Global Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Analysing Positionality in Higher Education Discourses: The Case for Textually Oriented Discourse Analysis (Toda)

Vussy Nkonyane

We do not make sense of ourselves and the world around us arbitrarily, nor do we have a free choice on who or what becomes of us. Positionality plays a critical role in how we deconstruct, reconstruct and construct our identities and understanding of life. This positionality is also not innate, but a socially determined process intentionally aimed and sustained through education and knowledge production. This paper uses the critical emancipatory theory to ground its thesis on the importance of how positionality/ positioning determine the discourses which influence our view and take on life. To achieve this goal, TODA is used in the analysis of a few responses from a group of respondents in two merged universities in the Free State province of South Africa.