A Double Dutch Methodology: (Re)conceptualizing Qualitative Researcher Positionality

• In Event: Roundtable Session 69
  In Roundtable Session: Researcher Positionality

Abstract

Drawing on a multiyear ethnographic study of a youth radio collective enacting critical literacies to organize a radio program focused on important issues in the lives of young people, the presenter describes her shifting researcher positionality as akin to the sport of “double-dutch,” which requires a keen awareness of knowing when and where to enter the space between two twirling ropes. The researcher is at once a participant observer, a teacher, a community organizer, and a youth advocate. This paper proposes a reconceptualized methodological stance for sociocultural qualitative research that seeks to acknowledge and learn from the shifting orientation that many contemporary literacy scholars experience in their research community. The roundtable conversation is a methodological discussion grounded in empirical research.

Author

• Keisha L. Green, Rutgers University - New Brunswick/Piscataway