Reflexivity lecture and continuous exercise
- 1. Reflexivity lecture and continuous exercise – the role of the researcher Mark Lucherini 1 Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
- 2. Reflexivity as Rigour • Qualitative data does not exist independently, waiting to be ‘mined’ • The researcher inevitably shapes the data - making sense of the social • The circumstances in which the data is generated (social, physical, environmental) also shape the data – methodological naturalism • Qualitative data is therefore intersubjective, a co-construction between researchers and participants • Qualitative research needs to be rigorous – reflexivity as a first step but also a continuous process. 2 Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
- 3. Reflexivity as Rigour • Being reflexive is not the same as reflection • It is “an explicit, self-aware meta-analysis of the research process” (Finlay 2002) • Not simply acknowledging your possible bias, preconceptions, professional/disciplinary history (aspects your positionality) – but exploring what they mean for your interpretation of data and of others’ research findings • Finlay, L., 2002. “Outing” the researcher: the provenance, process, and practice of reflexivity. Qualitative health research, 12(4), pp.531–545. 3 Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
- 4. Qualitative Research is Conditional Meanings are seen to be negotiated between researcher and researched within a particular social context so that another researcher in a different relationship will unfold a different story. Research is thus regarded as a joint product of the participants, the researcher, and their relationship: It is co-constituted. Furthermore, the qualitative research process itself has the potential to transform the very phenomenon being studied: “Interviews augment experience, rather than simply reflecting it,” argued Beer (1997, p. 127), “They alter meaning, instead of delineating it. They change people.” Finlay (2002: 531) 4 Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
- 5. Stages of Reflexivity • Preresearch stage 1 • Knowing where you stand • Considering your own biases • Data collection stage • Being self-aware • Being aware of intersubjectivity and methodological naturalism • Data analysis stage • Revisiting your preresearch stage and exploring assumptions made, and how things actually worked out in practice • Packaging the results for an audience Adapted from Finlay (2002) • Preresearch stage 2 • Decision about what is important for the research topic • What are you feelings and beliefs about this topic (positionality) 5 Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
- 6. Reflexivity Process Exercise • For the rest of the session we are going to go through the stages of reflexivity in the research process. • To illustrate the process I will use my own recent research experience as an example. • My research involved interviewing young adults (age 16-24) from disadvantaged backgrounds in Edinburgh about smoking and electronic cigarettes. • This exercise is intended to help you with the reflexive blog post due at the end of this month but also to help you think more about how you might approach reflexivity in the final assignment. 6 Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
- 7. Who are you? (Preresearch Stage 1) HUMAN GEOGRAPHER MALE WORKS IN PUBLIC HEALTH QUALITATIVE RESEARCHER • What are the main aspects of your identity – as a researcher and a person? • Use the picture you brought along as a starting point for your thinking. • Basic, obvious aspects which would be important to understand for any research project. SCOTTISH INTERESTED IN TOBACCO CONTROL 7 Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
- 8. Who are you as a qualitative researcher? (Preresearch Stage 2) NON-SMOKER YOUNG NEVER USED AN E- CIGARETTE PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH • What do you need to acknowledge and consider before beginning the research/appraisal of research? • Only aspects which are related to the topic. • What might participants expect of you? • What are your beliefs about the research topic? • Important for transparency and rigour. PEOPLE WANT TO STOP SMOKING PEOPLE SHOULD TRY TO STOP SMOKING 8 Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
- 9. Small Group Discussion and Personal Exercise • Form into your groups. • Think about a paper you are reading or research project you are preparing for. • Discuss among yourselves how your different backgrounds, skills and identities might be influencing the way you read and interpret this paper. • Are there differences among your group? • Is there anything you find surprising? • Next, think about what topic you might want to research. • On your own, think about what might be relevant if you were doing research in this context. • This is a personal exercise, to help you develop ideas for the journal assignment, however please feel free to discuss with classmates if you wish. 9 Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
- 10. Data Collection Stage ‘POSH’ OLDER, ADULT MIDDLE-CLASS NAIVE OUTSIDER • Being self-aware in research encounters • How did you interact with participants? • Did you realise anything different about yourself? Were your assumptions challenged? • Methodological naturalism (where/when/how was the interview completed? What might this mean? • Revisit this stage once you have completed your practice interview AUTHORITATIVE OFFICIAL, FORMAL 10 Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
- 11. Data Analysis Stage JUDGMENTAL ADVOCATE EMPATHETIC INSINCERE HELPFUL • How are you responding to the data? • How are you interpreting the accounts of others? • Why are doing it this way? • Cherry picking? 11 Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
- 12. Summary • Reflexivity is a central process in qualitative research. It involves: • Self-awareness of your positionality • An evaluation of what aspects of your positionality are relevant to your interpretation/conducting of research • A consideration of your postionality involves certain assumptions, biases and preconceptions • A consideration of how researchers are co-producing data with participants • A constant process of consideration throughout the whole research process 12 Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
- 13. Preresearch 1 Preresearch 2 13 Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
- 14. Data Collection Data Analysis 14 Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
- 15. Reflexivity Explore your positionality What aspects of you positionality might impact on the research topic (eg are you an insider or an outsider?) Data Generation Intersubjectivity Methodogical naturalism Re-assess positionality Data Analysis or Critical Appraisal Presentation of findings Aspects of your identity, personality, politics, biases etc Begins with Which is important for deciding Which is crucial to identify before beginning As this involves being attuned to Which means you have to Re-assess So that you can practice rigourous Ensuring a reliable and rigourous Includes In the moment reflexivity (eg how did participants respond to my questions, body language) Which involves Which again necessitates that you Re-assess 15 Creative Common Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Editor's Notes
- #3: Some finlay notes
- #5: What do all the points on the previous slide mean? Well, Finlay sums it up – talk through quote with main point being that qual data is condition on place, time, researcher etc.. Not like quantitative data which can be reproduced, nonetheless, ‘protocol’ still have to be kept so that readers of research can understand the conditional aspects of the study. Qual researchers cannot stand apart from their research and participants, inevitably changing the phenomenon they are explroing – say something about methodlogical naturalism
- #8: Shilhouette exercise
- #9: Some blurb about looking beyond only the papers, useful for assignment Qualitative researchers often forging identity, ways of looking at the world. This Is the ‘public’ level of reflexivity, idnetifying aspects which are crucial to your udnerstanding and researching of a topic. So get students to add another layer to their shilhoutte This stage is different from the personal stage, this is a stage at which you have to acknowledge these issues, somewhat transparantyl in order to conduct research.
- #10: For first section think about the collab learning stuff paper which you cant get Then back to individual exerxis
- #11: Middle outline of how you tried to be reflexive in interviews Relate this somehow to the practice interview?
- #12: Relate this to their critical appraisal. ‘Cherry picking’ refers to the possibility of researchers, unconsciously, selecting material in the data analysis stage that supports their preconceptions, or the the desires of participants.
- #13: Important to acknowledge that reflexivity is not something to be merely acknowledged but to be considered in more detial – ie simply acknowledging that I am a white, male, middle-class researcher is not adequate withuot further exploration of what this has meant for the research and the co-production of knowledge.