Reflection is fundamental to teachers' agency, professional learning, and sustainable school improvement. This study investigates schoolteachers' conceptions of reflection and the factors they report as affecting their engagement in it. The study deploys Habermas' (1984) theory of communicative action, specifically the "lifeworld colonization" thesis and the "contexts of relevance" notion to understand teachers' conceptions of reflection. The paper analyzes teachers' reports within this framework and argues that teachers' reflection is, at best, reduced to a technical endeavor, one aimed at primarily and exclusively improving teachers' restricted and narrowed practices within pre-set standards. The study concludes with a proposed framework highlighting the role of leadership in developing conducive environments by drawing on the "justified indoctrination and contrived collegiality."