Reflexive Researching: Applying Self‐Study Methodology as a Meta‐Research Framework for Investigating Qualitative Research Practice in Education

ABSTRACT This paper explores the application of self‐study methodology as a meta‐research framework for investigating research practice in education. While meta‐research has traditionally examined issues such as reproducibility, publication bias, and methodological integrity, less attention has been paid to the lived, experiential, and relational dimensions of how researchers navigate their work. Building on traditions of reflective practice and self‐study, the Meta‐Methodological Self‐Study Framework (MMSF) was introduced. This framework comprises five dimensions: articulating positionality, tracing methodological decision‐making, identifying dissonance and adaptation, mapping institutional and cultural influences, and engaging in dialogic validation. The study employed an 18‐month collaborative self‐study involving five educational researchers working across diverse empirical projects. Data sources included reflective journals, critical incident logs, peer debriefings, and research artefacts. Thematic analysis yielded four central findings: methodological decision‐making as negotiated practice, identity and power dynamics as central to research, institutional and policy logics as shaping forces, and relational ethics as constitutive of rigour. Illustrative researcher cases demonstrated how reflexive inquiry surfaced tacit compromises, reframed identity struggles, and fostered collaborative accountability. Findings indicate that self‐study offers a rigorous and value‐sensitive lens for interrogating research, providing insights into researcher development, institutional negotiation, and ethical practice. The paper argues that the MMSF contributes to theory, methodology, and practice by foregrounding reflexivity, care, and collaboration as hallmarks of research quality. Beyond education, the framework has cross‐disciplinary potential for fostering more equitable, sustainable, and reflexively attuned research cultures.