Positionality ("Subjective I") statement outline

Positionality statement is the position I occupy in the study

1. My lens: Critical social theory / social constructionism
2. Research beliefs: process of research changes participants and researcher. Constructed meaning is real for participants. When I (researcher) interacts with participants, I make my own meaning, which will be different from their meaning. I believe that through research self-determinism can increase, harmful imposted structures can be identified, located, and removed or struggled against.
Specifically for this study, I believe in the power of technology to democratize access to information, allowing students to make meaning in more self-determinant ways, and that teachers can support this.
3. Potential influences: I am entering existing research atmospheres, and although I am linked to the organization with which the educators are familiar, I am a new face. Also, I am newly a formal researcher, which means that my positions and views may change through the course of the study; also I am more likely to see my research stance be modified during the process of the project.
4. Position I choose to occupy: collaborator, observer, resource for participants. In relation to the context, I am a visitor in their school. I am also a proponent of technology in the classroom, due to first hand experience and larger viewpoint.
5. Philosophical stance (p.65): Congruence-with-theory: theory informs framework and guides methods.

Possible influences on communication:

• Our institute funded the technology (could lead to gratitude/aim to please)
• The educators are working under an agreement with the institute (they do not want to be seen as straying outside of agreement)
• The educators themselves are located as leaders of participatory action research projects (they have their own research priorities) (they have knowledge of how critical research progresses)
• Educators working in the field may feel protective / defensive of their process

Possible influences on data interpretation:

• New to doing formal research: shifting views as the project progresses due to new inputs
• I'm in the process of learning more about the schools and history of the teachers' involvement with the research institution and their practice in relation to technology

Personal stance:

Experience: Former classroom teacher. Current research assistant. Technology promoter. Scientific (positivist) background. Long education background (student, university teaching assistant, secondary and collegiate tutor, elementary science camp instructor, high school: campus monitor, paraeducator, science teacher, coach, bilingual school teacher). 

What parts of my experience may influence? Time as high school teacher in US. There will be a familiarity, ability to understand education shorthand, etc. This will also be aided by my position as part of the organization that works with them bringing in tech and with research.

Values: individualism, democratizationself-determinism, freedom from imposition, freedom to choose.

Philosophical stance: See This Post