Reflective Essays: A Guide for Qualitative Researchers

Conducting research online is becoming more popular among researchers, especially qualitative researchers. As qualitative methodology gains more credibility and popularity, it is important to continue to expand and improve the qualitative research toolkit. One of the staples of the qualitative research arsenal is interviewing. Talking to a person as a way to collect data is often used synonymously with qualitative research, especially by those who had never taken a methods course. However, like all data collection tools, this data collection tool has limitations. The guide outlined in this article contributes to the qualitative methodology literature by showing how researchers can methodologically utilize reflective essays to answer their research questions. When developing a study, qualitative researchers should consider a set of factors, including the research question, the sensitivity of the research question, the amount of reflectivity required to answer the research question, the length it takes to answer the research question, and the type of population that will be used to answer the research question. This article discusses these factors and provides practical design suggestions using examples from a previous study that collected data using reflective essays. This article proposes that, depending on these factors, a reflective essay, if set up in a methodologically careful way, not only has the potential to yield data that is as rich as that collected from interviews, but it also has the potential to lead to even richer data. These essays are not a replacement for interviews or mixed-methods studies that have open-ended questions; rather researchers should consider incorporating reflective essays as another tool in their qualitative research arsenal.