Am I a Constructivist...

Do you think that I am a constructivist or at least living somewhere close in that area?  Natalia says yes.  I know I am not a Positivist or a Postpositivist.  I think that for me to become either of those I would have to start sleeping a member of the Bush family and have the stamp on my forehead 'scientifically research-based'.  I wish that I was a member of the critical theory camp, especially since I work with a lot of minority students in ESL who are predominately low SES.  I know that I am not a feminist.  According to Guba and Lincoln (1994, 2005), critical theorists have the stance of 'transformative intellectual', which sounds so smart, but they lose me at activist.  I am an advocate for the students in my building, but I am not a world changer.  I also wish or think that I could be participatory.  I would like to do a study in which I was living in a jungle somewhere and became a part of the culture and community that I was studying.  However, my work with ESL Book Clubs as Professional Development involved working with the communities of practice theory and I was a full member of the group. I was participatory there, I think.  Am I creative enough to be participatory?

I believe that in any setting the researcher changes on some level what is being researched.  I think that  even with the best intentions there is change, like what we have been talking about in regards to conversations.  If I say the sky is blue (BASIC no point example really), it could change the course of the conversation and the outcome of participants' views.  I think I am constructivist, because 'co-constructed realities', 'co-created findings', 'vicarious experiences', 'trustworthiness', and 'passionate participant' (2005).