Some aspects of positionality are culturally ascribed or generally regarded as being fixed, for example, gender, race, skin-color, nationality. Others, such as political views, personal life-history, and experiences, are more fluid, subjective, and contextual (Chiseri-Strater, 1996).

Connecting positionality to epistemology simultaneously empowers and disempowers individual expertise in the classroom. Students are empowered because they recognize that they have unique claims to knowledge that others can not deny. We come to know the world more fully by knowing how we know the world.

What does positionality mean? Positionality is the social and political context that creates your identity in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability status. Positionality also describes how your identity influences, and potentially biases, your understanding of and outlook on the world.

Social Justice Usage Positionality is the notion that personal values, views, and location in time and space influence how one understands the world. In this context, gender, race, class, and other aspects of identities are indicators of social and spatial positions and are not fixed, given qualities.

Positions act on the knowledge a person has about things, both material and abstract. Issues of positionality challenge the notions of value-free research that have dismissed human subjectivity from the processes that generate knowledge and identities.

“Positionality is the notion that personal values, views, and location in time and space influence how one understands the world. In this context, gender, race, class, and other aspects of identities are indicators of social and spatial positions and are not fixed, given qualities.

Teaching in a racialized society means that each instructor will be bringing with them an understanding about race and ethnicity developed through their own experiences as racialized individuals.

Knowing where I come from and my positionality on the importance of education allows me to understand my views and how they affect my research. I would watch my parents come home from work exhausted but always find time to read and research topics of interest to them.

Positionality requires the researcher to acknowledge and locate their views, values, and beliefs in relation to the research process. It is a self-reflection on how their views and position might have influenced the research design, the research process, and interpretation of research findings.

Positionality is an important consideration in action research because it not only directly influences how the research is carried out but also determines the prevailing outcomes and results—whose voice(s) will be represented in the final reports or decisions.

CHW positionality enhances retention and follow-up. CHWs brought community perspectives and voices to research process. CHW connection to community resources ensured maximized participant benefit from the intervention.

Positionality generally refers to what researchers know and believe about the world around them and is shaped by their experiences in social and political contexts. A researcher’s positionality shapes their interpretations, understandings, and beliefs about their research as well as other’s research.

Positionality theory, a concept that emerged from postmodern feminist theory, suggests that identity is fluid and dynamic and affected by historical and social changes. Furthermore, the article reviews some challenges that are likely faced by researchers using positionality theory to study leadership.

Reflexivity generally refers to the examination of one’s own beliefs, judgments and practices during the research process and how these may have influenced the research. If positionality refers to what we know and believe then reflexivity is about what we do with this knowledge.

Research bias happens when the researcher skews the entire process towards a specific research outcome by introducing a systematic error into the sample data. In other words, it is a process where the researcher influences the systematic investigation to arrive at certain outcomes.

Three types of bias can be distinguished: information bias, selection bias, and confounding. These three types of bias and their potential solutions are discussed using various examples.

Avoiding Bias

• Use Third Person Point of View.
• Choose Words Carefully When Making Comparisons.
• Be Specific When Writing About People.
• Use People First Language.
• Use Gender Neutral Phrases.
• Use Inclusive or Preferred Personal Pronouns.
• Check for Gender Assumptions.

Bias in research can cause distorted results and wrong conclusions. Such studies can lead to unnecessary costs, wrong clinical practice and they can eventually cause some kind of harm to the patient.

Bias can damage research, if the researcher chooses to allow his bias to distort the measurements and observations or their interpretation. When faculty are biased about individual students in their courses, they may grade some students more or less favorably than others, which is not fair to any of the students.

There are ways, however, to try to maintain objectivity and avoid bias with qualitative data analysis:

1. Use multiple people to code the data.
2. Have participants review your results.
3. Verify with more data sources.
4. Check for alternative explanations.
5. Review findings with peers.

Information that is biased or incorrect loses its value. When information has no value, it is of no use to us. We need to be able to distinguish between information that is valuable (of use to us) and that which is not.

Information bias is any systematic difference from the truth that arises in the collection, recall, recording and handling of information in a study, including how missing data is dealt with. Major types of information bias are misclassification bias, observer bias, recall bias and reporting bias.

A reliable source is one that provides a thorough, well-reasoned theory, argument, discussion, etc. based on strong evidence. Scholarly, peer-reviewed articles or books -written by researchers for students and researchers. These sources may provide some of their articles online for free.

#1 There is no quality assurance when it comes to information found on the Internet: Anyone can post anything. #2 In most cases, information found on the web has not been checked for accuracy. #3 Not all web sites are created equal. They differ in quality, purpose, and bias.

Unreliable Sources = SOURCES THAT CAN BE ALTERED BY ANYONE.

There are several main criteria for determining whether a source is reliable or not.

1. 1) Accuracy. Verify the information you already know against the information found in the source.
2. 2) Authority. Make sure the source is written by a trustworthy author and/or institution.
3. 3) Currency.
4. 4) Coverage.