Implicating Ourselves Through Our Research: A Duoethnography of Researcher Reflexivity

Abstract

Researcher reflexivity is not a new concept in qualitative research. However, how/if researchers engage in that reflexivity varies. In this essay, the authors engage in reflexivity about a research project they conducted together. The previous project consisted of semi-structured interviews with U.S.-based mothers regarding their perceptions about motherhood. We then used intensive motherhood as a theoretical lens through which we analyzed the interviews. The project also encompassed mothers’ perceptions during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Through duoethnography, the researchers reflexively consider major dead angles of their project, challenges they faced, and what reflexivity brings to the forefront. They further reflect on their own communication processes throughout the research project and discuss implications for future researchers. As a result, the authors call for researchers to consider their own positionalities and the effects on research more deeply through collaboration and continual reevaluation.

Researching Men's Violence Against Women as Feminist Women Researchers: The Tensions We Face

“…Qualitative researchers (e.g., Reid et al, 2018;Shaw 2010;) have previously made similar observations from reflexive analyses of their own interviews, noting times at which they did not respond ethically or appropriately, for example, by not managing power dynamics that disfavoured participants. Like Wiant Cummins and Brannon (2022), through doing this work, we have learnt, "how much we realize after-the-fact" and "how 'easy' it is to be reflexive with the benefit of time, distance, and hindsight" (p.94). Acting reflexively in the moment was challenging: our social positions sometimes led us to react automatically, rather than respond thoughtfully.…”

“…Journal editors should encourage and set aside wordage and pages for authors to publish reflexive notes. As Wiant Cummins and Brannon (2022) write, presenting "raw data…allow[s] readers a chance to see how we were processing in the moment rather than with the polished shine of analysis only" (p.87): other people's reflexive analyses can be a learning opportunity for future researchers. 6.…”

Mothering in a Pandemic: Navigating Care Work, Intensive Motherhood, and COVID-19

“…Even as we investigated intensive motherhood, we reproduced it through the framing of our interview questions. We therefore recognize that troubling our own questions or the definitions of terms in those questions is an important lesson learned from this project [3].…”

Relational, Appreciative, and Process-oriented Digital Storytelling: A Duoethnography

“…Such is the stuff of which myth, religion, history, and science are made. (Shermer, 2000) Regarding digital storytelling, a major opportunity that this specific genre presents is that digital stories are concrete artifacts with a material presence, in a video, comic, or other digital media form. So, they can be easily viewed and reviewed, shared face-to-face or online, performed and re-performed, modified, and fine-tuned.…”