questions

Question: even though we are allow to be subjective. I am still wonder whether we are allow to use strong language in our essay?

positioning

Since it is nearly impossible to be absolutely objective in fieldworking and writing ethnographic paper, people tend to use the positioning method to state their background and perspective to make the readers understand that the paper is written based on certain perspective view points and the readers have to be objective about it. In my opinion, it is a good way to solve the problem. Instead of being objective, it is much easier to give out one’s subjective opinions and make the paper even clearer written than trying to be objective, which is nearly impossible.   

The handout paper states “Positioning: reading and writing about yourself.”(130) In essence, the method of positioning is to state how your subjective response influences you analyze your data (131). There are three different ways of positioning. They are fixed positions, subjective positions and textual positions. All of these ways of positioning have certain degrees of influence on how the researchers see the data. First, The fixed positions are one’s personal facts, which are unchangeable. For instant, class and nationality. The subjective positions are one’s life experience and past history. At last, the textual positions are the type of language the researcher use to present his data (131 & 132). I think it is important to share some researcher’s background information with the readers because it could build up the writers’ credibility and readers could also have general sense of what the writer’s belief is.

In the article “A Boy And His Wall”, Ralph uses all of the three positions to tell readers’ how his subjective response affects him analyze his data. He states his profession is a language therapist and he has worked with other LD children before. It builds up his credibility and also readers know that he is analyzing his data from a language therapist’s perspective. 

Fieldworking Self Excerpt and Angels Town Response

According to the article, positioning includes “all the subjective responses that affect how the researcher sees data” (131). Since the observer is part of the person or culture being observed, positioning is important to consider in ethnographic writing. There are three distinct types of positioning in which we situate ourselves in relationship to the study we are conducting. These include: fixed positions, subjective positions, or textual positions (131). Age, gender, class, nationality, and race can all be considered fixed factors that do not change during the course of the study, but still influence how and what we observe. Personal experiences and life in general are subjective factors that may also affect the way in which we observe. For example, let’s say you are doing a research project on dogs. Let’s say that when you were a child, a dog bit you. In this case, personal experiences with dogs are going to affect your research. In this scenario, you are likely to have biases and think that because one dog bit you when you were little, all dogs bite and are therefore bad. The last type of position includes textual positioning. Textual positioning is how you position yourself in the field of study with respect to the people you study, and language you use to represent what you see.

In Ralph Cintron’s ethnography “A Boy and His Wall”, fixed positioning, subjective positioning, and textual positioning can all be observed. Cintron states that his feeling’s became shaped by Valerio when he was with Valerio and his family (99). Here, he is positioning himself as a middle-class American Male, a factor that indeed does not change during his research. This is an example of fixed positioning. Citron also uses subjective positioning on page 100 when explaining how Valerio feels about the word chero, when he states “Valerio hated the word, and his animosity suggested, to me at least, personal encounters that had stung him” (100). Here, Cintron states that Valerio’s life experiences had influenced his feelings on the word chero. Textual positioning is also apparent in the first couple pages of the ethnography when Cintron describes Valerio for the first time. He explains that Valerio was born in Mexico but arrived in the states with his parents. According to Cintron, Valerio’s household, a small two-bedroom apartment that housed seven people, was too small for seven people. When describing Valerio’s household and how he shares the same small bedroom with his two brothers, Cintron’s word choice is painting a picture of a family from a lower socioeconomic class level.

Question: Did Cintron’s textual positioning enhance or inhibit his credibility in this article?

Positioning Response

Positioning is writing and reading about yourself.  It is the process of incorporating your own views and background into your ethnographic research and writing. It is important to make sure that you aren't deceiving your audience by hiding your own biases.  It is also important because as a researcher you are observing with your own assumptions, preconceptions and feelings and you need to remind yourself of this to keep your observations relevant.  Ralph Cintron uses positioning to compare his school experience with Valerio's.  He reminds himself of his background and uses his own experiences to relate and compare to what he observes in his research.

Question:
Do you think that using positioning will make your research too subjective?  How do you balance using positioning and being objective?

Response to Debra's post

Sorry, I can't add comments for some reason. The paper on positioning helped me understand the benefits of subjectivity. I had always thought of subjectivity as something to avoid in my research, bu this paper illustrated that subjectivity is an integral part of an ethnographer's research. Subjectivity makes research personalized, so that it is unique to the ethnographer as well as the study.

Positioning is how the researcher responds to the data. Positioning comes in three different forms: fixed, subjective, and textual. Fixed positions are personal facts about the researcher that can affect how the researcher sees the data. It is important to realize these positions because they usually go unexamined which can lead to an unwanted subjectivity. Subjective positions are how one’s life experiences can affect the data. Sometimes new experiences can open one’s eyes to a new perspective on the data. Other times one’s experiences can shield new perspectives. The researcher needs to try to gain many different perspectives to combat this problem. Textual positions are the words and the way the researcher describes the field. This determines the researcher’s credibility.

Ralph takes a position of Valerio’s friend and mentor. This allows Valerio to be comfortable with Ralph so Ralph can ask questions. In addition, Ralph understands his fixed and subjective positions. He understands that there are two cultural forces impacting Valerio’s education and how Valerio does not have a disability. Valerio just has a hard time learning a second language. Because Ralph understands these things, he is able to look deeper into Valerio’s life and find the reasons why Valerio decorates his walls with certain posters and items. Its important that Ralph can sift through the data that is unimportant to find what is connected. However, Ralph does use his own perspective to help out Valerio’s LD teacher. This is a good example of how Ralph balances his perspectives.

Question: Did you find the Positioning paper to be helpful on what adds to the data and what distracts from the data?

Positioning and Angel's Town

Positioning directly reflects how the researcher sees the data and includes subjective responses into the fieldwork. The three types; fixed, subjective, and textual, encourage interpretation and connection of perspectives. Fixed positions are personal facts, often taken for granted or unexamined. Subjective positions relate how personal events may affect the research. Last, textual positions are the style or language choices the writers make to represent their experience. In general, positioning can be beneficial to the writing as long as the writer understands how positioning affects aspects of the ethnography and incorporates clear awareness of the use so readers can see the claims being made are not universally agreeable.

In Citron’s ethnography “A Boy and His Wall,” these elements of positioning can be observed. First, the presence of fixed positioning is evident when Ralph is describing his generalization of the characteristics of Latinos, and it seems it also affects his understanding some of the general information he is given since words are posted in Spanish in italics. Subjective elements were apparent when he mentions parts of his life growing up in the United States and his feelings on education. When Citron mentions “my feelings were being shaped by theirs,” (99) he is expressing the closeness in proximity he had to Valerio and his family and the feelings and opinions that resulted from his positioning both subjectively and textually. Because he mentions this, it makes readers understand that his choice may reflect the outcome of his ethnography and he is aware that it probably swayed his viewpoints and resultant data differently than if he was further removed.

Question: How can we avoid excessive positioning within our ethnographies? Citron recognizes that he is being affected by the Martinez family and his writing may reflect that, when we are writing, would it be helpful to include when we are aware of positioning tactics that are swaying the way we see things as opposed to how another may see them?