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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 9, No. 8
Publication Date: August 25, 2022
DOI:10.14738/assrj.98.12931.
Verlaine, E. D. (2022). Discovering How to Do Reflexivity and Self-Reflexivity. A Longitudinal Empirical Research Findings. Advances
in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(8). 371-394.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Discovering How to Do Reflexivity and Self-Reflexivity. A
Longitudinal Empirical Research Findings
Emmanuelle de Verlaine
Department of administrative sciences
Université du Québec en Outaouais
101, rue Saint-Jean-Bosco, C.P. 1250, succursale Hull
Gatineau (Québec) Canada, J8X 3X7
ABSTRACT
Reflexivity is known to be a mental process where a person takes distance to oneself
to analyze and take a critical perspective over own feelings, throughts and actions
in order to realign own practice or meaning and even create new ones. Reflexivity
is therefore a form of metacognition reaching a state of mind’s acute awareness.
The reflexivity’s functionality has been recognized as valuable to improve and
innovate professional practices. The main gap in research and literature is to
explicate how to do reflexivity and most of all, how to apply it to all aspects of human
life toward self-actualization. This research aims at answering at: How to Do
reflexivity and Self-Reflexivity? To answer this question a 17 year-long longitudinal
Action-Research investigations reveals how to do and learn to practice reflexivity.
This paper also reveals how reflexivity can be applied to aim at one’s well-being and
self-actualization. The discussion addresses the long-term benefits of practicing
reflexivity coupled with mindfulness as an ability to reach self-liberation and better
resilience capability.
Keywords: Reflexivity, Metacognition, Mindfulness, Innovation, self-actualization
INTRODUCTION
Reflexivity is most often studied as the metacognitive ability of a professional to analysis one’s
own practice to improve it (Dierckx et al. 2016, DiSalvo 2016, 2013, Lafortune 2009, Lafortune
& Robertson 2004). It requires a metaconsciousness reaching a high level of self-awareness
over one’s own thoughts, feelings, decisions and actions suche as self-conduct in social relation
within a profession’s framework to reach its full optimization (Roy 2015, Lafortune 2009,
Daniel et al. 2004, Estrela 2001, Chalmers 1996)).
Once this reflexivity competency is mastered in a field, such as professional conext, it can be
applied into other sphere of one’s life. Ultimately, reflexivity becomes an applied metacognitive
ability to drive one’s best professional practices as well as a better life experience at a larger
scale. Reflexivity goes beyond a metacognition which focusses on thoughts because it leads to
action in the real, concrete world (Gallagher 2007, Gallagher et al. 2021).
While reflexivity, mindfulness and metacognition have been studied in several fields for
medical therapy (DiSalvo 2013, McEwen 2000), interpersonal competency development
(Lafortune et al. 2004, Vinatier 2012, Verreault 1992), education (Lafortune et al. 2004, St-
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 9, Issue 8, August-2022
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Arnaud 2009), neuroscience (Hines 2018, Hoza 2016, Hopkins 2022) and professional
development such as management (de Verlaine 2022, Fronty 2017, Meunier 2013, Rouchi et al.
2017, Lafortune 2009, Lafortune & Robertson 2004, Galand et al. 2004, De Waele et al. 2001),
it mainly focusses on its functionality and its positive impact on the practitioner. Neuroscience
and psychology go as far as indicating exercises to improve the brain activity and psychological
therapy with reflexivbility (DiSalvo 2013).
A vast literature explains how to do mindfulness aligned with meditative practices (Ditrich
2017), but it doesn’t link it back with reflexibility practices. The literature explains how
valuable metacognition’s reflexivity is exploring its functionabilities and its benefits, but it lacks
in explaining how to do it (Popoveniuc 2013). This research aims at this pracical question: How
to do reflexivity and self-reflexivity? Answering this question reveals how anyone can do
reflexibility which will democratize the ability to self-actualize and access this learning and
knowledge creation capability.
Research Problem
To answer this question, we need to clarify the object of study to distinct reflexivity from
reflectivity, metacognition, mindfulness, consciousness and meta-consciousness. Indeed, all
these mental activities offer different functionalities which need to be distinguished from one
antoher to monitor the actual discovery of reflexivity as such.
A reflective practice means to take distance at the passed practices, a form of lessons learned
practice, to identify what went well and what went wrong or not as expected, to find potential
adjustments to improve the approach or tactics to improve best practice in future similar
instances (Lafortune 2009, St-Arnaud 1988, 1996). It becomes a form of insight and
introspection into what happened to figure out which known better practices in terms of
thinking, actions, and even reframe de feeling experience with this new insight on the matter.
Reflectivity is therefore similar to the metacognitive practice where the person takes distance
from own thoughts but to go a little further and align the thinking process with a formal and
theoretical best logic (Daniel 2004, Dierckx et al. 2016). As a generic example, a reflective
process would look at the approach a professional answered to the client’s needs. It would look
at the key moments where the client may have presented some frustrations. The professional
would then look at the manner the active listening techniques may be improved to prevent
client’s discomfort, and better understand the client’s needs to act more effectively. The
metacognitive process would complement the reflective practice by seeing that the client
service conceptual frame of reference adopted in this situation is a service providing approach.
Once the listening practice is reviewed, it would allow to better see that the client’s intent was
not to get a better professional service, but to complaint about the service. It would therefore
mean in a metacognitive reflection process, that the professional client-listening technique
would allow to distinguish the client’s intent to get a better service or to make a complaint to
select the proper frame of reference between the client service or complaint management
formal protocols. So far, in organizations, reflexivity would go even further than reflectivity by
redefining the formal protocols to adjust them to emerging new client behaviours.
Mindfulness means that the person is present to the current moment, both in terms of body,
respiration, feelings, thoughts and general state of mind (Hines 2018, DiSalvo 2013). This
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Verlaine, E. D. (2022). Discovering How to Do Reflexivity and Self-Reflexivity. A Longitudinal Empirical Research Findings. Advances in Social Sciences
Research Journal, 9(8). 371-394.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.98.12931
mindfulness focusses on the present moment of existence, independently of the past events and
future expectations. It marks a stand still focus of the mind to the present state of existence. It
allows to appreciate the stillness of that moment and its experience of living the moment
(Ditrich 2017). There is no intent to improve past events, or perform in the future experience.
Mindfulness is an extension of meditating state of mind while being in the contingent situation.
As a generic example, a mindfulness practice in a traffic jam would mean to let go on the
unexpected traffic jam, the tension in being constantly concentrated in reacting effectively to
avoid probable accident between close cars and trucks and most of all letting go on the
expectation of getting out of the current situation. Mindfulness would embrace the moment as
a time to let go of the situation, focus on the breathing, the sitting-still position and choosing a
minimized concentrating effort to adopt a driving courtesy approach to other drivers while
embracing the situation as it is and not as it should or could be. Mindfulness becomes a form of
“letting go” expectations and performance pressure.
Consciousness and meta-consciousness refer to the level of awareness. Consciousness is to be
fully present and concentrated as a form of awareness of the situation at hand (Jonkus 2015).
Self-consciousness would therefore be a level of self-awareness of who we are in terms of role
and function we ought to play in the situation, to respond adequately to expected self-conduct
in that particular situation (de Verlaine 2022, De Waele 2001). It also implies that
consciousness over the situation means we are aware of the rules, regulations and procedures
that are framing the socially constructed situation.
The meta-consciousness would therefore be a higher level of awareness of what is being
socially expected of own’s self-conduct, as well as being aware of the overall intent a person has
by putting oneself in that situation (Jonkus 2015, Kriegel 2006, Gennaro 2004). A little further,
the meta-self-consciousness would refer to a more general set of planned tactics within a global
life strategy to plan and implement that life strategy. This meta-consciousness is the level of
awareness to become actor of own’ life project.
In a generic example, consciousness would mean to be aware of what it takes to practice
medicine. A meta-consciousness is the awareness over the tactics to implement in order to earn
the legitimacy and the right to practice medicine. Self-consciousness would mean to be able to
assess the interest, the ability and the factual capability to accomplish the tactical steps to
become a medical practitioner. A meta-self-consciousness would allow to wonder the hidden
inner reasons to have this life project, whether it is to take care of people, to please a parent, or
to earn a social status.
Compared with the previous cognitive activities, reflexive practice aims at a transformational
process over oneself and creates knowledge transcending situations (Popoveniuc 2013, De
Waele et al. 2001). Reflexivity practice takes a metacognitive distance to be both aware and
critical about the reflective ongoing improvement and adjustement practice. It would adopt a
critical perspective on the practice frame of reference to question its foundations.
Reflexivity questions the cultural, historical, epistemological, doxological and even political and
technical frame of reference framing a practice to reframe it within its socially constructed
context, create or find alternative socially constructed approaches to deal with the present
situation (Fronty 2017, St-Arnaud 2009, 1996, De Waele et al. 2001, Estrela 2001,). For