Reflexive Essay Research Articles

The university within, of and for the city: reflections on the entanglement of academic practice and the local

ABSTRACT Historically, universities have become defining elements in many (European) cities. Cities such as Oxford or Berkeley are publicly known because they are home to globally renowned academic institutions, which are considered ‘brands’ of the city. In this reflexive essay, I approach the university-city entanglement beyond the apparent role of academic institutions as economic and marketing factors for cities. Particularly, I reflect on the normative and scientific-practical implications of doing research ‘within’ a certain local. How may this positionality affect research practice, when academic work is conceived as property of the local? How can researchers reflexively engage with the local and maybe even contribute to solving local and global challenges? Rather than providing conclusive answers to these questions, this piece aims to stir up a debate among local government and governance scholars. I conclude that the ‘local’ of academic practice deserves far more attention as a category of reflexive research.

Staging and intertextualizing Franz Kafka’s “in the penal colony”

ABSTRACT In 2022, I adapted for the stage Franz Kafka’s 1914 short story “In the Penal Colony” and intertextualized the text with devised narratives about the body in pain. I theorize both the staged performance and this reflexive essay as a method of embodied intertextual resistance within literary performance practice to unearth the relationships between performance and writing, body and machine, and the page and the stage. I highlight three moments of intertextual vignettes within the production to highlight the role of literary performance in healing both ourselves and the world around us.

Fostering Gender Just and Emancipatory Campuses in HEIs: Interrogating the Role of Gender Cells and ICs

This paper is a reflexive essay that engages with the vexed question of gender equity on campuses of higher education. I argue that though our campuses are mired in complex hierarchies and inequalities, they are also sites of immense possibilities. These are spaces where critical conversations can emerge around gender and sexuality including an engagement with questions of caste, class, ableism so on and so forth. However, a transformative vision and an intersectional frame must inform these conversations. Two institutional mechanisms that can enable this radical re-imagination are Gender Cells and Internal Committees. However, this imagination has fallen far short of expectations. What might one possibly do to reinvigorate these mechanisms? Is there any way we can repose the trust in these bodies that were badly shaken following #metoo? Can we build alliances and forge solidarities with different constituencies on campus to work towards emancipatory campuses? This paper throws light on these and related issues.

The Place and Pace to Remember

We begin with the question "what do we want to keep that the pandemic has given us?" Largely co-written in 2021, this reflexive essay serves as a snapshot in time, at one stage of the pandemic, reflecting upon earlier, shared experiences at one institution of higher education. We locate each of our identities and positionalities in that space and beyond. Our essay uses Moya Bailey’s 2021 discussion of an ethics of pace to frame our thinking and collective memory work and to counter what we identified as the distinct efforts of institutions of higher education to not have places for institutional memory. We articulate that without memory places, it is impossible to build both a history of justice work in institutions of higher education and accountability that this justice work is seen through. And we ask, how are we to build justice and healing in higher education when the place is designed so that we can't remember things, and when there seems to be a goal to not have institutional memory that remembers how, why, and by whom justice work is done? We answer the question: "what do we want to keep that the pandemic has given us?" with this: "the pace and place to remember."

Threading a decolonial feminist response to COVID-19: One community psychologist's reflection on the assemblages of violence.

To challenge and interrogate the assemblages of violence produced by racial capitalism, and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, community psychologists must engage in a transdisciplinary critical ethically reflexive practice. In this reflexive essay, or first-person account, I offer a decolonial feminist response to COVID-19 that draws strength from the writings of three women of Color decolonial and postcolonial feminist thinkers: Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Sylvia Wynter, and Arundhati Roy. Through their writings I share my reflections on the sociopolitical moment associated with COVID-19. Of importance, I argue in support of engaging a decolonial feminist standpoint to understand the inequitable and dehumanizing conditions under COVID-19, and the possibilities for transformative justice. I offer this reflexive essay with the intention of summoning community psychology and community psychologists to look toward transdisciplinarity, such as that which characterizes a decolonial standpoint and feminist epistemologies. Writings oriented toward imagination, relationality, and borderland ways of thinking that are outside, in-between or within, the self and the collective "we" can offer valuable guidance. The invitation toward a transdisciplinary critical ethically reflexive practice calls us to bear witness to movements for social justice; to leverage our personal, professional and institutional resources to support communities in struggle. A decolonial feminist standpoint guided by the words of Anzaldúa, Wynter, and Roy can cultivate liberatory conditions that can materialize as racial freedom, community wellbeing, and societal thriving.

Shit happens. How do we make sense of that?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reflect upon how encountering trauma unexpectedly in the field informs the doing of fieldwork.Design/methodology/approach A reflexive essay approach was adopted to explore traumatic incidents in extreme contexts. Written vignettes, interviews, field notes and information conversations served as the bases for reflections.FindingsFour themes arose from the reflections (Bracketing, Institutional Pressure, Impact on Research and Unresolvedness). It was suggested that researchers engaged in extreme context research, and management and organization studies scholars engaged in dangerous fieldwork more broadly, are under institutional pressure to continue work that may put themselves in harm's way. Traumatic experiences also shape and reflect the researcher's identity, which informs choices about current and future research projects.Research limitations/implicationsIt was suggested that scholars will benefit from reading the accounts of others to reduce the burden of isolation that can accompany traumatic field experiences.Originality/valueExploring single traumatic events enabled in engaging with trauma encountered unexpectedly and directly in the field. The reflections reveal the effects of psychological and physical trauma on researchers, and highlight how trauma impacts the research process.

Sociocultural contexts and power dynamics in research interviews: Methodological considerations in Confucian society

In this reflexive essay, I raise issues about power dynamics between interviewers and interviewees based on my experiences conducting research interviews in South Korea. I focus on the sociocultural contexts that drive social agents’ behaviors in the interview process, which in Korean Confucian contexts include respect for adults and educational fervor. A particular configuration of authority relationships was evident in each scenario, showing how sociocultural contexts underlie the complicated power dynamics of interview situations, which can be further complicated by topics that require participants to share their intellectual notions. Based on my interview experiences, I argue that acknowledging these social contexts and their impacts on power relations will serve to strengthen the depth of engagement in interviews and therefore the quality and potential impact of qualitative interview research.

Reflexive essay about a piece of music as a way to develop the creative potential of students

The subject of the study is the influence of writing a reflexive essay about a listened piece of music on the development of a person's creative potential. The purpose is a theoretical substantiation of the possibility of developing the creative potential of a person when writing reflexive essays and empirical confirmation of the proposed approach based on data from a pilot study conducted at the Children's art school in Khanty-Mansiysk (n=22). The theoretical methods of research were analysis, generalization, systematization. Empirical methods: experiment, testing, qualitative analysis of the texts of the essays of the investigated.
 The authors conduct a brief analysis of methods for determining the level of creative potential and justify the possibility of using the survey method. The conditions that must be observed when selecting works and writing essays are described. Arguments are given in favor of the fact that writing an essay is not an interpretation of a musical work, and listening to the work itself is not part of psychotherapeutic methods. The results of the pilot study are presented, which with a certain probability indicate that the writing of the essay had an impact on the development of the creative potential of the person.

Social-work students’ perspectives on their learning process following the implementation of community based participatory research in a community practice course

ABSTRACT This paper presents the phenomenological perspective of social work students on their learning process following the implementation of community based participatory research (CBPR) in the context of a social work community practice course. CBPR was implemented in the framework of a partnership between the communities of the Gaza Envelope Region in southern Israel, and the school of social work at the college in the region. Throughout the academic year students engaged in data collection and participated in steering committees that focused on building a regional vision for the communities. At the end of the year stduents were asked to write reflexive essays about their learning experience. Study findings, grounded in a narrative content analysis of 83 reflexive student essays, point to four narratives that characterized their learning: 1) being part of a real-life community intervention process; 2) students-inspired by community residents: the power of hope; 3) the meaning of community; and 4) future professional identity: the desire to engage in community practice. Findings are discussed in light of theories of experiential and transformative learning, community narratives, and professional identity, with reference to the fields of social work community practice education.

Pedagogical practice of philological students: cooperation with the basic school

The author considers pedagogical practice from the positions of professional risks presented in the scientific literature, taking into account which he builds a practice-oriented system of complex dispersed training of students for practice in the Russian language. At the same time, the emphasis is on interaction with basic schools, where future teachers receive their first professional experience. The university teachers ‘ knowledge of the school’s requirements, the general concept of practice, long-term cooperation of educational organizations of higher and secondary education, the built system of propaedeutic methodological training of students allow them to develop general pedagogical and special competencies of novice teachers, prevent possible risks, and contribute to their successful adaptation at school. Research methods: analysis of scientific literature, associative experiment, method of unfinished sentences, questionnaire, observation, reflexive essay, experimental training, conversation with the employer.

Activating Creativity in Situations of Uncertainty: The Role of Third Spaces

The links between creativity and innovation remain a ‘fuzzy front end’. This study aims to better understand how creativity can lead to innovation in an entrepreneurial context. The literature on entrepreneurial creativity and its links with innovation, enriched by research on the development of an entrepreneurial mindset, is being mobilized. It generates an experiential learning oriented entrepreneurship education program. The goal here is to examine whether third spaces resulting from situations of uncertainty implemented into the curriculum make it possible to activate creativity. The aim is to obtain a useful production adapted to a context, a market. A semi-structured questionnaire is administered via a reflexive essay. Moving from the idea to innovation presupposes that the capacities of the actors are activated in capabilities. The qualitative research provides feedback on the potential activation of the capacities of students as entrepreneurs. The results show that third spaces resulting from situations of uncertainty are places that generate potentially effective conversion factors. They allow the transformation of capacities into capabilities. JEL Codes: O310, A230

Organizações 4.0: tendências de empregabilidade para as mulheres negras brasileiras

The aim of this study was to stimulate debate on the interfaces of employability of Brazilian black women in organizations 4.0. As a methodological strategy, the reflexive essay was adopted based on "The Future of Jobs - 2018". The interfaces refer to the environments: external (public policies and labor market), internal (subjectivity of managers) and results (employability: trends and opportunities for black women). The theoretical approach is the Theory of Social Technology. As a result, we point out the opportunities that permeate public policies, new skills for black women, as well as the need to combat the subjectivity of managers. As contribution, the study makes it possible to articulate a new theme aligned with social critical theory and envision a transformation and social inclusion, and social technology may favor the employability of black women.

Parenting, privilege, and pandemic: From surviving to thriving as a mother in the academy.

As women who have dual roles as parents and academicians, COVID-19 has presented new challenges and opportunities that have impacted our personal and professional lives. This essay provides insight into unique obstacles from the perspective of mothers, researchers, and social workers and challenges the traditional models of work/life balance as professionals in academics. This reflexive essay provides the narratives and experiences of one assistant professor and two doctoral students who are learning to navigate motherhood and professional responsibilities amidst a global pandemic. The prologue presents a perspective from a current assistant professor and her lived experiences followed by the reflections of two doctoral students on how to navigate the academy as mothers and as women. In addition to our personal stories and narratives, we hope to challenge, inspire, and reimagine how our dual roles can be viewed as an asset, rather than a weakness and encourage others in the academy to rise and support women.

An ethic of care? Academic administration and pandemic policy.

This reflexive essay examines the adoption of an intentional ‘ethic of care’ by social work administrators in a large social work school located in the Pacific Northwest. An ethic of care foregrounds networks of human interdependence that collapse the public/private divide. Moreover, rooted in the political theory of recognition, a care ethic responds to crisis by attending to individuals’ uniqueness and ‘whole particularity.’ Foremost, it rejects indifference. Through the personal recollections of one academic administrator, the impact of rejecting indifference in spring term 2020 is described. The essay concludes by linking the rejection of indifference to the national political landscape.

A sanctuary: Mourning the loss of the classroom during COVID.

This reflexive essay explores the challenges and successes that I encountered as a professor during the transition from face-to-face teaching to remote teaching due to COVID. The essay outlines my thought processes and emotional responses to how unfamiliarity with teaching remotely, coupled with the stress of a pandemic, significantly impacted my teaching style. It also highlights my observations of students’ experiences from their shared discussions and interactions with other students as they navigated the initial onset of challenges during the spring term of 2020. The essay discusses the importance of adaptability during a time when we were collectively experiencing trauma, and embracing teaching practices that were supportive of students' educational and emotional needs. It highlights how navigating these challenges were beneficial for both myself and students, as we collectively addressed the complexities of changes to our personal and academic lives. This essay includes lessons learned as a professor and how I was able to maintain the integrity of the classroom by holding space for the experiences of students during a pandemic.

Exhaustion and possibility. The wor(l)dlyness of social work in (G)local environment worlds during a pandemic

Exhaustion is not about being tired. It is an intense feeling of restlessness, of insomnia, and awakening when I ask myself: have I exhausted all that is possible? Such a state of restlessness and wakefulness represents a turning point for having enough, and opens for new possibilities to act for social change. This reflexive essay departs from the notion that the language of exhaustion offers a wor(l)dly possibility for social work(ers) to engage in critical analytical reflexivity about our locations of power from the outset of our (g)local environment worlds. The aim is to trace the transformative possibilities of social change in social work practice through the literature of exhaustion (eg. Frichot, 2019 ; Spooner, 2011 ). The methodology is based on uses of narrative life writing genres such as poetry, written and photographic diary entrances between the 4th of April and 4th of June. The essay shows how tracing exhaustion during the pandemic, visualises a multiplicity of forms of oppression and privilege, an increasing attention and relationship to things, and border movements and languages. I suggest that social work replace the often-used terminology of social problems with exhaustive lists to address structural forms of racism, sexism, ableism, ageism, which has been further visualized through death, illness, violence, and poverty during the pandemic. I argue that the language of exhaustion is useful for reflexivity and action in social work practice through the way it contributes to intensified awareness, attention, engagement, listening, and agency to create social justice.

Experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic: From the perspective of an MSW student.

This reflexive essay offers an uncensored narrative and delves deep into the life of one MSW student during the Covid-19 pandemic. Five themes were uncovered through intense reflexive based practices and these included: parenting and food insecurity, silencing of the voice, grieving the practicum placement, the white gaze and a reduced empathetic capacity. Ultimately, meaning making is achieved through unsettling the concept of the self, identifying and exposing vulnerability and deflowering the power dynamics operating within Canada.

Global collaboration and social practices to mitigate impacts of COVID-19 in the world: a lived experience of infecting.

COVID-19 pandemic is one of the most serious threatening conditions and the complex situation in the recent century, which shook the world. This unprecedented crisis has caused many disruptions and distractions for humans in different local and global levels. This reflexive essay aims to review challenges and opportunities originated by the Corona-virus pandemic within social groups through a moral perspective. Focusing on both negative and positive aspects would help us find the required skills and strategies to adapt to the crises and mitigate the issues based on our capacities and resources.

Professional identity of Wuhan and Hong Kong social workers: COVID-19 challenges and implications.

This reflexive essay focus on how COVID-19 has impacted the professional identity of social workers in Wuhan and Hong Kong. Exploratory and reflexive in nature, eight Wuhan social workers who comprised three males and five females, and seven Hong Kong social workers who comprised one male and six females were recruited for semi-structured interviews. Their experience in Wuhan and Hong Kong during COVID-19 were highlighted. The challenges to professional identity were analyzed and the reflection is categorized into four levels, namely, individual, community, educational and conceptual level. In sum, Wuhan interviewees were more struggled with educating the public on the difference between community work, volunteering and social work, especially at the hospitals, to protect the integrity of the social work profession which shows their commitment to their professional identity. Moreover, they found it difficult to position themselves in proactive online services, where hundreds of workers from different parts of the Mainland China would be involved. On the other hand, Hong Kong interviewees were more inclined to prioritize professional principles at levels that are even higher than those in standardized guidelines. Their goal is to take the best interests of their clients into consideration, and their self-reflections tend to focus more on professional judgement and development of the social work field, to pave the way for future enhancements. Finally yet importantly, the deficiencies of their education as evidenced by the pandemic have been made alarmingly explicit.

Applying feminist principles to social work teaching: Pandemic times and beyond.

It took a global pandemic for me to recognize how my social work teaching was an act of feminist praxis. I have long identified as a feminist and regularly engage efforts to advance equity for women, primarily centered on the abolition of prisons which disproportionately incarcerate Indigenous and Black women in Canada. Surprisingly, I have never considered how my feminism shows up in my teaching. The following reflexive essay explores the ways in which the feminist principles of centring emotions, rejecting patriarchal hierarchy, and challenging white feminism were embedded into the development and delivery of a graduate level social work research course that was rapidly adapted to being taught online during a global public health crisis. It ends with a call to action for social work educators to incorporate feminist principles into their pedagogies, not only in times of crisis, but as standard practice.