Reflexivity as a Learning Tool

Throughout the SoCIETIE curriculum you make choices about projects, partnerships, opportunities and learning experiences. But what shapes those choices? Why do different people move through the same program in such different ways?

This workshop introduces reflexivity as a practical learning tool. Moving beyond reflection on what happened, reflexivity helps us examine how our assumptions, values, experiences and contexts shape what we notice, how we interpret situations and what possibilities we see. The concept builds on reflection by encouraging us to examine our own beliefs, judgments and taken-for-granted assumptions rather than focusing only on events and outcomes.

Using your own SoCIETIE journey as a starting point, you'll explore how personal lenses and contextual influences have shaped your choices, opportunities and learning. Through interactive activities, guided conversation and future-focused planning, you'll develop practical approaches for learning more intentionally from experience and applying those insights to future social change practice.

Please read the short overview of reflexivity before attending:

University of Warwick: Reflexivity
Reflexivity involves examining our own beliefs, judgments and practices, and considering how they influence how we understand and respond to situations. It goes beyond reflection by asking us to examine the person making the judgment, rather than only the judgment itself.

Reading: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ces/research/current/socialtheory/maps/reflexivity/

As you read, consider:

• What is the difference between reflection and reflexivity?
• What assumptions or perspectives might shape how you approach learning?
• How might different people experience the same situation differently?

In this workshop, students will explore reflexivity as a tool for learning, collaboration and social change practice.

Through a series of interactive activities, students will:

• Explore how assumptions, values, experiences and identities influence the questions they ask and the choices they make.
• Map their SoCIETIE journey and identify significant choice points, opportunities and influences.
• Examine how personal lenses and contextual factors interact to shape what feels possible, visible or desirable.
• Practise reflexive dialogue by helping others explore experiences from multiple perspectives.
• Identify future experiments, questions and practices that can support ongoing learning.

Recommended Reading From Insight to Impact: Reflexivity and Reflection in Educational Research

Lisa Kate Formby (2026)

https://journal.uwp.co.uk/wje/article/733/galley/673/view/

This accessible article provides a practical introduction to reflection and reflexivity, exploring how both support learning, professional practice and research. Formby distinguishes reflection as learning from experience and reflexivity as critically examining how our own values, beliefs, positionality and experiences shape our interpretations and actions. The article also includes practical tools and examples of reflexive practice in action.

As you read, consider:

• How do reflection and reflexivity differ in practice?
• What influences shape your own learning and decision-making?
• Which tools or approaches might support your reflexive practice?

Reflexivity as a Transformative Capacity for Sustainability Science: Introducing a Critical Systems Approach

Anita Lazurko, Michele-Lee Moore, L. Jamila Haider, Simon West & Daniel D.P. McCarthy (2025)

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/D6978EE9FF6C9B7DBB36212C2BB0B865/S2059479824000498a.pdf/reflexivity-as-a-transformative-capacity-for-sustainability-science-introducing-a-critical-systems-approach.pdf

This article explores reflexivity in transdisciplinary and social change practice. The authors argue that reflexivity is not only an individual practice of self-awareness but also a collective process of self-scrutiny, mutual learning and transformation. They introduce three key dimensions of reflexivity: boundary delineation (understanding our own perspectives and assumptions), boundary interaction (engaging with different perspectives and forms of knowledge), and boundary transformation (learning and changing through these encounters).

This reading is particularly relevant for students interested in collaboration, social change, sustainability and working across difference.

As you read, consider:

• What perspectives or assumptions shape your own approach to social change?
• How do different perspectives interact in projects, organisations or communities?
• What role might reflexivity play in creating more inclusive and transformative forms of collaboration?

Additional Resources Reflexivity Collection

Integration and Implementation Insights (i2Insights)

https://i2insights.org/tag/reflexivity/

This collection of short blog posts explores reflexivity in a range of real-world contexts, including research, collaboration, systems thinking, knowledge integration and social change practice. Written by experienced practitioners and researchers, the posts demonstrate how reflexivity can be applied in practice and why it matters when working across disciplines, sectors and perspectives.

These blogs provide an accessible way to explore different approaches to reflexivity and are particularly useful for students interested in transdisciplinary practice and collaborative problem-solving.

As you browse, consider:

• How do different authors understand reflexivity?
• Which examples resonate with your own experiences?
• What practical strategies could you incorporate into your own learning, project work or social change practice?

An Argument

This American Life (Episode 898)

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/898/an-argument

This podcast episode offers a rich example of reflexivity in practice. Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones revisits a public argument she made ten years earlier about education, school choice and inequality, and reconsiders it through conversation with her daughter, documentary evidence, and the passage of time.

Rather than presenting reflexivity as a theory or method, the episode demonstrates what reflexive practice can look like when assumptions are challenged, memories are revisited, evidence complicates established interpretations, and different perspectives reveal aspects of a situation that were previously overlooked.

The episode raises important questions about:

• how people remember and interpret the same events differently;
• the relationship between intention and impact;
• authority, responsibility and decision-making;
• how personal experiences connect to wider social and institutional structures;
• the role of dialogue in helping us see our assumptions more clearly; and
• what it means to revisit past decisions in light of new information or perspectives.

This resource may be particularly useful for students interested in education, social change, public debate, leadership, facilitation or collaborative practice.

As you listen, consider:

• How do different experiences and positions shape what each person understands to have happened?
• What becomes visible through dialogue that might not have emerged through individual reflection alone?
• How does new information, evidence or another person's perspective challenge established interpretations?
• What responsibilities arise when we realise our understanding of a situation may have been incomplete?
• What does the episode suggest about the relationship between reflexivity, uncertainty and responsibility?

How to Complete This KNoT

Choose one of the following options:

Option A: Reflexive Learning Reflection

Complete a reflexive exploration of one significant decision, opportunity or turning point from your SoCIETIE journey or from a broader university learning experience.

You may choose one of the following formats:

• Written reflection (approximately 500 words)
• Video reflection (up to 5 minutes)
• Audio reflection (up to 5 minutes)
• Creative reflexive artefact with a short commentary

Your reflection should explore:

• What happened?
• What was shaping how you experienced and interpreted the situation?
• What was shaping the situation around you?
• How these influences interacted.
• What you understand differently now.
• What practice, question, experiment or action you will carry forward into future learning or practice.

The goal is not simply to describe an experience, but to explore how personal lenses and contextual influences shaped that experience and what you can learn from it moving forward.

Option B: Reflexive Reading Response

Engage with one of the recommended readings, case studies, or reflexivity resources provided as part of this KNoT. This may include an academic article, practitioner resource, podcast episode, blog post, or other approved reflexivity resource.

You may choose one of the following formats:

• Written response (approximately 500 words)
• Video response (up to 5 minutes)
• Audio response (up to 5 minutes)
• Creative reflexive artefact with a short commentary

Your response should explore:

• One or more key ideas about reflexivity from the reading, case study, or resource.
• What you found useful, challenging, surprising, or thought-provoking.
• How the ideas connect to learning, collaboration, research, facilitation, social change, or professional practice.
• What implications these ideas have for your own learning, experiences, or future practice.
• What practice, question, experiment, or action you will carry forward.

You may choose to focus on a particular concept, moment, conversation, tension, or example rather than attempting to discuss the entire resource.

The goal is not to summarise the reading or resource, but to engage critically and reflexively with its ideas and consider their relevance to learning and practice.