Reflexivity: How to actually do it

Written by Tracy Morison

Sunrise over Lake Wakatipu and Kawarau “The Remarkables” mountain range, Queenstown, Aotearoa New Zealand, 2016. Photo by Tracy Morison

Let’s be honest: reflexivity is one of the most overused and under-explained terms in qualitative research. We all say we’re being reflexive—often in a neat little paragraph in the methodology section—but what does that actually look like in practice?

This post is a practical (and hopefully honest) attempt to answer that question. It’s aimed at students and early-career researchers, especially those using feminist or critical qualitative methods, but may also be useful for more experienced researchers looking to deepen their practice. Think of it as a field guide to doing reflexivity in real life: not just writing about it, but using it to enrich your thinking and deepen your analysis.

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Unmasking Jack S. Hatcher

By Kerry Chamberlain

Some years ago, Jack S. Hatcher* published a (rather unusual) article in Qualitative Research in Psychology (Hatcher, 2011). Who was this person, and how did this come about?

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A Case for Absurdism in Critical Health Psychology

By Beck Lowe

Photo by cottonbro studio on pexels

It was during my second undergraduate year of Drama & Performance Studies over a decade ago – performing a dinner party scene where no one ate, and the characters became increasingly agitated for no apparent reason – that I first discovered my love of absurdism.

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The post PhD-thesis-submission funk

Aleksandra A Staneva, University of Queensland, Australia; a.staneva@uq.edu.au

ThesisIt has been 1 month, 17 days, and 3 hours since I submitted my PhD thesis.

A PhD study involves an interesting and unexpectedly non-linear process. Non-linear, because it does not happen independently, in a vacuum; on the contrary, it happens while life unfolds with all its messiness. People move, die, give birth etc. whilst your PhD demands your time regardless.

The final stages of a PhD usually involve a ‘meta’ approach to everything. Everything you have discovered in order to not only synthesize, apply and polish the final product – the thesis, but also to make a contribution, to be able to answer the very first question that made you go for it in the first place: So what? Continue reading