The positionality of narrators and interviewers: Methodological comments on oral history with Anglo-Indian schoolteachers in Bangalore, India

Many of urban India’s educational aspirations in the postcolonial period have centered on the public figure of the Anglo-Indian schoolteacher, an authoritative yet nurturing woman in a skirt with something “completely different” about her that made parents seek out the school where she taught. At the core of our research project on Anglo-Indian women schoolteachers from Bangalore are seventeen life stories involving many hours of conversation. In this chapter, we offer some insights into these illuminating “teaching” narratives but focus in particular on methodology, specifically the theme of positionality in the interview process.