Reflexivity and the politics of knowledge: researchers as ‘brokers’ and ‘translators’ of educational development

Abstract

This paper interrogates the ways in which ‘reflexivity’ has proliferated as a normative methodological discourse in the field of international and comparative education. We argue that the dominant approach to reflexivity foregrounds the standpoints of researchers and their subjects in a way that does not attend to the situated, contingent, and relational dynamics of ‘knowing’ itself. This too easily bypasses the performative effects of research; how disciplinary ways of knowing (through associated methods and discourses) enact particular realities of the world. Drawing on theoretical devices from actor–network theory, we put forward the perspective that social researchers, through the methods and disciplinary discourses they deploy, are ‘brokers’ and ‘translators’ of knowledge. This signifies the ways in which the process of research engages actors, scripts, and performances which produce particular understandings of, and effects on, education and development. The paper illustrates the contribution of this perspective through the case of research on teachers and education reform in India.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Arathi Sriprakash is a lecturer in Sociology of Education at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests are in development education and education policy.

Rahul Mukhopadhyay is with the Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, India. His research interests are in the areas of sociology of education, education policy, and sociology of organisations.

Notes

1. Here, we are cautious about the ontological positions of ‘objects of study’ and ‘knowledge’ being unchallenged in Maton's thesis. As we discuss later in this chapter, the ANT ontology challenges agency/structure dualisms by focusing on the multiple, contingent circulating forces that act upon one another.