Positionality statements are relevant for all research

Positionality statements are increasingly mandated by some journals and publishers.

These statements accompany empirical work and invite authors to articulate their social, identity, methodological, and epistemological locations, to provide much-needed context (or “position”) for their research. This practice is becoming more common, and it originates from reflexive qualitative research.

We would argue that, despite their critics, positionality statements are relevant to all research – whether qualitative, quantitative, or both – because all research is ultimately shaped, coloured, and contextualised by the people who conduct it.

The value of reflexivity

Reflexivity is the process by which researchers explicitly and thoughtfully consider how their background, epistemological and ethical positions, worldview, politics, and personal experiences contribute to, shape, and colour their research process. Reflexivity is increasingly recognised as central to responsible and rigorous research practice, because acknowledging one’s subjectivity is seen as a benefit – or even a toolkit and a resource – rather than a detriment, in this context.

While reflexivity has a long history in qualitative traditions, recent shifts in higher education have encouraged reflexive engagement within quantitative research as well (for example in some work we’ve done, such as this beginner’s guide). This is a promising and important way forward.

Quantitative approaches and researchers do not exist outside of social context. Therefore, choices about research questions, data sources, analytical techniques, and interpretation are all influenced by researchers’ epistemological commitments, their lived experiences, and subjectivities. After all, every researcher has a story (often a personal one) for how they came to (and through) their research topic.

Positioning positionality

One emerging mechanism for expressing and documenting reflexivity is the positionality statement. Positionality statements allow researchers to explicitly reflect on and communicate how their subjectivities, identities, values, experiences, and epistemological positioning shape their research questions, methodological decisions, and interpretation of their findings. We would argue that greater reflexivity and transparency is needed across all methodological traditions, including (and, in some cases, especially) in quantitative research, where assumptions of neutrality or objectivity can obscure the role of the researcher in knowledge production.

The literature, which we are happy to see is growing rapidly, currently highlights three reasons why positionality statements are useful for higher education researchers.

The first concerns equality, diversity, and inclusion. By documenting the process of reflexivity, positionality statements encourage researchers to confront how their work may uphold or challenge existing inequalities and to reflect on whose perspectives are centred or marginalised through their research choices. This logic applies, in theory, regardless of whether a study uses interviews, surveys, experiments, or administrative data because decisions about samples, categories, and comparisons are never socially neutral.

The second reason relates to rigour and transparency. By articulating one’s positionality explicitly, researchers make visible aspects of the research process that are often left implicit (or on the editing room floor). This transparency has been proposed as a way of strengthening rigour, allowing readers to better understand how knowledge claims are produced and how alternative assumptions might lead to different conclusions. Far from weakening research, we argue that this kind of openness supports more robust, accountable, and transparent scholarship.

And the third reason concerns integrity and ethics. Researchers have argued that positionality statements can support more ethical engagement with research by encouraging ongoing reflection on power, responsibility, and potential harms. Ethics is not confined to formal approval procedures – instead, it should be embedded in everyday research practices, including how findings are framed and communicated. Thinking reflexively can surface some of these considerations.

Positionality statement in quantitative work

Despite their growing presence, positionality statements in quantitative research remain inconsistently applied and under-theorised. This is concerning, given that some journals now encourage or mandate their inclusion.

It is increasingly important, therefore, that positionality statements are done well and researchers are supported adequately. As others have noted, positionality statements are often reduced to brief descriptions or checklists of a researcher’s social identity or background, without deeper engagement with how those positionalities influence the research process. When this happens, positionality risks becoming tokenistic rather than a meaningful reflexive practice.

Towards reflexive (quantitative) research

There is growing interest now in better understanding how researchers currently use positionality statements and what functions these statements serve within published research.

Between us, for example, we are currently running metascience projects that examine how and why positionality statements are used, particularly within quantitative higher education research. This work builds on broader conceptual frameworks for understanding positionality in psychology and related fields, and reflects a wider movement towards more reflexive quantitative methods,

What this emerging body of work makes clear is that positionality statements are not about personal disclosure for its own, performative sake. They are also, importantly, not about questioning the legitimacy of particular methods or ranking researchers according to identity.

Instead, positionality statements (if done well) are about situating knowledge claims and acknowledging that research is produced by people working within specific social, institutional, and epistemic contexts. By recognising that positionality statements are relevant to all research, this supports a much more transparent, rigorous, and ethically engaged research culture across disciplines. In this sense, positionality statements are not an optional add-on. If we are clever, they could be an integral part of what it means to do rigorous, thoughtful, ethical research.