Drawing on the literature, media, and your experience, discuss how reflexive inquiry can support educators in advocating for more socially equitable societies.

            Whenever I look at a question, I like to look at the ‘why.’ I think it has more to do with time management than anything else. I have limited time, and is the question worth answering? An excellent place to start would be to watch – oh, let’s say – ten minutes of various news media sites: environmental disasters, social injustice, corporate scandals, and questionable government leadership ethics. As educators and researchers, we have to respond to or engage proactively with these issues with our learners. We must encourage our learners to become more reflexive and we must become more reflexive as educators and researchers. Reflexivity is an essential resource in learning because it offers a critical and responsible approach to education and real-world activities.

            The why has been answered so on with the how reflexivity can help engage learners in advocating for more socially equitable societies. Cunliffe (2020) suggests that by taking a more responsible approach to education and teaching reflexivity, learners will be better able to make decisions about questionable work practices, irresponsible decision-making, and unethical leadership. Also, learners may re-think how they research and theorize, while educators re-think how they teach these issues. Reflexivity questions our assumptions and how they might impact our behaviour, relationships, the language we use, and research. “Reflexivity is about understanding that we live in a social and natural world, we shape it in intended and unintended ways, and we, therefore, need to accept responsibility for what we do and say” (Cunliffe, 2016).

            Advocating for a more socially equitable society can start with the educator by helping learners become reflexive practitioners who can examine themselves, their actions, interactions, and the nature of their relationships while acting in more ethical and responsive ways (Hibbert, Callagher, Siedlok, Windahl, & Kim, 2019). Making reflexivity relevant to learners may be challenging but engaging them in both self, and critical reflexivity must be encouraged.

            To change the outside, we must first look inside. Reflexive inquiry demands that we turn our gaze on ourselves as educators, researchers, learners, and leaders.

Laurie

References

Cunliffe, A.L. (2020). Reflexivity in teaching and researching organizational studies. Researchgate, 60(1),            64-69.             https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339917628_Reflexivity_in_teaching_and_researching_o           rganizational_studies

Hibbert, P., Callagher, L., Siedlok, F., Windahl, C., & Kim, H. (2019). Engaging or avoiding change        through reflexive practices. Journal of Management Inquiry, 28(2), 187-2003.           https://doi:10.1177/1056492617718089