Transcript Learning by inquiry and research proposal

Reflexivity and
research
John Lees
Reflexive writing
Engaging in reflexive writing
Take a topic (e.g. depression) or a
particular experience (e.g. an incident in
an experiential group).
 Either think about your experience of the
topic and write about a specific memory in
connection with the topic or write about
the experience.
 Make your narrative as evocative as
possible – include tension, inner
experience, details.
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Narrative analysis
Reflexive writing needs to be
consciously evocative - a narrative
analysis. It organizes ‘the data
elements into a coherent
developmental account .... [it is] ....
a synthesis of the data rather than a
separation of its constituent parts’
(Polkinghorne, 1995: 15)
I agree with Tennessee Williams’
comment that:
If I try to make a universal character,
it becomes boring. It doesn’t exist.
If I make the character specific and
concrete, it becomes universal.
Evocative writing
and the use of
language
Language
 What
is similar about the following
two pieces of writing?
Narrative one
What had analyst and patient lived through?
I think of it as a fight for survival, when
one’s very existence, one’s right to be
alive, is challenged by the insidious yet
indistinct presence of the other. I had
regressed from an over-talkative false self
to an endangered and frightened being. I
had no psychosomatic aliveness to me. I
was all bunched up inside, barely
breathing, without body movement: a
lifeless non-entity .... I was more aware of
my inner madness than the patient’s state
of mind.
Narrative two
Analysis of covariance demonstrated
significant improvements in the MCT
group in terms of alertness post-therapy
(F(2,31) = 3.31, p<0.05; MCT = 233.9,
Relax = 176.1, control = 170.1, see
Figure 1). Pair wise comparison at sixmonth follow-up revealed that MCT and
control groups remained significantly
different (mean difference = 58.08, se =
25.98, p < 0.033). There were no
significant changes in hedonic tone or
anxiety
Both pieces of writing are evocative but this
can be deceptive:
It is not possible to check the facts
 They create an impression of validity on
the reader
 In order to achieve this they use rhetorical
language albeit in very different ways

All professional and academic writing is
evocative
Reflexivity and the writing
process
Reflexivity is essential for re-writing and
disconfirmation:

It involves a process of ‘turning’ or ‘bending’
something back on itself. It incorporates a
cyclical process of returning time and time again
to our previous experience in order to become
aware of what, at first, eluded us. According to
Steier (1991: 2) it involves ‘turning back of one’s
experience upon oneself’ whilst Freshwater and
Rolfe (2001) see it as ‘turning thought or
reflection back on itself’ and ‘turning action or
practice back on itself’
The process
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Engage with an issue, problem, question, experience,
critical incident and immerse yourself in it by writing an
evocative vivid account (i.e. a narrative analysis)
Field unstable and unboundaried: Return to the issue and
narrative time and time again. Can be confusing and go in
many directions. Note anything that happens in the process
of doing this (research diary). You can structure this with a
linear process model (e.g. heuristics)
Processing the data: cyclical process (Kolb); identify
relevant theory and methodology, narrative analysis and
analysis of narratives; contemplation, meditation
Verification: transparency, disconfirm previous formulations
(reflexivity – turning something back on itself)
Write up going on throughout; many drafts; writing as
research
Learning by inquiry research writing is
not just a question of ‘writing up’
research but is, in itself, a method of
discovery. As Clarkson (1995: 270)
has said, ‘it has been my experience
.... that the work of writing itself is
another process of discovery, both
about myself, my discipline and the
work of thinking and writing itself’.
Value and purpose
Reading and writing
 Our
writing (and reading) is
influenced by our beliefs,
politics, values, preconceptions,
prejudices, etc
 No such thing as objective
writing and research
 It is all socially constructed
Consciousness and transformation
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Becoming aware of what lies behind narrative
and discourse is like an individualized form of
Marxism
We become aware of our alienation
It is about self-consciousness rather than class
consciousness
It is person-centred - we open up the possibility
of our own (and others’) marginalized voices
being heard and not marginalized by ‘the system’
rather than methodology centred
It is about individual transformation rather than
revolution: a means of extending personal
therapy and personal development: changing
oneself and changing the world: seeing things
differently
Aims of becoming aware of context
through reflection on discourse
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Develops consciousness of the way in which our
way of being is affected by context (system)
Brings hidden contextual influences to the surface
Dialectical process of engaging with the context
in which the research is taking place
Challenges power elites – e.g. the academic
researcher as the expert on clinical practice
rather than the practitioner
Challenges hierarchy of evidence and evidencebased practice