hi my name is luis alvarez hernandez and today we're going to be talking about reflexivity in qualitative research we have three learning objectives today by the end of this short lecture you will be able to answer what is reflexivity in qualitative research why do we use reflexivity in qualitative research and how can you engage in reflexivity in your qualitative research so let's start with the first one what is reflexivity in qualitative research well rustling tells us that with respect to research reflexivity refers to the researchers ability to be able to self-consciously refer to him or herself in relation to the production of knowledge about research topics now crestwompoth tells us a little bit more about how this looks like in our research so they talk about being mindful of our backgrounds like work experiences cultural experiences history and many other things that influence who we are and how we think and how we see the world that means that we're conveying that message in all parts of our research study from the introduction to our methods section to our findings to how we discuss those findings our second question is why do we use reflexivity in qualitative research well there are many reasons for this how we experience the world is based on our identities and our relationship to our social environment based on those identities and how they're perceived by others these dynamics typically generate power dynamics among us and our social environment that may be how we enforce power or how others enforce power upon us based on these relationships however reflexivity goes beyond reflecting on our experiences in the world reflexivity is really about how we experience our relationships with others specifically others involved in our research studies like our participants now how we understand the meaning that people make of their lives is obviously a big part of qualitative research which means that as researchers then our experiences shape how that meaning is understood and how it is significant for ourselves and for others in the process now we also use reflexivity and qualitative research to ensure trustworthiness it is to ensure that we are aware of our biases and how our biases really interact with our data and help us make meaning so by providing other people with an account of this process then we are able to provide another layer of understanding for how our process came to be and what we found so our third question is how can i engage in reflexivity in my qualitative research well first keep in mind that reflexivity is something that is widely talked about in qualitative research which means you will have many texts that talk about different approaches to reflexivity different functions or how not functional reflexivity is in qualitative research and how many people approach reflexivity so here are five questions where you can start to think about reflexivity and these are patents questions that help us start thinking about this concept so pattern tells us to ask ourselves what do i know how do i know what i know what shapes and has shaped my perspective what voice do i share my perspective and what do i do with what i have found i know that reflexivity might not be a concept that it's easily grasped by those who have not engaged in it yet so what i want to do is provide you with an exercise that can help you start thinking about this so grab a piece of paper and something to write with and then i want you to draw yourself on one side of the page and your research participants on the other side you see that on the left i have uploaded my own uh beginning of this exercise for your reference and feel free to stop this video at any time to give you time to go through these steps so after you draw yourself in one side of the page and your research participants on the other i want you to write about yourself and then write about your research participants what parts of you come into play in this research study and what do you know about your research participants what do you think you know about them i want you to write that next to that drawing and then however you want to do this i made a line in between myself and my research participants just to visualize that relationship but you can create concentric circles whatever that might be for you and then write about your relationship with the participants you can write about what your relationship has been this far what you think your relationship will be like what you hope your relationship will look like and then i want you to go back to the questions that we mentioned that patent provided us to start thinking about reflexivity now that you have thought about yourself your participants your relationship with your participants and also with the settings where you'll be interacting i want you to go back to these questions and think what do i know how do i know what i know what shapes and has shaped my perspective what voice do i share my perspective and what do i do with what i have found as you continue to engage in reflexivity and continue to understand what is reflexivity in qualitative research i want you to keep in mind a few things first it is okay to acknowledge our biases usually we tend to hide those we tend to not share those with others out of shame out of fear out of a need to protect ourselves sometimes but many qualitative researchers will say that in fact our biases are necessary to be acknowledged in order to have research that is trustworthy and that is comprehensive and that it really gets down to the root of the meaning in our study reflexivity is ongoing reflexivity can also be done in writing through a video creating art as we just did with writing you can color you can do whatever it will help you understand who you are and your relationship with others and how that affects your research study also reflectivity is not necessarily an individualistic process find ways to be reflective in community maybe with your classmates maybe with your professors with others in your field so that you can start creating other ways of understanding that go beyond your own here's a list of the references that i use for this short lecture these are books that you can find through your library or online these books have topics ranging from reflexivity to research designed and different aspects of qualitative research that are just interrelated as it pertains to reflexivity but i also want to provide you with additional resources that you can use this is a list of different journal articles from different disciplines that can help you understand reflexivity and how others engage and perceive reflexivity i also want to provide you with this list of videos that you can find through youtube that range from two minutes all the way down to 57 minutes that first video it's more about the basics of reflexivity and you can get go all the way down to understanding how reflexivity interacts with the analysis of data in qualitative inquiry you will be getting a list of all of these resources including journal articles videos and the references that i utilize for this short presentation i hope that you were able to start understanding what reflexivity is and how reflexivity is a big part of how we do qualitative research i also hope that you are now interested in continue exploring how your identities and your experiences impact the work that you do and i hope that you continue being reflective throughout your research project if you have any questions you can email me at elle alvarez at uga.edu good luck with your project