Capstone Drew Su2016 Positionality Paper

Running head: POSITIONALITY PAPER
Positionality Paper
by Michael Drew
Graduate StudentSouth Dakota State University
Capstone Seminar
Dr. Katherine Bertolini
June 20, 2016
POSITIONALITY PAPER
Positionality Paper
Throughout the course of my experience within the field of education, I have often found
myself reflecting upon various aspects of my lessons, my interactions with students and parents,
and most recently, my time as a graduate student in the field of Educational Administration.
Many of the aforementioned activities have provided me with both great satisfaction and, at
times, great challenges, as I have not only seen successes through my work, but also learned
from failures. I feel as though exploring my identity, my successes and my failures have helped
me to become better at my craft and my personal and professional goal of helping and promoting
the successes of others, which are fundamental parts of education. This reflection is intended to
delve into some of these experiences, how they have shaped me as an educator, a future
administrator and a lifelong learner, and how I will continue to apply what I have learned in my
masters program in order to better serve my students, staff and stakeholders and to facilitate a
safe and effective educational environment within my school.
Discussion
Prior to beginning my graduate studies, I had not spent much time reflecting upon my
identity outside of the superficial aspects of likes and dislikes, activities, political opinions and
career goals; however, knowledge of self was an integral part of many courses in my program,
and I found myself forced to look inward at my own identity multiple times. I have always been
a white, male, heterosexual, lower middle class citizen of the upper Midwestern part of the
United States and whether I looked back upon my time living in South Dakota, Minnesota and
Iowa, the 19 homes I have lived in, or my career as an educator, little has changed in these basic
POSITIONALITY PAPER
characteristics; however, I have learned through my continuing education that there is more to
my identity than this. I learned that because of my race, gender and class, I have been provided
with a very different lens with which to view the world than someone who even has one
difference in these three traits. Exploring the various components of identity in my graduate
work was eye-opening, and immediately began to positively impact my interactions with my
students and their families. As my view of my own identity evolved, I became more aware of
how the unique lenses of others influence their respective views of the world and their own
successes and failures, and this helped me greatly over the past three years with developing
approaches to successfully reach some of the most challenging students of my career.
As a traveling teacher who has worked with hundreds of students and dozens of
administrators in my career, I have had wonderful opportunities to see the successes and
challenges of administrators, and how they affected students in my classroom, on a scale not
experienced by most other teachers with a career the length of mine. From schools located in
affluent demographic areas, with relatively few concerns about student achievement and
budgetary issues, to small Title I/English Language Learner (ELL) Center schools, each
administrator has had a unique student body, staff and stakeholder group with which to work,
and most of these administrators have managed to create very functional educational
environments within their respective buildings. My experience as a graduate student in
Educational Administration has provided me with additional knowledge regarding the intricacies
and influences upon administrative practices and policy, and I feel as though I have
simultaneously gained more respect for what my administrators go through on a daily basis, as
well as greater ability to think critically about what does, and does not, work with regard to the
POSITIONALITY PAPER
creation and implementation of building-level policies, and has helped me to develop my own
administrative philosophy.
Since I began my graduate studies, I have found myself moving away from conversations
with my teaching colleagues which may be focused upon complaining about situations, students
or administration, and towards conversations which involve problems requiring specific
solutions. Once these problems have been identified, I often find myself taking the lead in
exploring, determining and implementing solutions to them, often utilizing resources in the
community, and due to this increased leadership activity, multiple colleagues have made
statements to me indicating that they would enjoy working with me as their administrator in the
future. I attribute this interest and ability to troubleshoot problems to an in-depth integration of
Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) Standard 4, which involves [promoting]
the success of every student by collaborating with faculty and community members, responding
to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources on behalf of the
school by collecting and analyzing information pertinent to improvement of the schools
educational environment (ELCC, 2011). As a future administrator, I will continue to address
this standard, as well as the other ELCC standards, to the best of my ability in order to maintain a
relevant and effective educational environment for students.
The coursework in my Educational Administration program has sometimes brought direct
challenges to the way in which I teach and approach student and family situations, and has
caused me to take risks in learning and integrating new knowledge into my craft. An example of
this occurred when I was enrolled in EDFN747: Curriculum-Theory into Practice and studying
material by Wesley Null (2011) regarding liberal curriculum. Null (2011) explored the inequities
POSITIONALITY PAPER
with regard to curriculum including the LGBTQQQ culture, and as a teacher in an

overwhelmingly conservative state, I had not previously taken note of this type of inequity. Due
to the increased attention to the civil rights of individuals in this cultural group in recent years, as
well as the material within Null (2011), I was forced to look into ways in which I could possibly
address LGBTQQQ rights and culture as a current teacher and as a future administrator, a
thought process which was out of my comfort zone, but worth the risk of learning and
considering in order to create a more equitable and liberal curriculum for all of my current and
future students (Null, 2011).
Conclusion and Goals
As an educator and future administrator, I feel as though my coursework in Educational
Administration has had an immediate and permanent impact upon my contributions to the field
of education. I have been able to develop stronger and lasting connections with my students and
their families by learning how to understand and integrate a stronger knowledge of identity and
culture into my craft. My students feel more comfortable than ever with taking risks in my
classroom in order to learn new skills, as I have had my own recent experience with taking risks
in learning and have been more focused upon creating the right environment for my own
students to do the same. I have had more low-achieving students join my orchestra ensembles in
the past three years than I had in the previous ten years, and while some of these students
struggle more than their peers to succeed in performance on their instruments, the interactions
with these students, and the contributions they have made to their ensembles, have made their
presence invaluable to their peers, and to me as their teacher and director.
POSITIONALITY PAPER
My goals are to continue to look for ways to make my classroom a safe and effective
environment for students to take risks in learning, to extend this to the building level as a future
administrator, and to integrate my administrative philosophy that all students will excel when
effective teaching and leadership are combined with high expectations, clear goals and parent
collaboration. My coursework has provided me with a solid foundation from which to build a
career as an administrator, and I look forward to continuing to help and promote the successes of
others in this new capacity.
POSITIONALITY PAPER
References
Educational Leadership Constituent Council (2011). Educational program leadership standards.
Washington, D.C.: National Policy Board for Educational Policy. Retrieved from
http://www.ncate.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=zRZI73R0nOQ%3D&tabid=676
Null, W. (2011). Curriculum: From theory to practice. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, Inc.

Capstone Drew Su2016 Positionality Paper

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Capstone Drew Su2016 Positionality Paper

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Capstone Drew Su2016 Positionality Paper

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Running head: POSITIONALITY PAPER

with regard to curriculum including the LGBTQQQ culture, and as a teacher in an

You might also like