Nurturing Students’ Reflexive Approach to Data Analysis by Crafting Collective Zines

This article presents insights from a classroom exercise in an undergraduate Applied Social Research course, in which students explored how their lived experiences shape the ways they make sense of qualitative data, becoming aware of the situated nature of research. Through collective zine-making, they engaged with visual and narrative empirical material from earlier research on how young people’s daily experiences were reconfigured amid major changes in everyday routines and emotional life. By cutting, arranging and annotating fragments, students encountered interpretive tensions and the affective dimensions of working with qualitative data. Drawing on classroom observations and students’ reflections, the article explores how zine-making as a creative practice has fostered situated reflexivity. The article contributes to wider conversations on the teaching practices of sociology, showing how tactile, collaborative and imaginative engagement with research materials can encourage thoughtful engagement with data.