Researcher Positionality

Abstract

This chapter presents researcher positionality within the context of two systematic methods of inquiry for the examination of self-as-subject: autoethnography and heuristic inquiry for doctoral-level research. These ways of knowing and understanding the lived experience of the self are meant to further inform not only the individual experience, but the collective or cultural experience at large. The articulation of researcher positionality is an essential precursor to doctoral inquiry, the supervision of which often requires doctoral research supervisor agency to oversee the heuristic introspection. While the doctoral scholar may not initially choose the approach as creative research, outcomes of the research may result in enhanced creative thinking and arts-based research products as representations of findings.