Everything changes… well some things do: Reflections on, and resources for, reflexive thematic analysis

Abstract

When we first wrote about thematic analysis (TA) in a paper entitled Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology published in the journal Qualitative Research in Psychology in 2006, we thought we were writing a paper that we could give to our students, one that reflected our values and practices as qualitative researchers. We did not imagine the paper would become hugely popular (at the time of writing, it has over 120,000 Google Scholar citations). We certainly didn’t imagine that we would write more about TA! But since receiving an invitation to write a chapter on TA for a US edited collection published in 2012 (Braun & Clarke, 2012), it feels like we have done nothing but write, talk and teach about TA. These experiences, and the questions we’ve been asked, have pushed us to learn more about the wider landscape of TA, and to reflect on the assumptions we made when first articulating our approach (see Braun & Clarke, 2019). How our approach has been taken up and the many misunderstandings, myths and confusions that are evident in published TA research (see Braun & Clarke, 2021a) have also informed our evolving thinking and writing. Our understanding of TA, and our articulation of our approach, has changed – in often-subtle but nonetheless important ways.