The concept of positionality refers to internal and external characteristics about us that might affect our work. Our positionality is shaped by core identities such as race, age, ability, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and class, and by idiosyncratic characteristics like our lived experiences, education, nationality, personality, or physical appearance. In the domain of academic research, scholars use the concept of positionality to challenge notions of objectivity, and to reflect on the ethical, emotional, and practical consequences of their unique positionality on their work.

As a concept, positionality assumes who we are as a human, and interacts with the work that we do. This means that we can influence our work and that our work can influence us. Take for example Cherry et al. (2010) who reflexively find that their own “consumption identities” affected data collection, analyses, and written work about lifestyle and consumption politics. 

In higher education, positionality assumes who we are as individuals and affects who we are as educators. Our positionality affects how we teach, why we teach, what we teach, and our perceptions of and interactions with our students, including their perceptions of and interactions with us. Because positionality can have such a tremendous impact on an educator’s teaching philosophy and pedagogy practices, reflecting on our positionality is a powerful tool for teaching for social justice. 

Each of us approaches our work from our unique positionality. Our positionality affords us unique insights that can enrich our work as educators and scholars, but it also produces biases that limit our perspectives. Examining our positionality helps us to consider how social positions and power shape our identities and how we view and experience the world.  

To explore your positionality and its influence on you as an educator, please refer to the reading, Social Identity Map: A Reflexivity Tool for Practicing Explicit Positionality in Critical Qualitative Research (Jacobson & Mustafa, 2019). 

Then, using the instructions, take some time to complete the identity map to examine your salient identities and how they shape your pedagogical practices and student learning. Please click the link to make a copy of the identity map.

Tier 1: Identification of social identities

Instructions: While there are likely many facets that make up your identity (e.g. race, class, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, social class, national origin, first language, relationship status) as a starting point, consider mapping your identity with the categories given in the Tier 1 boxes. Feel free to change some if they are not salient to your identity, with the exception of race, which is critical to exploring our social identities.

Tier 2: How these social identities impact our lives - a first step to interrogating how they impact us as educators

Instructions: To reflect on Tier 2, you might consider how and when this identity confers power and privilege, or marginalization and disadvantage. You could also consider how it shapes your values, interpretation of events, or interactions with others.

Tier 3: Details that are tied to your experience related to this identity

Instructions: Reflect deeply on your experience with this identity, such as associated feelings or behaviors, your approaches to different situations, or your experiences with how others perceive you because of this identity. 

Reflect on the following questions:

1. Which social identities most strongly influence how you view the world, your neighborhood, and the grocery store from which you shop (or a place you frequent often)? Please include race as one of the identities to reflect on this question.

2. In the classroom, when you interact with your students, which of their identities are typically most salient to you? Why so?

3. When you look at the identities that most inform your world (question 1) and the students' identities that are most salient to you (question 2), what conclusion(s) are you able to make about your teaching practices? 

4. How could getting to know your students' lived experiences through their social identities change or inform your teaching relationship with them and the learning experience among students?

5. What are future aspirations for your teaching practice? How do you envision integrating your insights from mapping your social identities into your teaching goals?