The use of autoethnography in classroom based practitioner research

Auto-ethnography is a methodology which has frequently been used within a variety of academic disciplines. It has been used within education but this has largely been within Further Eduction settings. This review of auto-ethnography highlights how it can be used by practitioner researchers from other educational settings and is based upon research conducted for a thesis set within a primary Pupil Referral Unit. The findings of this study indicated that auto-ethnography has benefits for both the practitioner researcher and for the pupils involved within the research. Criticisms of the methodology are discussed, including that of it being highly evocative, with the suggestion made that a more analytical approach to auto-ethnography can not only address criticisms of the method making it more acceptable within traditional approaches to academic research but can also maintain the emotional heart without letting this dominate. Conclusions are drawn about the benefits to self expression, teacher/pupil relationships, pupil voice and teacher voice

Tied to the worldly work of writing: parent as ethnographer

Parent narratives have contributed to ethnographic accounts of the lives of autistic children (Kelly, 2005) but there are fewer examples of parents producing their own autoethnographies. This paper explores the affordances of an online blog for enabling a parent of an autistic child to produce a written record of practice which may be considered 'autoethnographic'. Richardson’s (2005) framework for ethnography as Creative Analytic Process is applied to extracts from a blog post in order to consider its contribution; reflexivity; aesthetic merit; and impact. The paper addresses the methodological and ethical implications of reconceptualising parents as researchers and the potential contribution of new writing platforms to the development of auto/ethnography. Key words: Autism, Auto/ethnography, Blog, Disability, Mothe

The Revolution Will Be Televised But Not Supported: Student Protest at Marquette University

This project examines the factors that affect the presence of student activism and student protest at Marquette University. The current social and political environment of the United States has created an exigence to discuss how students at Marquette critique their surroundings. Data is collected from a variety of sources including the author’s auto-ethnography, a review of historical and scholarly data, institutional data, and student and faculty interviews. Overall, the data shows that student protest and student activism at Marquette University exists amid a series of conflicting influences. The prioritization of donor-based funding and positive publicity, the ambiguity in the meaning of Marquette values, and the prevalence of repressive tolerance create an environment in which meaningful student activism is stifled.https://epublications.marquette.edu/english_3210ur/1036/thumbnail.jp

Innovation and Reduction in Contemporary Qualitative Methods: The Case of Conceptual Coupling, Activity-Type Pairs and Auto-Ethnography

During the course of this paper we mobilise an ideal typical framework that identifies three waves of reduction within contemporary qualitative inquiry as they relate to key aspects of the sociological tradition. The paper begins with a consideration of one of sociology\'s key questions; namely how is social organisation possible? The paper aims to demonstrate how this question moves from view as increased specialisation and differentiation in qualitative methodology within sociology and related disciplines results in a fragmentation and decontextualisation of social practices from social orders. Indeed, the extent to which qualitative methods have been detached from sociological principles is considered in relation to the emergence of a reductionist tendency. The paper argues that the first wave is typified by conceptual couplings such as \'discourse and the subject\', \'narrative and experience\', \'space and place\' and the second by \'activity type couplings\' such as \'walking and talking\' and \'making and telling\' and then, finally, the third wave exemplified through auto-ethnography and digital lifelogging. We argue each of these three waves represent a series of steps in qualitative reduction that, whilst representing innovation, need to reconnect with questions of action, order and social organisation as a complex whole as opposed to disparate parts.Social Order, Discourse, Narrative, Mobile Methods, Auto-Ethnography, Reflexivity, Innovation, Qualitative Methods

Infusing biography with the personal: writing Rufus Stone

Purpose A recent four-year research project entitled, “Gay and Pleasant Land?—a study about positioning, ageing and gay life in rural South West England and Wales” took place as part of the Research Councils UK funded New Dynamics of Ageing Programme on ageing in 21st Century Britain. The key output of this effort was the short professionally made, award winning film, Rufus Stone. This article unpacks the evolution of creating the film script, with a particular emphasis on the author’s relationship with the biographies, the filmmaking process and, indeed, his own story. Approach Through first person narrative and textural bricolage, the author recounts the processes that went into writing the background, treatment and working script for the film. This included sifting through copious data, story meetings, writing back story and collaboration with the film’s director. In the final analysis, the author was dependent on auto-ethnography to bring the biographies of others to the screen. Findings Arts-based collaborative efforts require versatility and experimentation in approaches and a willingness to communicate across disciplines. Knowing when to ‘let go’ in partnerships is key to this process. Originality/value The article responds to many of the issues, concerns and questions that have arisen at academic screenings of the film. It provides a valuable starting point for others interested in experimenting with arts-based dissemination of research findings. The originality of the use of auto-ethnography itself to report on this process is consistent with the principles of Performative Social Science, on which the project’s dissemination is based

Journeys in the City: Empathising With the Users of Transport Buildings

Accessibility is a considerable and growing issue in the design of many public buildings including vital high use buildings such as train stations. Yet research methods for these buildings are poor. This paper suggests that one new approach to design is to use immersive, auto-ethnographic methods to achieve an empathetic understanding of design needs. The paper asks: what can we learn about the mobility requirements of station users when we are immersed in a train station environment, and what mobile research methods can we use to begin to explore this? The paper reports on a study that used video diaries to explore Canary Wharf Station in a November evening rush hour in dry conditions, and specifically to study passenger behaviours on an island platform within the station. The analysis focused on how to improve mobility in the station from a user’s perspective. This use of auto-ethnography is discussed as part of a broader methodological debate about how to explore universal design issues from a user’s perspective, and in the context of empathetic desig

Eating the Vernacular, Being Cosmopolitan

Using a mixed methodology of ethnography in Australia, Vietnam and India, auto-ethnography and textual analysis of Australian migrants' biographies, this article uses the stories of 'insiders' and 'outsiders' to explore the importance of the vernacular, and the implications of authenticity in the maintenance of homely identities and the development of cosmopolitan ones

Dressing Up: Exploring the Fictions and Frictions of Professional Identity in Art Educational Settings

What fictions do we tell ourselves in order to teach? How do our stories as educators impact how we see our learners? Building from auto-ethnography research I begin with the personal and then invite co-participants to further illuminate a shared experience (Chang, 2008). In this example, I highlight the self-reflective work toward revealing and concealing identities associated with “teacher.” Using collage pedagogy (Garoian & Gaudelius, 2008), students in a pre-service art education class, created paper doll narratives marking and unmarking themselves through collaged backdrops and clothing choices which performed identities that would impact their role of teacher. Future teachers also “undressed” themselves from fashions that impeded their abilities to see their students beyond stereotypes. Through the design of the dolls and reflexivity, we examined the frictions of identity and representation within the larger social, political, or institutional landscapes of what it means to be “teacher/student” in the 21st century school sphere

International student subjectivities: biographical investments for liquid times

The international student as an object of study has typically been understood through the frame of cultural identity, mapped back to notions of fixed, static notions of cultural difference. In contrast, this study seeks to understand how the practice of international study has emerged as an increasingly popular ‘biographical solution’ (Beck 1992, Bauman 2002) in order to pursue imagined career trajectories in a globalised and competitive world. Informed by recent studies of middle class strategy in Asia (Pinches, 1999) and the transnational Chinese diaspora (Ong 1999, Ang 2001) that challenge essentialist accounts of timeless Asian values and East-West binaries, the paper analyses interview data collected from ‘Asian’ international students attending preparatory programs at an Australian university. Specifically, the paper discusses the disciplinary formation of the ‘international student’ – the take-up of self-Orientalizing discourses (Ong, 1999), and engagement in practices of auto-ethnography (Pratt, 1998). In addition, the paper explores students’ critiques of, and resistances to Orientalist discourses, and pragmatic willingness to submit to local demands to further their longer term goals. Preparatory programs emerge not so much as life-changing locations but rather necessary transit lounges, for the acquisition of cultural distinctions along their life routes