Positionality and self-reflexivity: Backyard qualitative research in Palestine

Abstract

Conducting qualitative, critical ethnographical research on disability in Palestine requires deep self-reflexivity, exploring positionality while claiming authorship. As a Palestinian conducting backyard research, I explored ways to conceptualize disability in light of language and macro factors related to Israeli occupation practices. While conducting interviews and observing, I learned to appreciate the advantages of being an insider and an outsider, and to be aware of the disadvantages of being both. Positionality and self-reflexivity helped me focus on my participants’ voices. Through exploring disability in Palestinian higher education, I realized I was not only the representative of the collective knowledge, but I was also reflecting on how my research was creating indigenous discourse and decolonizing methodologies that challenged being politically correct. This was especially true when using certain acceptable language and content in Western academic discourse. Positionality and reflection on my own feelings, as an outsider and an insider at the same time, were an essential part of the research, especially when participants were addressing questions on lived experiences, content, language, and concepts to use when describing macro and micro-related factors causing physical disabilities.