Explicating Positionality: A Journey of Dialogical and Reflexive Storytelling

• Published in: International Journal of Qualitative Methods
• Main Authors: Celina Carter MN, Jennifer L. Lapum PhD, Lynn F. Lavallée PhD, Lori Schindel Martin PhD
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2014
• Subjects: Social sciences (General); H1-99; First Nations
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691401300118; https://doaj.org/article/639a0bea19a04bd8b72725f585963b1c

Qualitative researchers must be aware of and explicit about their social background as well as political and ideological assumptions. To facilitate this awareness, we believe that researchers need to begin with their own story as they seek to understand the stories of others. Taking into account the vulnerable act of storytelling, it is salient to consider how to share personal narratives in an authentic way within academic settings. In this article, we share our process and reflections of engaging in reflexive and dialogical storytelling. The focus of the article is the re-storying of one researcher's experience as she and her research team explore her emotions and positionality prior to conducting research on First Nations men's narratives of identity. We integrate a series of methodological lessons concerning reflexivity throughout the re-storying.