Reflexivity

There are so many things the practice of reflexivity does to enhance and enrich our research work.

I’m running a couple of reflexivity workshops over in Manchester and Sheffield in September with Quirkos. Daniel Turner from Quirkos asked me to propose a few sessions, and all of my workshops centre around reflexivity. I don’t think you can separate reflexivity from the practice of research.

Good reflexivity is about understanding ourselves in the context of the research, as well as being able to communicate it. It helps to make our research more transparent and more rigourous.

Reflexivity is often discussed in the context of data analysis or data collection, however, our research can be enhanced by reflexive practice throughout the whole research process. Usually it’s something people consider maybe briefly when starting a project, or during certain types of analysis like grounded theory that encourages researchers to be conscious and explicit about their own role in interpreting the data. But the choices we make as researchers, be they conscious or subconscious, affect all stages of the research – from the topic and research question, the literature we read, how data is analysed and interpreted, as well as parts that may be downplayed when writing up. Let’s consider just how much reflexivity might reveal during a literature review.

Here is an example of some questions we can ask around our choices when it comes to literature:

• Why have you chosen these authors?
• Which ones are a “must read for you”? What factors contributed to them being an important read? Are there other authors or references that could add value that may not fit the criteria you have chosen?
• Which voices are not represented? Would you consider reading some of those voices, and do you think you could do so with an open mind?
• Is there a particular stream of arguments that you are focussing your search or literature on?
• What arguments do you have a strong reaction to? What do you think some of the reasons for the reaction might be?

You can see from these questions that reflexivity helps in identifying how we influence or shape the research, as well as understand how we think, how we work, and finding the best processes for us.

This post is only scratching the surface of how we can understand ourselves as an instrument, and practically apply reflexivity through the whole research journey. We are running workshops in Sheffield and Manchester where you can learn much more, and hope to do a lot more in this area moving ahead!

In the workshop, not only will the concept of reflexivity be explained in more detail, participants will be guided through a series of practical reflexive exercises across different stages of the research process. Free to choose whichever practices are best for their current stage of research, as well be provided with a toolkit for future reflexive research work.

More information and registration information here: https://www.eventbrite.com/o/quirkos-software-48754961343