Researchers, Reflexivity, and Good Data: Writing to Unlearn

Researchers want good data. As Creswell writes in this issue, validity criteria are met, in part, by good data. Throughout a study, researchers focus on theoretical groundings, timelines, collecting and analyzing data, and writing up interpretations. Separating these thoughts and actions from reflexivity is impossible.1 Researcher reflexivity represents a methodical process of learning about self as researcher, which, in turn, illuminates deeper, richer meanings about personal, theoretical, ethical, and epistemological aspects of the research question. Qualitative researchers engage in reflexivity because they have reason to believe that good data result. Schwandt (1997), in the definition above, identifies elements of a reflexive process and acknowledgment of the researcher's place (positionality). Schwandt is referring to a specific kind of documentation that may be written down in longhand, keyed into a word processing program, perhaps dictated into a tape recorder for transcription.