178 Deaf Epistemologies, Identity, and Learning
studies. Such theorizing requires critical reflection on the multiple positions from
which we do research and interact with the people involved, as well as reflection on
how these positions influence the research process (see also Code, 2006; Harding,
1980, 1992; Tanesini, 1999). According to Doucet (1998),while social locations are important, reflexivity also means actively reflecting
on the ways in which these locations, as constituted by the constant interplay
between social structures and agency, actually come to influence the particu-
lar approaches (methodological, theoretical, epistemological, and ontologi-
cal) from within which we conduct research. (p. 52)Doucet aims to work toward “strong reflexivity” (Harding, cited in Doucet, 1998,
p. 56) in the research process by reflecting on how her own interpretations of the
care she gave her three children influenced her analysis of her interviews on the
caring practices of British parents and how this analysis was also influenced by her
“location” and “choice” of ontological and theoretical frameworks. She cites Hol-
land and Ramazanoglu (1994) in concluding that “feminist researchers can only
try to explain the grounds on which selective interpretations have been made by
making explicit the process of decision making which produces the interpretation,
and the logic of method in which these decisions are made” (p. 56).
This is what I will be doing in the next paragraphs, as I explain how reflection
on my presence at Gallaudet University—as an international scholar working with
people from across the world—contributed to my development of a cross-cultural
perspective. This perspective emerged in my interactions with available anthropo-
logical frameworks of cross-cultural comparative work; the research experience in
these areas at the Department of Comparative Science of Culture at Ghent Uni-
versity; the doctoral research of the late professor Emeritus yerker Andersson, in
which he studied deaf associations in Sweden and the United States and generated
a comparative perspective (Andersson, 1981); and a course professor Andersson
taught at Gallaudet titled “International Deaf Issues.” My reflection on my own
process of empowerment, dealing with the paradox of feeling unempowered while
doing research on empowerment, and my choice of a strength-centered perspec-
tive and relational ontology emerge from the interaction of personal experience,
existential and strength-centered approaches to counseling, and the interpreta-
tion of life stories of international deaf people (which are discussed in Chapter 4).
My fieldwork developed across multiple sites, which adds an extra dimension to
the reflection on positionality and location by Doucet (1998), who stayed in one
place. Not only did my social position and agency vary depending on the context
in which I was working; my positionality also changed during the process since I
moved from Flanders to Gallaudet for my research, which both supported my per-
sonal and professional growth and agency. This change in positionality was also
influenced by my interaction with the evolving discipline of deaf studies, which has
been established to varying degrees across the world.
In addition to considering location and position, I was inspired to explore the interaction
between biography and the blossoming of the deaf studies field. For this exploration, I