The changing nature of the world that public managers inhabit requires strategies for sense-making. This is frequently the reason why managers engage in mid-career education. Disciplinary elements provide knowledge and insights. However, growing significance is being placed on enabling practitioners to reflect on their own practice and assumptions. This article examines how links between learning and reflecting developed and why the fostering of reflexivity has become implanted in practitioner education. It outlines the origins, meanings and validations of reflexivity in mid-career education. By examining and connecting the different interpretations of reflection and reflexivity, the paper provides a conceptual framework to underpin applications of reflexivity in management education.