An Introduction To Critical Autoethnography And Education

An Introduction to Critical Autoethnography and Education: The Vulnerable Researcherexamines the practice of critical autoethnography, which combines critical pedagogy, autoethnography, and often, critical ethnography, as a research methodology for conducting research in vulnerable communities without establishing hierarchical systems. Researchers who work collaboratively with participants in these communities can provide a means for often-unheard voices to reach wider audiences. Researchers function as collaborators/participants in the research, asking themselves the same questions they ask the other participants in the research. This methodology requires reflection and introspection, as researchers examine the Self and the complexities of their cultural perspectives, whether visible or invisible, hidden beneath layers of socially constructed beliefs and behaviors. This interrogation and problematization of words and actions surpasses chronological and supposedly objective recounting of autobiography, leading to a deep understanding of the sociocultural, socioeconomic, political, and historical beliefs that created their ways of understanding and navigating the world. Traditional research situates researchers as experts. Pushing against existing norms, critical autoethnography negates hierarchical thinking, believing all collaborators co-construct equally valuable knowledge and meaning. Accessible to diverse audiences, this book would be appropriate in graduate qualitative methods or foundations courses, at introductory or advanced levels. It would be also be a good addition to any undergraduate courses preparing students to conduct research in vulnerable communities. Perfect for courses such as: Qualitative Research Methods I | Qualitative Research Methods II | Advanced Qualitative Research Methods | Social Justice in Education Research | Case Study | Ethnographic Research in Education | Anthropology in Education | Critical Qualitative Inquiry | Multicultural Research Methods

This book presents the collaborative work of two professors, one in Mexico and the other in the United States, and their respective students, participants in a Ph.D. course called “Critical Autoethnography.” The chapters emerged from virtual conversations as doctoral students and professors examined the intersections between critical pedagogy and autoethnography. They problematized the cultural and theoretical intersections between the participants in both countries, questioning whether their differences were causes or results of power and privilege. They used dialogue as inquiry to interrogate the theoretical perspectives that framed their prior experiences. They realized that these perspectives reflected their cultures, and that although they often intersected, they diverged at times. The fluidity of the learning experience shaped the chapters that form the book sections, including the theory and the praxis, or exemplars, of performing critical autoethnography. Each author explores personal experiences or events through the lens of critical pedagogy, underscoring the problematization of the cultural and societal context that shaped their actions, in particular as they performed in racial, ethnic, and religious settings that reflected power and privilege. The two professors served as editors and authors, as they engaged in constant iterative peer review and dialogue. Both the Mexican and the United States perspectives are reflected throughout the book, and it is this global perspective that separates this book from others that deal with similar topics.

Critical Autoethnography and Intercultural Learning shows how critical autoethnographic writing in a field such as intercultural education can help inform and change existing research paradigms. Engaging story-telling and insightful analysis from emerging scholars of diverse backgrounds and communities shows the impact of lived experience on teaching and learning. Different areas of intercultural learning are considered, including language education; student and teacher mobilities; Indigenous education; backpacker tourism; and religious learning. The book provides a worked example of how critical autoethnography can help shift thinking within any discipline, and reflects critically upon the multidimensional nature of migrant teacher and learner identities. This book will be essential reading for upper-level students of qualitative research methods, and on international education courses, including language education.

The Routledge International Handbook of Autoethnography in Educational Research presents diverse and rigorous contemporary research at the intersection between autoethnography and educational research. The handbook investigates the bidirectional connection between autoethnography and educational research in relation to four themes: enhancing teaching and teacher education with autoethnography; enlarging doctoral study and supervision with autoethnography; conducting identity work and relationship-building via autoethnography; and promoting social justice through autoethnography. In addition to the synthesising introduction and conclusion chapters, the 27 main chapters in the handbook cover current research from Africa, Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Venezuela. The chapters present novel applications of several key concepts and research methods, including activism, arts-based research, critical reflection, decolonising feminism, doctoral study and supervision, hybrid identities, Indigenous research, migrant education, racism, researcher self-efficacy, teacher identity, visual autoethnography and writing as voice. This book will be of use to all researchers, and doctoral and Masters students, using qualitative and autoethnographic methods in Education and related fields.

Wayfinding and Critical Autoethnography is the first critical autoethnography compilation from the global south, bringing together indigenous, non-indigenous, Pasifika, and other diverse voices which expand established understandings of autoethnography as a critical, creative methodology. The book centres around the traditional practice of ‘wayfinding’ as a Pacific indigenous way of being and knowing, and this volume manifests traditional knowledges, genealogies, and intercultural activist voices through critical autoethnography. The chapters in the collection reflect critical autoethnographic journeys that explore key issues such as space/place belonging, decolonizing the academy, institutional racism, neoliberalism, gender inequity, activism, and education reform. This book will be a valuable teaching and research resource for researchers and students in a wide range of disciplines and contexts. For those interested in expanding their cultural, personal, and scholarly knowledge of the global south, this volume foregrounds the vast array of traditional knowledges and the ways in which they are changing academic spaces and knowledge creation through braiding old and new. This volume is unique and timely in its ability to highlight the ways in which indigenous and allied voices from the diverse global south demonstrate the ways in which the onto-epistemologies of diverse cultures, and the work of critical autoethnography, function as parallel, and mutually informing, projects.

This volume uses autoethnography—cultural analysis through personal narrative—to explore the tangled relationships between culture and communication. Using an intersectional approach to the many aspects of identity at play in everyday life, a diverse group of authors reveals the complex nature of lived experiences. They situate interpersonal experiences of gender, race, ethnicity, ability, and orientation within larger systems of power, oppression, and social privilege. An excellent resource for undergraduates, graduate students, educators, and scholars in the fields of intercultural and interpersonal communication, and qualitative methodology.

This book addresses and demonstrates the importance of critical approaches to autoethnography, particularly the commitment that such approaches make to theorizing the personal and to creating work that embodies a social justice ethos. Arts-based and practice-led approaches to this work allow the explanatory power of critical theory to be linked with creative, aesthetically engaging, and personal examples of the ideas at work. By making use of personal stories, critical autoethnography also allows for commenting on, critiquing, and transforming damaging and unjust cultural beliefs and practices by questioning and problematizing the relationships of power that are bound up in these selves, cultures and practices. The essays in this volume provide readers with work that demonstrates how critical autoethnography offers researchers and scholars across multiple disciplines a method for creatively putting critical theory into action. The book will be vital reading for students, researchers and scholars working in the fields of education, communication studies, sociology and cultural anthropology, and the performing arts.

Autoethnography: Process, Product, and Possibility for Critical Social Research by Sherick A. Hughes and Julie L. Pennington provides a short introduction to the methodological tools and concepts of autoethnography, combining theoretical approaches with practical “how to” information. Written for social science students, teachers, teacher educators, and educational researchers, the text shows readers how autoethnographers collect, analyze, and report data. With its grounding in critical social theory and inclusion of innovative methods, this practical resource will move the field of autoethnography forward.