Reflecting on action: revisiting research, exploring sexuality and enhancing reflexively

ABSTRACT

Revisiting research from an autoethnographic perspective can yield insights into researcher subjectivity, as attempts are made to consider one’s subject position and situate the whole self within the research. In this article, the researcher revisits a piece of previous research, embarking on a reflective journey which documents the learning from what became a reflexive process, informed and framed by psychosocial thinking. In exploring the subject of vulnerability, the researcher is led to interpretations of their own biography. This initially leads to an unsettled self, before culminating in a greater sense of self-awareness. In exploring a site of reflective resistance linked to the author’s sexuality, the article considers issues of identity and power, attendant to the effects of social discourse in terms of hegemonic masculinity.

KEYWORDS:

• Reflexivity
• psychosocial
• vulnerability
• social work
• subjectivity
• sexuality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ian Dore

Ian Dore is a Senior Lecturer in social work, he is a registered Social Worker and qualified Practice Educator.