Rethinking Rigor: Using Positionality and Reflexivity to Enhance Sport Management Scholarship
Katherine Sveinson et al.
Abstract
All researchers bring lived experiences and knowledge into their research. However, traditional means of evaluating research to establish rigor, such as validity, reliability, or trustworthiness tend to overlook researcher identities or experiences that uniquely inform research processes. We argue for acknowledging such subjectivity in research, utilizing positionality and reflexivity to enhance rigor in more purposeful and less routine ways. In a 10-year review of articles in three flagship sport management journals, we found fewer than 10% explicitly discussed positionality and even fewer demonstrated rigor enhancement via reflexivity. In analyzing these cases, we found researchers commonly report positionality as enhancing the research, bias reduction, and/or compliance. We strongly recommend scholars engage in positionality and reflexivity practices, and our goal with this paper is to encourage reporting them in their research, as they are valuable pieces of data that enhance academic rigor and transparency in all research paradigms.
16 citations
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.64 × 0.4 = 0.26 |
| M · momentum | 0.90 × 0.15 = 0.14 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.