The Role of Reflexivity in Ethical Research That Benefits Marginalised Participants and Communities, with Bethlehem Tekola
My talk is based on a commentary article that I published in the Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics at the beginning of July 2026. Reflexivity is often framed in qualitative research methods literature as a means of enhancing methodological rigour and research quality. However, less attention has been paid to whether research that meets such standards is also ethically responsive to the needs of participants and communities. Drawing on my own long-term engagement with marginalised groups and communities, I propose an approach to reflexivity that is community centred and ethically oriented. In this talk, I will reflect on what ethical reflexivity that centres participants and the researched community might look like and briefly talk about the limits of reflexivity in ensuring that research produces knowledge that matters to researched communities.
Commentary article link: https://doi.org/10.1177/15562646261463356
About the speaker
Bethlehem Tekola is a Research Fellow in Qualitative Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London. She has a deep interest in research ethics and in how research practices affect marginalised people and communities. She completed her PhD at the Department of Psychology, the University of Bath. She has BA degree in History and MA in Social Anthropology from Addis Ababa University.