The Reflexive Relay: Using Reflexive Journals to Promote Student Agency and Staff-Student Syllabus Co-Creation

Abstract

In this Case Study we report on an assessment that promoted student agency and inspired staff-student syllabus co-creation on a Level 6 undergraduate Psychology BSc unit. Representing 50% of the final mark of a Conceptual and Historical Issues in Psychology (CHIP) course, the Reflexive Journal required students to critically reflect on how the unit had impacted on their identity. In Part I of this report, Geoff, the unit leader, outlines the rationale for the Reflexive Journal. In Part II, Paige, a former student on the unit, writes a personal reflection on the effect the assessment had on her sense of self. After overcoming their initial anxieties about the process, students reported the sharing of personal stories to be enlightening and empowering. One student created a blog as a vehicle for publishing student narratives. The blog changed the scope and remit of the assessment. Another unanticipated benefit of the assessment was its ability to nudge students out of what Jacques Lacan (2007) called the ‘Discourse of the Master’ and into the more critically agentic ‘Discourse of the Analyst’. We have subsequently come to understand reflexivity as a disruptive but vital element of the student experience.