Shawn Clark ^{1 *}

AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 10, Issue 4, pp. 194-221

https://doi.org/10.66815/ajqr/19490

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Abstract

University leaders, researchers, students, and policymakers frequently call for increased active learning in higher education. Within this context, novice scholars grapple with how to meaningfully nurture an understanding of trustworthiness throughout the doctoral research process. This study addresses that gap by examining how an innovative reflexive binning system, grounded in the ICAP framework and informed by multilayered reflexivity, can help novice scholars develop an understanding of trustworthiness in cross-cultural doctoral research. Using autoethnography combined with visual vignettes, the study traces the author’s development as a doctoral student learning to engage with qualitative inquiry in reflexive and relational ways. The study examines how developing a reflexive binning system served as a methodological tool for building an understanding of trustworthiness and how engagement with the system reflected progression across the modes of the ICAP framework. The reflexive bins system organizes data across literature, artifacts, experiences, and interviews while integrating structured generative questions and interactive dialogue. Multilayered reflexivity provides the analytic lens for examining how self, interpersonal, and collective dimensions of reflexivity shaped meaning-making across the research process. Two visual vignettes demonstrate how the system functions in practice, making visible the processes through which meaning is constructed, challenged, and refined. The manuscript suggests that reflexive bins foster a deeper understanding of trustworthiness by embedding active learning, reflexive engagement, and relational accountability throughout the research process. This study offers guidance to higher education professionals seeking to support doctoral students in strengthening their understanding of trustworthiness as they transition to independent scholars.

Keywords: active learning, autoethnography, higher education, ICAP framework, reflexivity, visual vignettes

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