Reflections on Reflexivity and Critical Reflection as Critical Research Practices

Abstract

This article explores reflexivity and critical reflection as they were applied during an exploratory study of the psychiatric and mental health service experiences of lesbian and queer women. Reflexivity and critical reflection are centered as critical research practices toward recognizing and responding to micropractices of power and power relations in the interviewing relationship, structural forms of power and its impact on the recruitment of participants and therefore the inclusion and exclusion of particular participants in the research process, and the limitations of the social process of knowledge production vis-a-vis research methods and interviews.