Braiding Positionality: Toward a Collaborative Praxis of Living Multiple Identities

• In Event: Indigenous Identities, Positionalities, and Solidarities in Education

Abstract

In this paper, we describe braiding our positionalities as an approach to center our multiplicitous identities and ways of being, and to counter individualistic processes of reflecting on and narrating one’s positionality (Wrenn, 2014). As two doctoral students from Indigenous (Diné) and non-Indigenous backgrounds, we learned and wrote about one another and ourselves using critical dialogical reflexivity to guide our collaboration (Mortari, 2015). Using Diné and feminist perspectives to conceptualize our subjectivities as interwoven and dialogically-produced, we constructed joint narratives of positionality as a braid. A middle strand representing ‘theory’ illuminates bridges and gaps in our lived experiences and subject positions. This collaboration calls for a new approach to narrating positionality, constructed through relational and critical dialogue with others.

Authors

• Cory Alan Buckband, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Charlton Long, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author