The concept of reflexivity

Essay by soliman93College, UndergraduateB, October 2014

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Seifeldin Soliman Advanced Writing in Disciplines Final Draft

Unit Four: Investigating learning transfer: Reflexivity in action

An Essential Reflection

Dear Professor Noonan,

The most challenging aspect of this project was understanding the concept of reflexivity. Qualley's passage explaining the concept guided me through what it was exactly. Although I wasn't well acquainted with the concept at first, I quickly realized that there were many instances in which I have been reflexive. While reading about the concept of reflexivity there seemed to be a fine line that separated what it meant to be reflexive versus reflective. The difference between the two is seemingly minimal, however the more I read about Qualley's experience I understood that the outcome of reflexivity is far more significant and substantial. Before progressing to speak about a time in which I have been reflexive it was important for the development of my thoughts to distinguish and define the difference between reflexing and reflecting.

From my understanding, there are three key details that highlight the difference between the two concepts.

The first detail is that reflexivity "does not originate in the self but always occurs in response to a person's critical engagement with an other" (Qualley, 11). This is fundamentally important to the concept of reflexivity because it emphasizes the fact that being reflexive is a result of a social interaction with other individuals rather than simply generating thoughts with yourself. The second detail involves the manner in which the thinking travels. Qualley explains to us that "reflection is a unidirectional thought process" whilst on the other hand "reflexivity is a bidirectional, contrastive thought process" (Qualley, 11). This point is noteworthy because it shows us that in reflection there is no exchange of thoughts or in other words thoughts are only traveling one way. On the contrary, in...