Reflexivity as a methodological category in educational research

Abstract

Caring for the quality of pedagogical research is driven by many factors. The aim of the study is to provide a general description of the reflexivity as a key category in the research process and particularly important in modern times described as uncertain and relativized. The starting point is a description of the general importance of reflexivity. Subsequently, reference is made to what the transition from a positivist research paradigm to many competing or complementary methodological orientations looked like in the social sciences and humanities. The main part of the article is a description of the attributes and assumptions of reflective research. The most significant include: cognition that will never be completely certain and objective; departure from the assumption that the researcher can remain impartial; socially and personally engaged knowledge; volatility as a dominant feature in contemporary descriptions of the world; the importance of research theory in the process of cognition; the studied phenomena are not isolated; the research process need not lead to the production of a new theory.