Reflexive Account Research Articles

Facilitating teachers as action researchers and reflective practitioners: new issues and proposals

ABSTRACTIn this article I reflect on my experiences facilitating teachers as researchers and reflective practitioners and the importance of enhancing the dynamic and complementary relationship between theory, research, practice and reflection at every step of action research. Given the complexity of teachers’ participation in action research, I drew on a reflexive research-based account within a second-order process of action research to support a group of teacher-researchers to rethink their understanding of participatory education and transform their own practices. This research-based account describes the challenges faced, the decisions made, and the actions taken, all shaped by ongoing dialogues with teachers’ beliefs and practices, with the goals of action research, and with the processes of gradual transformations observed in both the teachers’ thinking and practice and in my own as a facilitator. The present study adds to the discussion of the interrelationships between theory, research, practice and reflection by providing an example of their enactment at every step of action research in order to support participatory education.

Using Actor-Network Theory to Study Health Information Technology Interventions.

This chapter introduces Actor-Network Theory, a sociotechnical approach to studying health information technology implementation. The chapter is intended as a pragmatic introduction to the field, acknowledging that there are many contested features of an Actor-Network Theory informed methodology. Nevertheless, the approach can be usefully drawn on to help to focus data collection and sampling. A case study describing the application of Actor-Network Theory to study the "failed" implementation of national electronic health records in England as part of a national "top-down" implementation program illustrates the main tenets of the approach and provides concrete examples of how Actor-Network Theory may be applied. In doing so, this chapter offers a reflexive account of how Actor-Network Theory has provided a nuanced analysis of how the implementation of national electronic health records affected different stakeholders, organizations and technology.

Poverty in the news media: Continuities, ruptures, and change in the reporting socioeconomic inequality

AbstractThis work attempts to offer a reflexive account of the key ideas and scholarly contributions developed over the years that provide elements for a theoretical explanatory framework regarding news media and poverty. In so doing, the article presents a general assessment of some of the key works in this area, while assessing the main notions, concepts, and contributions in this regard. The author points out at the fact that there is broad agreement among most scholars in relation to these issues while suggesting, nevertheless, that there are still some important pieces of the puzzle missing in our understanding about how the media engages with poverty and inequality.

Exploring the home environment: fusing rubbish and design to encourage participant agency and self-reflection

This paper presents an in-home design study investigating the resource conservation strategies of 40 frugal households located across urban and regional Australia. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the method of design to explore the home environment, discussing how this approach may benefit researchers looking to investigate the home. We provide a reflexive account of the design process undertaken in this study, and present a discussion into the benefits of using this approach. The contribution of this paper reflects on two main aspects: 1) Designing for the culture of the home; and 2) Using design to encourage participant agency and self-reflection.

From “research in management” to “management of research”: changing nature of doctoral programme at Indian management schools

This essay explores the changing nature of doctoral programmes at premier Indian management institutions. We share a reflexive account of the lived experiences of Indian doctoral students as they navigate widespread changes that arise from new Indian neoliberal aspirations to emerge as global thought leaders. The resulting emphasis on global performance metrics as well as our position as disadvantaged subjects seeking entry into the Eurocentric knowledge economy creates particular vulnerabilities for the doctoral student. We outline coping strategies and their implications and conclude with an alternative agenda for scholars.

Sounding the Unheard River: Reflections on an Ecological Sound Art Praxis as a Response to Ecosystem Distress

This article reflects on a body of academic and practice-based work in the contexts of praxis. It asserts that in the face of systemic issues pertaining to ecosystem crisis, multidisciplinary approaches are required, which also enable the agency of the researcher to continue their work in challenging circumstances. In reflecting on the work conducted, the article aims to offer an insight into multiple ways in which knowledge about ecosystem distress can be communicated to multiple audiences. Furthermore, in providing a reflexive account of an ecological sound art project titled The Miracle of the One Thing, the article aims to shed light on the role of practice-based approaches in communicating ecosystem distress. It implicitly offers an alternative to the ‘ocularcentrism’ of the visual turn. It questions the assumption that communication about ecosystem crisis is necessarily visual or written, and places the role of sonic practices to the fore.

A Tree in Bloom or a Tree Stripped Bare: Ways of Seeing in Aśvaghoṣa’s Life of the Buddha

Both of Aśvaghoṣa’s poetical works conclude with somewhat apologetic statements regarding his use of kāvya to deliver the Buddha’s words. Previous studies of his work have often read these statements as empty rhetoric, designed to assuage the typically suspicious attitude of the Buddhist canon toward kāvya, which consists in language beatified through ornamentation for the sole purpose of pleasure. This paper suggests that we should take Aśvaghoṣa’s statements seriously, and that indeed his poetry can be understood as conducive for liberation (and as useful for mitigating the tension—and there is a palpable tension here—between kāvya and liberation). Focusing on the Buddhacarita, the paper provides a close reading of a selection of passages from the work, and draws from literary analysis to examine the way in which Aśvaghoṣa uses the narrative voice to provide a multi-perspectival account of experience. What defines these opposing perspectives for Aśvaghoṣa, it is argued, is primarily the way in which they stand in relation to the world of poetry and to the aesthetic values of kāvya, and in this respect Aśvaghoṣa should be understood as offering a highly reflexive account of his own choice of medium.

Delving Into the Unknown: An Experience of Doing Research With d/Deaf Prisoners

This article acts as a reflexive account of my experience of doing qualitative research with d/Deaf people in a prison setting. This research was the first in England and Wales (excluding small-scale unpublished undergraduate dissertations) to include semi-structured interviews with multiple d/Deaf prisoners, and thus the journey documented is both innovative and unique. Because I was entering unmarked territory methodologically, my experience was laden with obstacles, as is discussed throughout. Key issues explored relate first to the process of gaining access to d/Deaf prisoners, second to researcher–participant language barriers, and third to issues of ethics and authenticity generated by the Deaf participants’ preference for a visual language (British Sign Language) in a setting like prison. Guidance is given throughout about how to overcome complex methodological issues, and concluding remarks include a set of recommendations for prospective researchers.

Learning to “Walk the Talk”: Reflexive Evaluation in Community-First Engaged Research

While a considerable body of literature advocates for participatory evaluation methodologies within community-centred community-campus engagement (CCE) projects, there has been limited study to date on how a “community-first”, or community-driven approach to CCE may be informed and strengthened by reflexive evaluation practices. Reflexive evaluation involves a critical reflection on the positionality of participants in relation to the processes they are engaged in and attempting to influence. In response to this gap, this article develops a reflexive account of our activities and influence, as academics, within an evaluation of the first phase of the multi-year pan- Canadian CCE project known as Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE). Building on the experiences of community and academic partners across a collective reflective evaluation of over forty demonstration projects within Phase I of CFICE, we reflexively examine our own efforts to incorporate common community-first CCE working practices into the evaluation processes to which we contributed. This examination reinforces scholarly assertions about the crucial position of community voices in co-governance of CCE projects, the need to reduce institutional constraints to community participation, and the value of nourishing relationships within CCE work. The approach explored in this article complements more general evaluation methods for practitioners seeking to ensure accountability to community-first values in their work. The article also explores how reflexive evaluation can inform practitioners about deeper personal and collective introspection and transformations related to relationships and processes associated with employing community-first CCE working practices.

Kant’s Contextualism

AbstractThis article builds on David Velleman’s recent work on moral relativism to argue that Kant’s account of moral judgement is best read in a contextualist manner. More specifically, I argue that while for Kant the form of moral judgement is invariant, substantive moral judgements are nonetheless context-dependent. The same form of moral willing can give rise to divergent substantive judgements. To some limited extent, Kantian contextualism is a development out of Rawlsian constructivism. Yet while for constructivists the primary concern is with the derivation of generally valid principles of morality, Velleman’s Kant-inspired form of moral relativism demonstrates the indispensability to a Kantian approach of indexical reasons for action. I argue in turn that Velleman’s focus on the indexical nature of reasons for action must be supplemented by an account of agential reflexivity. The latter divides Kantian contextualism from Kantian relativism.

Institutional Researcher Reflexivity: How IR Professionals Can Utilize Researcher Reflexivity in Qualitative Studies of Community College Students

ABSTRACTIn this paper, I argue that researcher reflexivity, a common qualitative practice, is a specific tool that institutional research professionals endeavoring to conduct qualitative research studies involving Students of Color can use to unpack issues of power and privilege that exist between the researcher and the researched. This may be particularly useful among institutional researchers working within community colleges that serve a disproportionate number of racially minoritized populations and other vulnerable student groups. I offer a reflexive account of various experiences related to race, gender, and social class that I encountered in a qualitative research study of Black and Latino males I conducted as an institutional researcher. The purpose of this reflexive account from the field is to support the argument for more qualitative approaches to institutional research, while also advancing the argument that critical qualitative research be leveraged with the explicit purpose of advancing racial equity from the context of IR not traditionally associated with equity, advocacy, and qualitative inquiry involving race.

Ethnographic toolkit: Strategic positionality and researchers’ visible and invisible tools in field research

For many, reflexivity is a core tenet in qualitative research. Often, scholars focus on how one or two of their socio-demographic traits compare to their participants and how it may influence field dynamics. Research that incorporates an intersectionality perspective, which brings attention to how people’s multiple identities are entwined, also has a long history. Yet, researchers tend to pay less attention to how we strategically draw on our multiple social positions in the course of field work. Drawing on data I have collected over the past several years and extending recent sociological work that goes beyond a reflexive accounting of one or two of researchers’ demographic characteristics, I argue that each researcher has their own ethnographic toolkit from which they strategically draw. It consists of researchers’ visible (e.g. race/ethnicity) and invisible tools (e.g. social capital) and ties qualitative methodologies to research on how culture is strategically and inconsistently used.

Trivial and Normative? Online Fieldwork within YouTube’s Beauty Community

In this article, I discuss methodological understandings around qualitative research and online ethnographic practice to bring forward a reflexive account on the particularities of doing fieldwork on YouTube. I draw from a multiyear ethnographic examination of YouTube’s beauty community that sought to understand online popularity framed by local norms and practices and shed light into the local significance of knowledge, expertise, and self-development. I argue for an epistemological perspective that acknowledges the diversity of viable, conceivable fieldwork experiences while distancing from prescriptive modes of argumentation. I propose seeing fieldwork in and through its richness and predicaments, persistently naturalistic while interpretive. I approach online popularity, fandom, and even YouTube itself from a perspective that tolerates ambivalence, contradictions, and embraces the complexity of social worlds and human interaction.

An evening at Radio Donko: hunters, sorcerers and presenters on the air in Mali’s Afropolis

ABSTRACTIn Bamako, Mali, radio presenters record, archive and broadcast field recordings of hunters’ musical performances, thus contributing to the transmission and dissemination of that music, locally and nationally. This article is a reflexive account of a hunters’ radio show at one of Bamako’s private radio stations, Radio Donko. Through ethnographic narrative, thick description and analysis, I show how radio presenters, hunters’ musicians, sorcerers and audiences engage, interact and negotiate power, morality, identity and social positioning in a contemporary Afropolis: Bamako. I argue that such subtle and pronounced interactions are deeply rooted in traditionally informed intersubjectivities that arise from the lifeworlds of hunters. Radio becomes a means for social agents to form, maintain and expand social networks that revolve around cultural norms, personal expectations and existential concerns that correspond to hunters’ behavioural codes and worldviews.

Welfare restrictions and ‘benefit tourists’: Representations and evaluations of EU migrants in the UK

Abstract This article investigates online representations and evaluations of EU migrants, focusing on the notion of ‘benefit tourism’ and discursive strategies used in the (de)legitimization of new welfare restrictions in the UK. Through the examination of online newspapers and corresponding public comment threads, this article adopts theoretical and methodological premises from Critical Discourse Studies (CDS), drawing upon the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) to provide both a politically motivated as well as reflexive account. Although new participatory structures allow for resistance to emerge, the openness, scalability and anonymity of the internet also allows for the spread of discrimination through the construction of EU migrants (in particular Bulgarians and Romanians) as the ‘Other’.

Conducting dyadic, relational research about endometriosis: A reflexive account of methods, ethics and data analysis.

Despite a growing literature on the value of relational data in studies of social phenomena, individuals still commonly constitute the basic unit of analysis in qualitative research. Methodological aspects of interviewing couples, particularly interviewing partners separately, and of conducting dyadic analysis have received scant attention. This article describes the experience of conducting separate interviews with both partners in 22 heterosexual couples (n = 44) in a study of the impact of the gynaecological condition endometriosis. In order to advance current methodological thinking regarding interviewing couples, we describe the dyadic, relational approach employed in designing the study and our specific method of dyadic analysis. We argue that utilising separate interviews with dyadic analysis rather than conducting joint interviews, while not without its ethical, practical and analytical challenges, offers considerable methodological benefits. Such an approach allows a unique relational insight into the impact of chronic illness on couples and how they navigate chronic illness by illuminating both shared and individual interpretations, experiences, understandings and meanings.

Leading the self, cultivating wisdom: a neo-Aristotelian perspective on experiential learning

This paper examines formations of the ‘self’ as a wise leader at both personal and professional levels. Drawing on Aristotle and theories of reflective and experiential learning, the possibility of cultivating wisdom through an experience of a leadership course, provided at the University of Melbourne for PhD candidates, is explored. Applying an autoethnographic methodology, a reflexive account of a doctoral student who experienced this programme is narrated to explore the (re)construction of a wiser ‘self’. A synthesis of multiple points of personal and collective judgements, decision-making and performative actions leads to promising implications for future research, and for deeper pedagogical practices in leadership programmes.

Field relationships and data collecting: dilemmas encountered in a construction organization

PurposeThis paper is an autoethnographic account of field dilemmas encountered while undertaking research in a construction organization. The purpose of this paper is to provide a reflexive account for those who undertake organizational field studies and focusses on the issue of field relationships and data collection.Design/methodology/approachVignettes are used providing vivid accounts of field interactions between author, informants and research team members, followed by a reflection on the consequences of these. Field notes and reflective journaling were used in the construction of the vignettes.FindingsData collection in organizations where informants have limited time for researchers involves building relationships that need much attention, compromise and addressing of dilemmas which arise. This autoethnography highlights this and reflects on lessons learnt of how to manage dilemmas in field relationships that require attention when they hinder data collection and prove detrimental to the research project’s progress.Practical implicationsThis study informs those undertaking research in commercial organizations about the importance of managing relationships and solving potential field dilemmas.Originality/valueThis autoethnography adds to the discussion about how researchers negotiate complex relationships and the dilemmas that constrain data collection. The value of being reflective of dilemmas lies in understanding that challenging organizational field studies involves careful tending to informants’ and research stakeholders’ needs whilst remaining focused on one’s own research goals.

Researching trauma in relation to gross human rights violations: a psychoanalytic and reflexive account

ABSTRACT The traumatic political upheavals in Ecuador during the 1980s and 1990s left a scar on the psychosocial wellbeing of the nation and its citizens. Focus groups were conducted with victims of these political traumas, specifically with Ecuadorian survivors whose cases were investigated by the Truth Commission of Ecuador (TCE). These data comprise participant accounts but also my feelings and reflexive responses to the research process. More specifically, the significance of researcher reflexivity and countertransference in creating a supportive research environment with participants who have been traumatised is explored. The researcher’s reflexive approach may offer a recognising experience for participants and has the potential to become a partially reparative and therapeutic experience. I also demonstrate how embracing my own vulnerability as a researcher meant latent and unconscious themes came closer to the surface, which led to enhanced research rapport and greater understanding in the data analysis phase.

Coming “home” to do glocal engaged scholarship? A reflexive account of managing competing commitments during an organizational ethnography

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus on how the author’s status as an international academic wanting to maintain “local” research relationships in the author’s country of origin both improved and derailed the process of conducting an organizational ethnography.Design/methodology/approachUsing visual representations of the research design process inspired by Maxwell’s (2013) model, the paper traces the evolution of a glocal engaged scholarship project and the personal, professional, and commitments that pulled the researcher and the research project in competing directions.FindingsThe first iteration of the project showed that, despite geographical nomadism, the author was firmly anchored to professional norms and methodological choices, with these attachments to values, principles, and practices constituting a global academic “home.” As the project unfolded, local organizational needs and desires that called into question the researcher’s local organizational knowledge and methodological choices destabilized the author’s sense of home, creating a situation of “away-ness” that acted as a catalyst for reflexivity about the project and relationships with organizational partners.Originality/valueBy overturning a view of home as being rooted in a particular locale and homelessness as being nomadic, this confessional tale problematizes the idea that some organizational ethnographers and projects are local while others are foreign.