Reflexivity in Qualitative Work: Asking GenAI Questions Your Professor Would Not Know How to Answer

Introduction: Reflexivity as a method is an advanced application or a specific form of critical thinking applied to the self and the research process. Committed to acknowledging and managing bias and subjectivity, not eliminating them, reflexivity aims to describe how one's self shapes knowledge production and social interactions in interpretation to produce more ethical, transparent, and rigorous knowledge. This description is not possible without comparison to, conversing with, or knowing of some sort of “otherness” outside one’s local context. To enable “otherness” (i.e., an alternative perspective, a counter argument, a devil’s advocate position), qualitative researchers have either “placed” themselves in the practice of “othering” their own premises, actions, and interpretive tendencies, or used others in the role of a “critical friend” or a “selected individual” to negotiate meanings, foster reflexivity and enhance trustworthiness of interpretations. When based on human researchers’ lived experiences, these practices reveal both strengths and vulnerability, and can put qualitative researchers at risk for excessive criticism, emotional exhaustion, and devaluation of their work as not meeting objectivity and neutrality standards. Goals and Methods: The objective of this qualitative project is to reflect on a collaboration with GenAI as a source of “otherness” in reflexivity, i.e., a neutral entity that generates interpretive scenarios, prompting educational researchers to rigorously examine their identity, assumptions, biases, and values in relation to the phenomenon being researched. Participants in this research were asked to evaluate the scenarios and select reflexivity strategies that were relevant to their researcher positionality. Results: Collaboration with GenAI revealed that it can apply different sets of characteristics as a possible researcher ‘self’ and produce interpretations that contained reflective questions and actions that demonstrate critical reflexivity. Engaging with produced scenarios challenges human researchers to examine their positionality and build critical reflexivity skills strengthening their researchers' identities.