Lesson plan
Positionality statement
A positionality statement, also called reflexivity statement or identity statement, is a statement wherein a person (such as a researcher or teacher) reports and discusses their group identities, such as in a grant proposal or journal submission. They have become commonplace in certain fields of social science, especially within the United States. Positionality statements focus on an "author's racial, gender, class, or other self-identifications, experiences, and privileges", based on the idea that the author's identity can, intentionally or not, influence the results of their research. Scholars have commonly identified this risk in cases where the researcher is the sole point of connection between the audience and research subjects and, relatedly, when there exists a known power imbalance between the researcher and the research subject. The expectation and/or practice of writing a positionality statement can also inform the researcher of ways to mitigate the influence of their personal identity on the research by clarifying such interactions before the data collection or analysis process concludes.
Article summary
A positionality statement, also called reflexivity statement or identity statement, is a statement wherein a person (such as a researcher or teacher) reports and discusses their group identities, such as in a grant proposal or journal submission. They have become commonplace in certain fields of social science, especially within the United States. Positionality statements focus on an "author's racial, gender, class, or other self-identifications, experiences, and privileges", based on the idea that the author's identity can, intentionally or not, influence the results of their research. Scholars have commonly identified this risk in cases where the researcher is the sole point of connection between the audience and research subjects and, relatedly, when there exists a known power imbalance between the researcher and the research subject. The expectation and/or practice of writing a positionality statement can also inform the researcher of ways to mitigate the influence of their personal identity on the research by clarifying such interactions before the data collection or analysis process concludes.
Key claims
No claims recorded.
Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.