Who are the “Scholars” in “Scholarship?”: How Higher Education Researchers Represent Positionality in Their Studies

Despite the widespread incorporation of positionality statements in higher education qualitative scholarship, and their incremental increase in quantitative research, understandings of just what such statements “do” are not universally held. Moreover, concerns abound about who are the scholars that are typically asked to disclose aspects of the self in their statements and the potential consequences of doing so. Implementing a content analysis approach, this article examined how authors constructed positionality statements in published manuscripts across five higher education journals from 2018 to 2023. Findings illustrated the presence of positionality statements across methodology and journals. Moreover, we identified four functions that positionality statements served in the reviewed manuscripts: positionality as involving acknowledgment of self/process and monitoring bias, as knowledge to be drawn upon, as inspiration and motivation, as well as shaper of relationship dynamics. Informed by these findings, we provide implications to inform the field’s understanding and usage of positionality statements moving forward.