Reflexivity in Police Education : Voices of Swedish Police Officers on Field Training of Probationers

This interview study of Swedish police field-training officers (FTOs) and their conceptions of the task of mentoring and assessing police probationers, exemplifies how a field-training task can be understood as a learning incentive for professional development amongst the FTOs. In ten individual, in-depth interviews, the FTOs illustrate how their educational practices generate new perspectives on their policing and mentoring roles due to the incentives to reflect on the context related to the training task. Furthermore, the findings disclose the importance of proper prerequisites in understanding the pedagogies of the field-training task and thus creating an ethical and qualified learning environment. In the tradition of qualitative and exploratory studies, the article initiates a discussion about how a pedagogic and educational perspective on professional development can be applied to other vocations and professions