A Postcolonial Analysis of Researchers' Positionality, Subjectivity, and Reflexivity in International Educational Leadership Research

• In Event: 75.034 - Leadership From an International Lens

Abstract

Political activists and critical scholars argue that the history and legacy of colonization continue to influence most cultures, social structures, institutions, discourses, and people. Because colonial power is exerted not only through economic and political means, but also through the construction of knowledge, this study engaged postcolonial perspectives to analyze qualitative and quantitative international educational leadership research published over the last twenty-years focusing specifically on researchers’ articulated positionalities, subjectivities, and reflexivities. Results raised concern regarding the professed importance of researcher transparency, validity, and reliability within the field of educational leadership and the social sciences broadly, the obligations of scholars to conduct anti-oppressive research, and the efficacy of international educational leadership research to inform practice and policy.

Author

• Brandon Clark, Iowa State University