Month: December 2009

Whose Autoethnography Is It, Anyway?

self-hidingI am always so appreciative of the insights my (distant) colleague Kip offers, especially when he comments on my blog or Tweets, and otherwise offers such insightful thoughts and words for the wise. His comment earlier today is among the best (thank you, Kip!), and with delicious humor and tongue-in-cheek (or some such), he raises a wonderful point about autoethnographic dissertations. While I already replied to his thoughts here, I do want to clarify my (developing) research direction a bit.

I like the framework of Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge (cf, Meyer and Land), as this focuses on forms of learning, as well as Jack Mezirow’s framework of Transformative Learning). I cannot envision I am alone in blogging (Tweeting, etc.) about my worldview shifts and other strong experiences while engaging in my academic work (yes, others do this as well!!). Whether they do this for self-reflection or autoethnographic purposes I am not sure yet, but they do this. I wonder how processing these sorts of experiences affects the concept of self-identity? What does it mean to share this with others and gather their input? To what extent does a sense of community influence the outcome? If done explicitly as an a/e, and if there is other input and sharing / collaboration, whose autoethnography is it, anyway?

I feel my (module’s) research purpose, problem, and question are all very close . . .

Jeffrey’s Twitter Updates for 2009-12-12

  • Trattoria Pesce Pasta on Bleecker. Mmmmm. #
  • Horrible Lincoln Tunnel traffic into Gotham (aka NYC). #
  • Very cold night already. Everything is icing up in upstate NY. #
  • Got the snow off the roof. Need some energy to do research design work tonight. #
  • I did not know there was snow just north of the city. Lots of it. #
  • 7 new comments on "Silence and Voice" and more http://bt.io/BUHb #
  • Like sands through an hour glass . . . #

Powered by Twitter Tools

Unconscious Use of Autoethnography via Blogging

I received a direct email reply to my research design work, and there was an interesting question regarding a shift that was identified in my work from a focus on autoethnography (a/e) toward qualitative interviewing.

I do want to focus on autoethnography. However, I think more people are using this method (or some form of this method) in their doctoral / research blog postings than realize it. Some of the people whose work I read are basically doing this without naming it, and I think that for some of them to name it would become more of a legitimacy issue for them than not (my speculation), though in fact that seems to be what they are doing. I am thinking about trying to look at their experiences without trying to explicitly determine if that is what is happening. By focusing on their experiences and seeing what I can learn, I may in the process exploring if there is instead some unconscious use of a/e.

I did not remember how I fell asleep. I did not wake up at night. I just shut off for six hours. I slept! I slept! In my situation, it was very surprising, since Ambien No Prescription sleeping pills are not almost effective for me.

I wonder if autoethnography is used unconsciously quite often?