Beyond the Mirror
Challenging the Common Assumptions of Reflexivity in Qualitative Research
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3016963 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Catherine Trundle (0000-0003-0908-9606), Nara Araújo (0000-0002-7555-8223), Sumaira Khan (0009-0007-0569-0011), Tarryn Phillips (0000-0003-4027-8667) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Publication date | 2025-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Qualitative Methods (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1609-4069 • E-ISSN: 1609-4069 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/16094069251369311 |
| OpenAlex | W4413692146 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 15 |
| References cited | 87 |
Qualitative researchers are increasingly utilising reflexive practices to ensure transparency and assure quality. Current researcher reflexivity, we show, often hinges upon a set of assumptions about reflexivity itself. Through a critical literature review combined with reflexive vignettes, we offer an epistemological critique of reflexivity. We advocate for robust reflexivity , a practice that critically reflects on reflexivity itself. We thus encourage qualitative researchers to critique their reflexive practices in four ways: (1) we challenge the idea that reflexivity leads to revelation, and show the ways this idea reintroduces positivist notions of Truth under a constructionist guise; (2) we challenge simple binaries within many positionality statements, nuancing ideas of insider and outsider status, affinity and difference, and the dynamism of identity over time; (3) we show how reflexivity is a socially and culturally embedded practice, rather than a neutral and universal cognitive practice; and (4) we foreground the power dynamics of reflexivity, cautioning against the co-option of reflexivity in ways that perpetuate social inequities and mask hierarchies within research. To support robust reflexive practices, we offer a toolkit of questions that can act as prompts for critical engagements with reflexivity, and argue for the creation of more robustly reflexive methodological resources
Epistemology · Qualitative research · Reflexivity · Social science · Sociology · Data Analysis and Archiving · Participatory Visual Research Methods · Psychology · Qualitative Research Methods and Ethics · Philosophy
The Perceiving–Acting–Integrating Cycle
On the other side of the river, where housing security shivers
Trans-Actional Positionality
Crossing Borders, Making Meaning
Beyond reflection
Epistemic injustice in physical education and sport
“In the end, people are people”
Remote collaborative fieldwork in the global South
NVivo as a reflexive tool for insider-researchers
Storying syndemics
Technological reflexivity in practice
Where the wild things are
Unruly Embodiment as Feminist Research Methodology
Who's responsible for health during extreme heat events? An ethnographic document analysis of health promotion materials in Australia
Beyond the Mirror
Writing Culture
Reflective Interviewing
Developing critically reflective practice
Memoing in qualitative research
Reflexivity in research
The reflective practitioner
New rules of sociological method
The Vulnerable Observer
A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term
Inventing our Selves
Positionality and Its Problems
Audit culture, accountability, and care
Critically reflective practice and its sources
Prenatal Care Use Among Women of Low Income
Reflexive Ethnography
A practical guide to reflexivity in qualitative research
Bracketing in Research
Collective Reflexivity
Positionality and transformative knowledge in conducting ‘feminist’ research on empowerment in Bangladesh
Engendering cosmopolitanism
Intersubjectivity, self-reflexivity and agency
Linguistic diversity and emergency health alerts
Participatory action research
The Cosmopolitan Performers
Reflexivity in Counterspaces Fieldwork
Vulnerable articulations
Audit Cultures
The decolonial bandwagon and the dangers of intellectual decolonisation
Uncomfortable Collaborations
Towards an Australian Indigenous Women's Standpoint Theory
Trial by Fire
Positionality Statements as a Function of Coloniality
Getting Personal
Can there be a feminist ethnography
The reflexive self and culture
Methodological and Epistemological Considerations in Utilizing Qualitative Inquiry to Develop Interventions
Heartful Autoethnography
Repressive authenticity in the quest for legitimacy
Which Ethnography? Whose Ethnography? Medical anthropology's Epistemic Sensibilities Among Health Ethnographies
A Call for Radical Reflexivity in Counseling Qualitative Research
Reflexivity and ethical mindfulness in participatory research with children
Beyond the Mirror
On Acknowledgements in Ethnographies
On Ethnographic Authority
On Reflexivity
Critical Complete-Member Ethnography Revisited
Reflecting on Reflexivity in Realist Evaluation
Experience of Conducting Sensitive Qualitative Research as a Cultural Outsider
How to Problematise Categories
Interview as Social Practice
Shoot! Can We Restart the Interview
Paradigmatic Shifts in Doctoral Research
Social Identity Map
Positionality and Power
Revisiting a Boy Named Jim
Incorporating Perspective Taking in Reflexivity
Embracing the Spiral
Would you Decide to Keep the Power
Negotiating the swamp
The Search for Emerging Decolonizing Methodologies in Qualitative Research
Ethics, Reflexivity, and "Ethically Important Moments" in Research
Emotional Reflexivity
I Never Wanted to Be a Quack
When Culture Is Not A System
| Unique citing works | 15 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 15 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |