NCRM Bitesize Lessons for Teaching Social Science Research Methods 8: Facilitating the development of reflexive thinking for qualitative research

Reflexive thinking, or reflexivity, involves the researcher in critically assessing their positionality and the effect of this on their research process, data and findings. It enables exploration of ‘issues of power and privilege that exist between the researcher and the researched’. Saldaña and Omasta (2021: 43) define reflexivity as ‘individual reflection on one’s own relationship with the data, the participants, the nature of the study, and even with one’s own self as a researcher’; while reflection may involve ‘looking outward’, reflexivity requires ‘looking inward’.

Reflexivity in qualitative research is less about transparency and ‘truth’ (as these relate more to positivist goals); it is more coming from a recognition that the researcher influences the research. Going beyond critical reflection (the researcher considering their assumptions and their influence on their work), critical reflexivity engages the researcher in reflecting on how their positionality impacts on their knowing and their understanding. This presents a challenge to assumptions, for example, about how knowledge is constructed, or power dynamics. There is an interaction here: qualitative researchers both affect the research and are affected by it, and this makes reflexivity an essential part of the research process.