Strategies and examples for applying reflexivity in qualitative research: before, during and after data collection

Purpose This paper, written by a research team that is working with justice-involved youth across the USA, begins by explaining our interest in and commitment to reflexivity as a concept and practice. Then, we offer an overview of what reflexivity is – and is not, as well as why reflexivity is critically important to qualitative inquiry. Finally, in an effort to extend extant literature on the topic of reflexivity, we provide specific examples from our scholarship of how to practice and enact reflexivity throughout the research process: specifically, before, during and after data collection. Design/methodology/approach This paper provides a conceptual discussion based on researchers’ reflexivity practices prior to, during and following focus groups with youth and staff members in juvenile justice facilities across multiple states in the USA. Findings Our research with justice-involved youth and facility staff offered a rare and important opportunity to offer concrete, specific discussions of how reflexivity might work over the duration of a research study. Given the importance of reflexive practices before, during and after data collection, this paper emphasizes the degrees to which reflexivity is a continuous, incessant and iterative process. Originality/value Reflexivity is a pervasive, important, but often mysterious, misunderstood and/or misapplied concept in qualitative research, with limited discussions of what, specifically, reflexivity is or of how and when to do it. The paper’s original contribution is its applied examples of reflexivity, commonly discussed abstractly, as specific practices and decisions throughout the research process.