Doing Dirty Work: Listening for Ignorance Among the Ruins of Reflexivity in Music Education Research

Abstract

Recent research in music education has emphasized the importance of reflexive approaches in unsettling the concept of a neutral, objective researcher and critically considered the ways in which cultural others are represented in research texts. Seen to enhance both the rigor and ethical dimensions of research practice, reflexivity has emerged as a hegemonic virtue, highlighting the inherently political aspects of research practice. In this chapter, I interrogate the politics of inquiry involved in reflexive research, considering the ways in which reflexivity may afford the researcher methodological power and hinder relational and responsible work. Reflexivity is thus positioned as a ruin: perpetually reaffirming the benevolence of the already-privileged researcher while doing little to disrupt the structures that keep such privileges at the center of academic practice. However, rather than abandoning such practices altogether, I suggest that reflexivity might be better considered as a way to listen for ignorance and direct attention toward ontological or epistemological difference. In this way, reflexivity serves as an invitation to engage in the politics of diversity through the transformation of researchers themselves.