Reflexivity Techniques
- Darlene Edgar
Markham, A. (2021). Reflexivity: Some techniques for interpretive researchers - Annette Markham: Social media, methods, and ethics. https://annettemarkham.com/2017/02/reflexivity-for-interpretive-researchers/
Reflexivity is more of an ideological approach than a series of actions, involving techniques to engage the body and mind to act reflexively.
Techniques for reflexivity include analysis, learning to notice what was previously unnoticed, and developing reflexivity as an attitude over time.
Reflexivity helps build better research questions and allows researchers to continually spiral around the phenomenon they are studying.
It involves thinking at multiple mental levels about the object of analysis and considering the connection between researcher and research.
Reflexivity also involves making choices about how to represent knowledge to potential or actual audiences, revealing multiple layers of potentiality without losing authority.
Reflexivity helps in reflecting on and acknowledging the role and creation of findings, highlighting and obscuring knowledge formations, and consciously including or missing elements in research engagement.
Reflexivity as a method involves locating one's self-position, analyzing frames of reference, and understanding the historical, local, and political context influencing the research process.
It goes beyond personal experience to understand one's orientation to the world, acknowledging the possibilities and limitations of research practice.
Skillful reflexivity requires practice and is essential for gaining greater sensitivity to both local and global contexts.
Reflexivity involves an outward focus on standpoint or situation, locating research design within larger frameworks and making one's worldview clear to readers or viewers.
It includes identifying and articulating premises and guiding readers in understanding the reasoning behind research choices.
Reflexivity also entails critical focus on objective research, analyzing empirical details and theoretical frameworks, and shifting between empirical and theoretical perspectives.
It involves examining research processes, from analysis to interpretation, and paying attention to critical junctures or turning points in the research journey.
Reflexivity includes an inward focus on the self, digging into one's situatedness and identifying ways in which research is influenced by personal perspectives and experiences.
Techniques for reflexivity include brain dumps, introspective elicitation, informal descriptions, and critique of sense-making tools.
Reflexivity is a continual process and may not always be included in formal research reports, but it helps bring researchers' habits and norms to the surface, enhancing transparency in research practice.
McGarry, K. (2019). Reflexivity as a process for coming into knowing. LEARNing Landscapes, 12(1), 155–170. https://www.learninglandscapes.ca/index.php/learnland/article/view/985
Art Space Research Methodology:
Utilizes transdisciplinary and intertextuality to explore research questions.
Deviates from traditional qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Artography blends the roles of artist, researcher, and teacher into one entity.
Art can spark conversations and provide a pathway for intentional research.
Research in the arts involves a deliberate investigative pathway, leading to discovery and knowledge acquisition.
Answers in art-based inquiry often lead to more questions, generating owned and embodied knowledge through self-reflexive experiential processes.
Paradigm Evolution and Mapping Inquiry:
Paradigms evolve through contemplating experiences (reflection) and seeing oneself as part of these experiences (reflexivity).
Knowledge is framed into narratives or forms (e.g., books, sculptures) to create meaning.
Inquiry begins with understanding more, and paradigms shift when there is incompatibility with existing paradigms.
Mapping inquiry serves as a communicative device for understanding research plans, guiding knowledge acquisition, and revealing new paradigms.
Embodied Knowing and Phenomenology:
Embodied knowing generates active reflection and understanding within the process of discovery and learning.
Phenomenology explores how individuals perceive experiences and themselves in the world.
Knowledge creation is a social process involving multidisciplinary dialogue and participatory activities.
Postmodern experiential phenomenological work emphasizes the importance of contemplation and the construction of ideas.
Constructionism and Active Engagement:
Constructionism views reality as assembled through experiences shaped by interactions with societies and cultures.
Knowing is constructed through engagement and interaction with symbols and media sources.
Pragmatism aims to free knowledge from formal views, allowing for shifting emergent phenomena.
Knowledge is created through active engagement and experiences, influenced by personal values and ethics.
Interpretivism and Subjective Knowing:
Interpretivism involves shaping beliefs and interpreting texts, which may lead to misrepresentations of reality.
Interconnected learning occurs across multiple systems through the blending of symbolic interaction.
Discipline-specific learning is essential for understanding vocabulary and context within each discipline.
Subjective knowing involves experiential, presentational, propositional, and practical pathways, originating from experiences and informed by symbolizing experiences.
Impact and Social Justice:
Critical research theory examines social and cultural histories, aiming to address social division and inequities.
Art aims to reveal hierarchies and challenge educational confinements placed on learners.
Visual and experimental inquiry processes shape abstract concepts towards design and consciousness.
Art space research maps future terrain and contributes to the learning process in meaningful ways.