Quick Answer
What should you write in a qualitative research reflexivity section?
Explain aspects of your position that are relevant to the study, your relationship to participants or topic, important assumptions you brought to the research, how these may have influenced data collection and analysis, and the practical steps you used to reflect on and document that influence.
What Does Reflexivity Mean in Qualitative Research?
Reflexivity is the ongoing process of examining how the researcher influences and is influenced by the research. It recognises that interviews, coding and interpretation are not produced by a completely detached observer. Your questions, expectations, background and relationship with participants can shape what is discussed and how you understand it.
The purpose is not to apologise for having a perspective. The purpose is to make relevant influences visible and show how you engaged with them thoughtfully.
What Should a Reflexivity Section Include?
| Area | Questions to consider | What may be relevant to write |
|---|---|---|
| Position | What is my relationship to the topic or setting? | Insider or outsider status, prior experience, role in the institution |
| Assumptions | What did I expect before collecting data? | Ideas you needed to question or revisit |
| Relationships | How might participants have viewed me? | Power, familiarity, age, professional role or shared background where relevant |
| Data collection | How might I have influenced interviews? | Question wording, follow-up choices, rapport and sensitive topics |
| Analysis | How did my interpretation develop? | Memos, theme revisions, challenges to initial assumptions |
You do not need to disclose every personal detail. Include only information that is ethically appropriate and genuinely relevant to understanding the research process.
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Reflexivity Is More Than a Short “Bias Statementâ€Â
A common weak approach is to write one sentence saying “the researcher may be biased†and then claim that objectivity was maintained. Reflexivity is more specific. It asks how your position may have shaped decisions and how you noticed, recorded and questioned those effects.
For example, if you are interviewing students from your own programme, shared experience may help rapport but may also lead you to assume you already understand what participants mean. A reflexive response is to notice that risk and use follow-up questions rather than relying on assumed shared knowledge.
Keep a Reflexive Journal During the Research
After interviews or coding sessions, write short notes about your reactions and decisions. Useful prompts include: What surprised me? Which answer did I feel strongly about? Did I ask one participant more follow-up questions than another? What interpretation am I currently favouring? What evidence does not fit it?
These notes do not need to be polished. Their value is that they capture your thinking at the time, making it easier to explain later how the analysis developed.
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Use Reflexivity During Coding and Theme Development
When you develop codes and themes, separate the participant's words from your interpretation. Ask whether a theme is supported across the dataset or whether you are giving it too much importance because it matches your own experience or expectations.
Actively look for extracts that complicate the emerging story. Revising a theme because of contradictory evidence is a sign of deeper analysis, not a failure to be consistent.
A Simple Structure for Writing the Reflexivity Section
State your relevant position
Briefly describe your relationship to the topic, participants or setting.
Identify important assumptions
Explain expectations or prior experiences that could shape interpretation.
Describe interactional influence
Discuss how your role may have affected interviews or other data collection.
Explain reflexive practices
Mention journals, memos, supervision discussions or deliberate checks of contrasting evidence.
Connect reflexivity to analysis
Show how reflection changed or refined coding, themes or interpretation.
Write concretely. A specific example of changing an interview probe after noticing an assumption is more useful than a general statement that you “remained aware of bias.â€Â
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Common Reflexivity Mistakes
- Writing only a generic paragraph about researcher bias.
- Claiming complete neutrality in an interpretive qualitative study.
- Disclosing personal information that has no relevance to the research.
- Treating reflexivity as something written only after data analysis.
- Describing feelings without connecting them to research decisions.
- Ignoring power differences between researcher and participant.
A strong reflexivity section is proportionate to the study. It helps the reader understand the conditions under which the data and interpretation were produced.
Key Takeaways
- Reflexivity examines the researcher's influence on the study rather than pretending it does not exist.
- Discuss only aspects of your position that are relevant to the research.
- Keep reflexive notes during interviews, coding and theme development.
- Consider how relationships and power may shape participant responses.
- Use contradictory evidence to question preferred interpretations.
- Write specific examples of how reflection influenced research decisions.
