Educator Reflexivity: My Positionality in Detail

​​I am a white, cisgender, female and feminist academic who has benefited from a relatively privileged background, including access to private schooling and high-quality education. These opportunities have shaped my trajectory and enabled me to support students in their own academic development now. At the same time, I am aware of how privilege intersects with other aspects of my identity and experience. My parents are self-made, from working-class and artistic backgrounds, and my father’s family are third-generation Jewish immigrants. While my own encounters with racism have largely been limited to microaggressions, they have heightened my awareness of the more severe and systemic discrimination others experience.

My lived experience has also included periods of mental health struggle and, more recently, changing physical ability following spinal surgery and an ongoing injury that directly affects my capacity to type and use a computer – central tools in my academic and professional practice. These experiences have increased my sensitivity to how health, disability, and fluctuating capacity shape stress, participation, and access within higher education.

As an educator with a background in journalism and editing, I once placed significant emphasis on accuracy and performance — for example, spelling, grammar, and confidence in oral presentation. Over time, and informed by my own experiences, I have shifted towards a more inclusive approach. I now recognise the importance of valuing multiple ways of expressing knowledge and understanding, particularly given the increasing awareness of neurodiversity within higher education.