Positionality pedagogy as 'being' rather than 'doing': modeling justice and equity across all of a teacher's work¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 1 study (1 theoretical), q1 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article articulates an orientation in which teaching about justice and equity depends on the instructor's own authentic self-examination rather than on particular activities. The authors write that "our work is more about 'being' than 'doing'" and that teachers have "a responsibility to first demonstrate that vulnerability ourselves" before asking students to discuss how society's messages about race, gender, and sexual identity have impacted them. This framework positions instructor positionality as foundational to social justice pedagogy.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Instructors must demonstrate vulnerability themselves before asking students to be vulnerable in discussing race, gender, and sexual identity

Constraints¶

Target Learners¶

• higher education students

Target Learning Objectives¶

• understanding one's own story and developing openness to authentic stories of others

Claims¶

• The authors report that teachers' lives are enriched by students' deeper understanding of their own stories and openness to authentic stories of others [+W]
• The authors argue that analyzing power imbalances, misshapen structures, and hidden assumptions are familiar critical thinking tasks for hesitant readers [+W]
• The authors claim that making teachers' own mistakes, struggles, and fears central to the curriculum lessens students' fear of making mistakes in a new endeavor [+W]

Related Theories¶

• Critical service-learning model with three components: social change orientation, power redistribution, and authentic relationships

Examples¶

• Ask students to reflect on how they have been exposed to and impacted by society's messages about race, gender, and sexual identity, after the teacher has modeled vulnerability
• Start with Yourself (Identity Mapping)
• Teacher Racial Identity Work
• Four activity categories scaffold CRA learning from reflection to redesign

Key Sources¶

• Angelica Paz Ortiz, Beth Tarasawa, Jack Straton, Noelle Al-Mustaifry, Anmarie Trimble. (2019). Positionality in teaching: Implications for advancing social justice. Journal of General Education 67(1), 109-121. https://www.nwea.org/research/publication/positionality-in-teaching-implications-for-advancing-social-justice/