Positionality

Insider or Outsider Role

In action research, the concept of positionality is referenced in terms of the researcher’s insider or outsider relationship to the community engaged in the inquiry. Kathryn Herr and Gary Anderson in their book on action research dissertations provide extensive discussion on the continuum of insider and outsider relationships. An insider is a researcher or participant who works for or is a member of the participant community, while an outsider (e.g. an academic researcher) is seen as a non-member. Herr and Anderson describe six positions along a continuum:

• 1.
  Insider (researcher studies own practice)
• 2.
  Insider in collaboration with other insiders
• 3.
  Insider(s) in collaboration with outsider(s)
• 4.
  Reciprocal collaboration (equal insider and outsider teams)
• 5.
  Outsider(s) in collaboration with insider(s) (non-equivalent relationships)
• 6.
  Outsider(s) studies

The first five ‘positions’ are consistent with the foundational principles of action research as a participatory and reflexive practice that involves researchers and participants in a process of co-inquiry to address identified problems, create change or explore opportunities. Researchers as outsiders (the sixth position) involves gathering data about others as objectified research subjects, a position more typical of traditional research.

Dimensions of Relatedness

Feminist ethnographers are particularly sensitive to the issues of positionality, defined in terms of the degree of relatedness of the researcher to the study participants along dimensions of culture, class, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, childhood lived experiences and so on. Insider researchers generally have more in common with participants than outsiders along many of these dimensions. Implicit in these conceptualizations of positionality is the notion of power and intentions. The closer the researcher is positioned to the participants, the more likely that there are common expectations, intentions and power equity.

Positionality is multidimensional, and it is not uncommon for the researcher(s) to be closely positioned to the participants on some dimensions and not on others. These disparities can create conflict, changing the process and outcomes of the study. Kimberly Huisman eloquently describes these tensions in her ethnographic study with Bosnian women. She closely identified with her participants as a woman, friend and confidante but found that they were on different platforms in terms of life experience, culture and goals (she was a graduate student completing her dissertation, while her participants were a part of refugee families struggling to create new lives). While Huisman was acutely aware of her outsider privileged status and the multitude of different values and world experiences, she strived to build a collaborative relationship with her participants as insiders—joining culturally where she had values in common as women. In the end, she completed her dissertation work and moved away, further accentuating the differences.

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