Positions, positionality, and relationality in educational research

Abstract

In this paper, we provide a critical genealogy of position statements and take up the questions of why positionality and position statements have become a presence in the field of qualitative education research, what these statements do and don’t do, and how relationality may serve purposes of mutuality that reach beyond an individual’s social locations. Using content analysis of fifty position statements found in high-impact educational research journals, we theorize and trace how positionality statements have become a genre, with concerns about power and representation from the field of anthropology and in educational research. We also include a conversational interlude as praxis to lift up our own experiences with positionality statements and our interpretations. We provide provocations about positionality statements and what they operationalize in knowledge making projects.

Keywords:

• Positionality
• positionality statements
• relationality
• reflexivity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cati de los Ríos

Cati de los Ríos is an Associate Professor of Adolescent Literacy and Bi/Multilingual Education at UC Berkeley’s School of Education. She uses ethnographic and community-based research to document the rich civic, folkloric, and translingual literacies and practices of Latiné/x youth and families.

Leigh Patel

Leigh Patel is a professor of urban education at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education. She is also a proud national board member of Education for Liberation. Her research focuses on the ways that education is both an efficient machine of social reproduction and holds the potential to be a tool for liberation.