Reflecting on Positionality
Positioning Ourselves: Navigating Insider–Outsider Roles in Research
A Joint Reflection from the UNESCO Chair Postgraduate Research Forum Panel
Authors:
Madhuri Kamtam (University of East Anglia, School of Global Development)
Hodges Zacharia (University of East Anglia, School of Global Development)
John Zimba (University of East Anglia, School of Education and Lifelong Learning)
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At the Postgraduate Research Forum panel "Positioning Ourselves: Navigating Insider–Outsider Roles in Research," hosted by the UNESCO Chair in Adult Literacy and Learning for Social Transformation on the 29th May, 2025 at the University of East Anglia (UEA), Madhuri Kamtam, John Zimba, Hodges Zacharia and Mohammad Maleki came together to reflect on a shared yet deeply personal question: What does it mean to do research that is shaped by who we are? The session was chaired by Dr Lauren Boutell, who recently completed her PhD in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning at UEA.
With funding from the UEA Faculty for Social Sciences’ Research Activity and Culture Fund for postgraduate-led research, the session aimed at advancing cross-disciplinary learning and advancing the culture of collaboration and innovation. The session provided formal and informal platform for meaningful, inclusive, impactful and deeper connections across schools and within the UEA community with over 40 postgraduate students (both research and taught) and staff in attendance.
The panel was an attempt to speak openly, sometimes uncomfortably, about how our identities shaped our work, our relationships with participants, and the way we carry our research into the world. In this blog, we want to carry forward that conversation, not as a formal summary but as a living, breathing reflection of what it felt like to be in the field, at the margins, and often—on the edge of belonging.
Who We Are, Where We’re Coming From
We began the panel by introducing ourselves not just as PhD researchers, but as people shaped by particular histories, geographies, and struggles.
Madhuri Kamtam, a final-year PhD candidate in the School of Global Development, examines the impact of labour laws and the implementation of welfare benefits for women beedi workers in rural Telangana, India—right next to the village she was born and raised in. “As a Dalit woman and daughter of a beedi worker,” she said,
“my research isn’t just about the community—it’s from within it.”
This shaped everything from the questions she asked to the emotional labour of fieldwork.
Hodges Zacharia is a Malawian PhD candidate researching boys’ disengagement from education and their transitions to adulthood in rural Malawi. Using qualitative and participatory methods, Hodges created spaces where boys could speak openly about their lives. “I carried my dual identity to the field,” he shared, “as both a local and a foreigner, both trusted and unknown.”
John Zimba is a final year PhD candidate focusing on rural women’s livelihoods and literacy practices in Zambia. Having previously worked in the community as a development practitioner, John returned as a researcher—but that shift in role was not always easy. “People still saw me as a relative, a friend, an NGO worker. Abandoning my previous identities wasn’t easy.”
Fieldwork Moments: When Positionality Hits Home
Our identities didn’t stay neatly in the background—they shaped every encounter, sometimes in painful, intimate ways.
For Madhuri, one such moment came when she was denied access to village-level data despite formal credentials. “A government official scolded the local office for sending ‘Madhuri from Metpally.’ They knew my village and colony—so they knew my caste.” She was no longer an anonymous researcher; she was a Dalit woman returning with questions that some people did not want asked.
“Academic freedom? It’s a myth, at least for some of us,”
she told the audience.
Hodges shared two powerful stories from his time with Form 2 boys in Dedza. One had become a father at 15; another was struggling to pay his school fees and supporting a mentally ill brother. “I found myself paying one boy’s fees, not out of obligation, but out of something deeper—care, kinship, the impossibility of being neutral.” He reflected on the shifting nature of his role: “I was a friend, a brother, a listener, a researcher. Positionality isn’t static—it moves with you.”
John recalled being pulled into a women’s savings activity during fieldwork, where he was asked to do calculations because the women didn’t trust the arithmetic skills of other members in the group to perform the task. “I had to insist they continue leading. If I took over, I would be replicating the very power dynamics I was trying to study.” As a man in women’s spaces, he was constantly aware of his presence and its impact.
Navigating Roles: Insider, Outsider, and Everything In Between
Being a researcher in the field often meant juggling multiple roles and expectations—some chosen, some imposed.
Madhuri recalled an interview with a dominant caste woman who initially welcomed her, even hoped she could mentor her daughter. “Then she asked my caste. After that, her tone changed. The lunch and tea she promised never came.” Madhuri’s refusal to hide her identity was a deliberate, political act. “Her walking away is also data,” she said. “It tells a story about who gets to be heard.”
Hodges took intentional steps to reduce power differences with the boys he worked with: asking them to use his first name, dressing like them, and spending time in their informal spaces—video showrooms, lakefronts, village shops. “They called me ‘Hodges’, ‘our friend’, even ‘fisherman’. These bonds opened up deep conversations—but also raised eyebrows among teachers, who saw me as ‘aimless’ or lacking boundaries.” Balancing connection with professionalism became a daily act of negotiation.
John reflected on how being seen as a “man from the city” gave him both access and limits. “Sometimes, being an outsider let women speak more freely, but it also brought expectations and ethical dilemmas—could I offer funding? Be a counsellor? Facilitate a project?” Navigating these projections became part of his ethical practice.
Reflections from the Panel
During the Q&A, one comment stood out: how rare it was to hear researchers speak so openly about their identities in academic spaces. That sentiment lingered with us. For each of us, speaking honestly about who we are was not easy, but it felt necessary. Because silence around identity doesn’t create neutrality; it creates exclusion.
What We’ve Learned
Reflecting on positionality wasn’t an academic exercise, it was the thread that held our work together.
For Madhuri, it meant practicing epistemic justice. “Being open about who I am meant risking discrimination. But it also meant centering voices like my mother’s, knowledge that is often erased.”
Hodges reminded us that positionality is not a label—it’s a responsibility. “It’s about asking: Who am I amplifying? Who am I ignoring? What are the consequences of being seen the way I am?”
John emphasised that positionality helps us navigate the power embedded in research relationships.
“Our biases, whether conscious or not, shape what stories we tell, and whose voices we legitimise.”
As we reflect back on the panel, we don’t claim to have all the answers. But we believe that honest, messy, lived discussions of positionality, like this one, are necessary if we want to create research that is more just, more grounded, and more human.