2.2 — Educational leadership: the Educational Leader is supported and leads the educational program and assessment and planning cycle. 
  • Element 4.2.1 — Professional collaboration: educators and leaders work respectfully, challenge and learn from one another, and recognise each other’s strengths. 
These expectations are not asking leaders to have every answer. They are asking services to build the conditions in which professional thinking, reflection and improvement can occur. 

Four Habits of Reflective Leaders 

1.  Pause before solving. Take a moment to decide whether the situation requires immediate direction, collaborative inquiry or both. A short pause can prevent assumptions from becoming decisions. 
2.  Ask questions that create thinking. Use questions to understand experience, uncover reasoning and invite different perspectives — not to steer people toward an answer you have already chosen. 
3.  Listen for patterns, not only incidents. One difficult afternoon may be an isolated event. Repeated tension at the same time, in the same space or around the same routine may point to a broader issue. 
4.  Close the loop. Inquiry should lead somewhere. Agree on a trial, responsibility or next question, then return to it and examine what changed. 

Questions That Open Thinking 

Different questions serve different purposes. A useful reflective conversation often moves through three kinds of inquiry. 
  • 1. Questions that help the team make sense of what happened 
    • What did we notice? 
    • What was happening before the issue emerged? 
    • How did children and young people respond? 
    • What did we do, and what effect did that appear to have? 
  • 2. Questions that widen perspective 
    • Whose perspective have we not considered yet? 
    • What assumptions might be shaping how we see this? 
    • How might the child, family or another educator describe the situation? 
    • What does our philosophy, MTOP V2.0 or relevant policy ask us to consider? 
  • 3. Questions that support action and learning 
    • What is one change we could trial? 
    • What support or information do we need? 
    • Who will take responsibility for the next step? 
    • When will we revisit this, and what will we look for? 
The goal is not to ask every question. It is to choose the question that helps the team move from reaction to understanding, and from understanding to action. 

Inquiry in Everyday OSHC Moments 

When a transition becomes chaotic 
Instead of beginning with, “Everyone needs to manage this better,” try: “What seems to change for the group at this point in the afternoon? Which children are most affected? What could we adjust in the environment, timing or educator positioning?” 

When children stop using a planned space 
Rather than assuming they are bored, ask: “What are children choosing instead? What might this tell us about challenge, comfort, ownership or relevance? How could we invite their ideas before changing the space?” 

When an educator is struggling 
A reflective leader can combine support with clarity: “I noticed the interaction became tense. How did it feel from your perspective? What do you think the child was communicating? Let’s identify the expectation and one strategy you can use next time.” 

When family feedback is difficult to hear 
Ask: “What is the family telling us about their experience? Which part can we clarify, which part may require change, and how will we show that their feedback has been considered?” 

These conversations help the team examine the system around the issue, rather than locating every challenge within one child or one educator. 

When Leaders Need to Be Direct 

Inquiry is not appropriate as the first response to every situation. Leaders need to be direct when: 
  • There is an immediate risk to safety or wellbeing. 
  • A legal, regulatory, child-safe or policy requirement must be followed. 
  • Professional conduct has crossed a clear boundary. 
  • A decision sits within a formal role and delay would create confusion or harm. 
Being direct does not remove the opportunity for later reflection. A leader can act first, explain the expectation, and then create a separate conversation to examine what happened and how future practice can be strengthened. 
“I need you to move to that area now so supervision is maintained. After the session, we will look together at what led to the gap and how we can prevent it happening again.” 

Creating Conditions for Honest Inquiry 

Reflective questions only work when people believe it is safe to answer honestly. If every question feels like a hidden test, educators will search for the “right” response rather than share what they actually think. 

1. Build psychological safety. Respond to uncertainty and mistakes with curiosity while still addressing accountability. People need to know that speaking honestly will not automatically be used against them.
 
2. Clarify the purpose of the conversation. Say whether you are exploring, coaching, gathering information or setting an expectation. Ambiguity creates anxiety. 

3. Create regular spaces for inquiry. A five-minute reflection huddle, one question in a team meeting or a short follow-up after a trial can build consistency without creating a new administrative burden. 

4. Invite more than the loudest voices. Use paired discussion, written prompts or rotating facilitation so casual, new or quieter educators can contribute. 

5. Show that thinking leads to action. Record the agreed next step, revisit it and communicate what changed. Follow-through tells the team that reflection matters.

A Five-Minute Inquiry Huddle 

When time is limited, use this simple structure: 

1. Notice. What did we observe? 
2. Interpret. What might it mean? 
3. Challenge. What assumption or current practice should we question? 
4. Trial. What one change will we make? 
5. Revisit. When will we check what happened? 

The huddle is not a replacement for deeper discussion when the issue is complex. It is a way to keep inquiry alive in the everyday rhythm of OSHC. 

Common Inquiry Traps 

  • Rhetorical questions: asking a question when the leader has already decided the answer and is waiting for the team to guess it. 
  • Interrogation: asking too many rapid questions without listening or acknowledging the educator’s experience. 
  • Problem-only reflection: using inquiry only when something goes wrong and missing opportunities to understand what is working well. 
  • Reflection without action: generating thoughtful discussion but never agreeing on a next step or returning to it. 
  • Using inquiry to avoid leadership: repeatedly sending decisions back to the team when the leader needs to clarify expectations or make a call. 

Modelling Vulnerability Without Losing Confidence 

Reflective leaders show that learning is part of professional practice. They can acknowledge uncertainty without withdrawing from responsibility. 
“I made that decision quickly yesterday, and I have been thinking about its impact. I want us to examine what we learned and whether we need to adjust our approach.” 
This kind of statement does not weaken leadership. It demonstrates accountability, models reflection and gives the team permission to learn openly. 

Confidence is not pretending to know everything. It is being clear about what is known, what still needs to be explored and what will happen next. 

Questions for Team Reflection 

  • When do our leaders tend to give answers, and when do they create space for inquiry? 
  • Do reflective questions feel genuinely open in our service? 
  • Whose perspectives are regularly included — and whose are less visible? 
  • How do we balance inquiry with clear expectations and accountability? 
  • What happens after a reflective conversation? 
  • How do we examine successful practice, not only problems? 
  • Which recurring issue would benefit from a short cycle of inquiry this term? 

Why It Matters 

Reflective leadership builds the team’s capacity to think, not simply comply with direction. 

It helps educators connect daily experiences with professional knowledge, children and young people’s perspectives, the service philosophy and the wider quality-improvement process. 

Over time, teams become better able to notice patterns, discuss uncertainty, challenge assumptions and take responsibility for learning together. 

For leaders, inquiry reduces the pressure to be the sole source of every solution. For educators, it builds voice and professional judgement. For children, young people and families, it supports practice that is more considered, responsive and open to change. 

The strongest reflective leaders do not create teams that wait for answers. They create teams that know how to investigate the questions that matter. 

Ready to strengthen reflective leadership in your OSHC team? 

Listen to the OSHCology MicroCast: “Reflective Leadership — Using Inquiry to Drive Team Learning.” 

Then choose one recurring service challenge and use the five-minute inquiry huddle in this post to move from noticing to a small, reviewable action. For personalised leadership support, explore OSHC Coaching with Learn OSHC. 

Further Reading 

ACECQA — MTOP Principles: Critical reflection and ongoing professional learning 
ACECQA — Element 7.2.1: Continuous improvement 
ACECQA — Element 7.2.2: Educational leadership