Reflexivity in the context of Cultural Safety: Critical considerations in building capacities and capabilities
Date
2025
Authors
Dawson, Jessica Suzanne
Editors
Advisors
Rumbold, Alice
Griffiths, Kalinda (Poche SA+NT, Flinders University)
Griffiths, Kalinda (Poche SA+NT, Flinders University)
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Thesis
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Abstract
Reflexivity is a key Cultural Safety capability, facilitating a critical examination of personal and professional culture; internalised racism; power and privilege; and how these shape both relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and contribute to ongoing racialised health inequities. As such, reflexivity could function as a potential precursor to engaging in antiracist praxis, however its conceptualisation and practice has not been well articulated in the Cultural Safety context. Informed by poststructuralist theory, this thesis presents three original studies examining separate but interconnected aspects of reflexivity. The first study presented provides a critical synthesis of the Cultural Safety education literature to examine current conceptualisations of reflexivity and teaching approaches to support the development of student reflexive capacity, and whether these are adequate and appropriate to addressing racism. A total of 46 documents describing 43 different educational interventions were analysed. Findings demonstrate a lack of consistency in how reflexivity is conceptualised and taught and highlights a dearth of information regarding the assessment of reflexive capacity development. The second study presented analysed student reflexive video assessments, with a total of 74 video files included. An analytic framework was developed, informed by the racism, Cultural Safety, and reflexivity literature. This framework was used in conjunction with critical discourse analysis to examine how and to what extent students demonstrate reflexivity in an assessment context, and to what extent this allows for the identification and challenging of racism. Analysis demonstrated that for students, there was a tension between meeting assessment expectations and preserving positive self-presentation. Additionally, while there was evidence that students were actively attempting to manage overt forms of racism, the more ideological aspects of racism remained largely unchallenged. The final study presented explores the potential of using Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to Be?’ (WPR) analytic framework as an approach to reflexively analyse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy. The original ‘Closing the Gap’ policy document was analysed using both WPR and critical discourse analysis to examine how the ‘problem’ of ‘Indigenous disadvantage’ was constructed. Findings demonstrated consistent slippage from structural to individual explanations for disadvantage, underpinned by deficit discourse and an absence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices and aspirations. Collectively, these studies demonstrate that reflexivity shows strong potential as a critical strategy for identifying and challenging individual, institutional, and systemic racism. However, more work is required to develop a conceptualisation of reflexivity relevant to Cultural Safety in the context of colonial Australia. Key recommendations for future research include the identification and development of pedagogical strategies which more effectively facilitate reflexive capacity building; ensure that racism-related content in Cultural Safety training includes consideration of ideological and structural forms of racism; and explore the potential utility of the WPR analytic framework as a tool for reflexive policy development and analysis to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander needs, priorities, and aspirations are met.
School/Discipline
School of Psychology
Dissertation Note
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 2025
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