<p>How individual researchers and communities of scholars situate themselves with respect to each other has a range of consequences, relating to issues from identity and norms of practices, to how one is benchmarked or positioned to apply for jobs or funding. Education, perhaps more than other disciplines, has a longstanding attention to tensions in this situating. This paper provides a reflection from an individual researcher, relating their experience to the literature, and collated and original analysis of data relating to education research in Australia, to provide an instrumental case study. It does this through framing of disciplines in relation to areas of knowledge, organisational units, and communities of researchers. The paper provides an overview of the discipline, including some key organisational features and updating of data commonly used in benchmarking exercises (while recognising the significant limitations of such data). The paper is intended to support researchers in their own reflection, and perhaps provoke (senior) researchers in considering challenges we face.</p>