So you know what researcher positioning is and why it matters. Now comes the practical question: how do you actually write about it in your thesis? This is where many doctoral researchers get a bit stuck. You know you need to address your positionality, but it can feel pretty darn awkward writing about yourself in what’s supposed to be a scholarly document. Here are eight points to help you start.

Find the Right Balance

The first challenge is striking the right balance between being personal and staying scholarly. You need to share enough about yourself that readers (particularly your examiners) understand where you’re coming from, but you’re not writing an autobiography. The test is relevance. Ask yourself: Does this aspect of my background, identity or experience matter for understanding how I’ve approached this research? If yes, include it. If not, leave it out.

For instance, if you’re researching experiences of migration and you’re an immigrant yourself, that’s clearly relevant. If you’re researching mathematics lectures and you happen to love rock climbing, probably not so much (unless your research is specifically about risk-taking and even then that would be a stretch). Be selective about what you share.

You also want to avoid the two extremes of being either too apologetic or too defensive. Some researchers write about their positioning as though they’re confessing to a series of flaws: “Unfortunately, I am an insider to this context, which might bias my data generation.” That’s not a helpful tone. Your positioning isn’t a weakness to apologise for. At the other extreme, some researchers write as though they’re defending themselves against imagined criticism: “While some might question my ability to be objective, I took numerous steps to ensure rigour.” That sounds defensive and draws more attention to potential concerns than necessary.

Instead, aim for a tone that’s confident, assertive. You’re simply explaining your position and how you’ve worked with it thoughtfully. Something like: “As a university lecturer with fifteen years’ experience, I brought insider knowledge of classroom dynamics that informed my interview questions and helped me notice subtle patterns in the data. I also remained alert to the risk of taking certain practices for granted and used peer debriefing sessions to test my interpretations.”

Be Specific Rather Than Generic

One of the most common mistakes in positioning statements is being too vague. Lots of researchers write sentences like: “I understand that my background and experiences shaped my interpretation of the data.” Well, yes. But that doesn’t tell your reader/examiner anything useful. Which aspects of your background mattered? How did they shape your interpretation? What did you do about it?

Get concrete. Instead of saying “My professional experience influenced my perspective,” say something like: “My ten years working in universities gave me familiarity with the policy landscape participants referenced, meaning I could follow their accounts without needing extensive background explanation. However, this familiarity also meant I needed to actively question assumptions I held about what ‘everyone knows’ about university sector challenges.”

The same goes for epistemological positioning. Don’t just say “I adopted an interpretivist approach.” Explain what that meant for how you designed and conducted your research. Did it lead you to prioritise participant meaning-making? Did it shape how you thought about truthfulness in research? Did it influence your choice to use narrative analysis rather than code for themes? Make the connections explicit.

Weave Positioning Through – Don’t Dump It All at Once

While you’ll probably have a dedicated section on researcher positioning in your methods chapter, and perhaps touch on it in your introduction (or vice versa), don’t deal with once and then forget about. Positioning should thread through your entire thesis – where relevant.

When you’re describing your research design, explain how your positioning influenced your choices. When you’re presenting results, acknowledge where your interpretation might reflect your particular lens. In your discussion chapter for example, you might consider how a researcher positioned differently might read the data in other ways. This doesn’t mean constantly referring back to yourself, but it does mean maintaining and demonstrating reflexive awareness throughout.

Some researchers also include brief reflexive notes when they’re presenting particularly complex or contested interpretations in their findings chapters. For example: “My reading of this exchange as collaborative rather than hierarchical likely reflects my own commitment to distributed leadership frameworks. Readers working from different theoretical positions might interpret the same interaction as maintaining traditional power structures through subtle discursive moves.” This kind of comment shows sophisticated engagement with how positioning shapes interpretation.

Use First Person Wisely

You’re going to need to use first person (“I”) when writing about your positioning. There’s no way around it without creating tortured passive constructions or referring to yourself as “the researcher” in the third person, which sounds odd and creates unnecessary distance. Most contemporary academic writing accepts first person use in qualitative research, particularly in methods chapters and reflexive sections.

That said, you don’t need to use “I” in every sentence. You can vary your phrasing. Sometimes “this research,” “the study,” or “the analysis” works just fine as a subject. The key is not to tie yourself in knots trying to avoid first person, but also not to overuse it to the point where every sentence starts with “I.”

Connect the Personal and Epistemological

One thing that strengthens positioning statements is showing how your personal position and your epistemological commitments connect to each other. They’re not separate boxes to tick. Often, your personal experiences and professional background have shaped what kinds of epistemological traditions make sense to you and feel right for your research.

For instance, you might write something like: “My experience working with marginalised young people made me sceptical of research approaches that claim detached objectivity. This understanding sits well with critical participatory methodologies that centre participant voice and view knowledge production as inherently political.” Or: “Having worked across multiple national education systems, I became interested in how policy meanings shift across contexts, which led me to social constructionist approaches that treat policy not as fixed text but as something actively interpreted and enacted.”

Making these connections helps your positioning feel coherent rather than like a list of unrelated facts about yourself.

Address Potential Concerns Head-On

If there’s an obvious question readers might have about your positioning, address it directly rather than hoping they won’t notice. Are you researching your own organisation? Acknowledge the ethical complexities and explain how you navigated them. Do you differ from your participants in significant ways that might affect rapport or understanding? Discuss how you worked to build trust and check your interpretations. Does your theoretical framework have known critics? Show you’re aware of the debates.

This doesn’t mean being defensive or writing lengthy justifications for every choice. It does mean showing that you’ve thought seriously about the implications of your position and made deliberate decisions about how to work with it. Examiners and other readers appreciate honesty and integrity.

Keep Revising as Your Understanding Develops

Now some possibly tricky news. You may not fully understand your own positioning until you’re quite far into your research, possibly even into thesis writing. That’s very OK and not uncommon. As you engage with your data and your analysis develops, you’ll gain new insights into what you brought to the research and how it shaped what you found.

This means you might need to revisit and revise your positioning statement multiple times. The version you write in your first year is preliminary and likely to be somewhat generic. As you progress, you can make it more specific and nuanced. Don’t be afraid to go back and strengthen this section once you have clearer understandings about how your positioning played out in practice. Hindsight is useful!

Remember the Purpose

Finally, keep in mind what you’re trying to achieve with a positioning statement. You’re not trying to prove you’re unbiased (you’re not, nobody is). You’re not trying to undermine your own findings by highlighting all the ways you might be wrong. You’re establishing transparency and trustworthiness by showing readers exactly where you’re coming from so they can understand and evaluate your work appropriately.

Positioning statements give readers confidence in your research because they demonstrate you’ve been thoughtful, honest, and reflexive throughout the process. They show that you understand that all research is written from somewhere by someone and that you’ve worked with your particular perspective in a rigorous and deliberate way. That’s the goal to keep in sight as you write.