research

Reflexivity: How to actually do it

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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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Critical Realism: Opening the door to enriching the evidence base of public health co-creation

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Written by Katrina Messiha

Photo by Mārtiņš Zemlickis on Unsplash

In recent years, co-creation has become a widely used approach in public health research. This approach engages stakeholders such as local communities, policymakers and practitioners directly in the research process to develop interventions that are not only relevant but also sustainable and impactful. However, despite growing interest, many co-creation efforts in public health lack a clear theoretical foundation. There is often limited use of theory to guide how co-creation is done and how it can be evaluated effectively.

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5 hours in qualitative research

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Written by Dave Nicholls. Re-published with permission from ParaDoxa

A recent article published in Physiotherapy Theory & Practice found that US-based physical therapy programs allocate, on average, just five hours to teaching qualitative research.

The article by Michelle Wormley and a team of US-based academics, including the venerable Gail Jensen, reported on a descriptive qualitative study of time spent learning about qualitative research across 70 US physical therapy programs.

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Living on Hope? Reflections on ‘Hope Labour’ in Academia

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Written by David Brax

This blog has been reposted from Lex Academic. Find the original post here.

In academic fields where competition is tough and resources are scarce, it is common for people to perform work for little or no remuneration, hoping that this will lead to better opportunities for further employment, promotion or recognition. This sort of work can be described as ‘hope labour’. David Brax, adviser at the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research, reasons here about hope in academic work as an important driving force but also warns about it as a potential source of exploitation.

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When ‘we’ is more than two: families and infertility in India

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Written by Arushi Kothari and Parul Bansal

A child holds great value for individuals, couples, families and communities across the world. One only has to look at ancient art, literature, architecture to unpack the deep emotional and psychological significance that pregnancy, birth and parenthood has been imbued with across cultures. Thus childlessness, particularly due to infertility, has gained immense focus in the past 40 years, particularly with the arrival of advanced assistive reproductive technologies (ARTs). Within this complex interweb of medicine, desire and relationships, our work has focused on the experiences of low-income childless couples dealing with infertility in India. The narrative qualitative research involved in-depth interviews with 12 low-income couples seeking infertility treatment at a private IVF centre in New Delhi, India.

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Lies, Lies, it’s all Lies! Discussing Vaginal Cleansing Products from a Critical Health Perspective

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Written by: Mariangela Del Monaco, Sarah Cappellaro, and Vaidehi Patel

Vaginal cleansing products such as douches, washes, sprays, and wipes have become extremely popular in the last few decades. Despite their popularity, these products may pose health risk to their users like yeast infections, urinary tract infections (UTIs), and bacterial vaginosis (BV). Could this mean people prioritize a “clean” vagina over a “healthy” vagina?

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Holding our mums…

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Written by: Cassandra Sundaraja

Photo by Liv Bruce on Unsplash

Giving birth to a child – bringing forth new life into the world – is an amazing feat a human body (with a uterus) is capable of achieving. It sounds so heroic and powerful. However, going through the process of labour and delivery in a hospital setting, I was struck by the stark contrast of how pregnant, labouring and post-partum women are made to feel instead – powerless and without agency.

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Cancer is increasingly survivable – but it shouldn’t depend on your ability to ‘wrangle’ the health system

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Written by: Kevin Dew, Alex Broom, Chris Cunningham, Elizabeth Dennett, Kerry Chamberlain, and Richard Egan

Getty Images

One in three of us will develop cancer at some point in our lives. But survival rates have improved to the point that two-thirds of those diagnosed live more than five years.

This extraordinary shift over the past few decades introduces new challenges. A large and growing proportion of people diagnosed with cancer are living with it, rather than dying of it.

In our recently published research we examined the cancer experiences of 81 New Zealanders (23 Māori and 58 non-Māori).

We found survivorship not only entailed managing the disease, but also “wrangling” a complex health system.

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The Shock of the New? A review of the 2024 In Sickness In Health Conference 

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By Liz McKibben

Photo by Phill Brown on Unsplash

Alright! Sign me up!  

This reaction was unusual for me. I don’t really like conferences. I’d rather sit snuggled up at home and read an article than watch somebody narrate their PowerPoint slides. They often feel like a self-serving platform that we attend just to plump up our academic CVs. Surely, I’m not the only person who gets unbelievably bored? Maybe this one will be different. I was seduced by the promise of shocking newness. 

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Complicating Chemsex

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By Siobhán Healy-Cullen and Chris Noone

Image credit: The Andrey Rylkov Foundation 

In recent years, the phenomenon of chemsex, a practice involving the use of drugs to enhance sexual experiences, has become a topic of increasing concern (some would say moral panic; see Hakim, 2019) and research. Traditionally, this practice has been studied through a lens that emphasises potential harm and pathologises those who engage in chemsex. As noted by Møller (2023, p. 922) “chemsex research mostly approaches the phenomenon from the perspective of health, focusing on ‘problematic’ aspects that tend to overstate risks and obscure the complicated role that drugs play in people’s lives”.  However, a more critical perspective is emerging, viewing chemsex participants as valid sexual citizens engaged in a complex socio-cultural landscape.  

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Towards peer-led and person-centred care

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By Bella van Hattum

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

Ma te rongo, ka mohio;
Ma te mohio, ka marama;
Ma te marama, ka matau;
Ma te matau, ka ora.
Through listening comes awareness; through awareness comes understanding; through understanding comes knowledge; through knowledge comes life and well-being.

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Weaving Together

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By Brett Scholz

Nankeri nanggi / good day

During border closures in 2020, I remember feeling both more acutely unable to get anywhere I might want or need to be, and more in touch with where I was (very privileged to be on the largely COVID-free Ngunnawal and Ngambri country with lots of open space to get out and make the most of its beautiful surrounds). I was exhausted working to ensure that health care consumers could be the architects of the ICU triage process for the Australian Capital Territory during the pandemic. Something that gave me energy to get through this, and that helped me feel more connected to family and home beyond Ngunnawal and Ngambri country was trying to learn and engage more with Aboriginal languages. I have always been interested in language, and disappointed that I didn’t have any knowledge about Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri language despite having close ties to that part of the country. When I would email colleagues, friends, or family on Kaurna or Ngarrindjeri country, using local greetings and sign offs it helped me to feel like I was a little closer to them. When emailing others, I used Ngunnawal language greetings to locate myself to others.

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Unmasking Jack S. Hatcher

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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

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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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Counting the wrong sheep: why trouble sleeping is about more than just individual lifestyles and habits

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By Mary Breheny and Rosie Gibson

Photo by Andisheh A on Unsplash

Sleep may seem straightforward – everyone does it, after all. But as many of us know, getting enough sleep is not necessarily a simple task, despite what you might read in the media.

How to sleep “properly” is a favourite topic of self-help articles, with headlines such as “Expert advice to get a good night’s sleep whatever your age” promising the answer to your nocturnal awakenings.

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