Category: Research

What I Learned from my Initial Autoethnography Research Interview

For my small-scale autoethnography research project, I planned to interview 2 people about their intentions, experiences, and learning. Yesterday, I had my first telephone interview yesterday, and found it a fascinating experience. This post discusses what I learned, and not the interview itself; I am rather strict with adhering to my Ethical Approval (IRB) stipulations.

The first and most practical thing I learned is that the interview took far longer than the 30 minutes I estimated in my consent. It took longer not because I asked more questions based on the open-ended ones I already developed, but because the questions and conversation produced a far richer discussion (aka data) than I had hoped.

While I also learned that we did not systematically work through the 6 research questions I listed,

  1. Why did you choose to use autoethnographic inquiry? 
  2. Who is your intended audience? 
  3. What goals did you have for your readers or learners?
  4. What role did technology play in your research? 
  5. What did you learn in the process of this autoethnographic inquiry? 
  6. If you were to conduct further autoethnographic inquiry, what would you do differently?

the conversation progressed organically and all the questions were answered in some form or another. I have experienced this before, but have never seen it so unified in this manner. I am not sure if this was the results of a common interest in the area, the autoethnographic qualitative strategy itself, if my questions were spot-on, or if there were other factors that enabled this to occur.

I realized I did not allow for closure in my questions (or the note-taking template I used), so I ended by asking if there were anything else that the interviewee wanted to add or comment about at the end. This quite nicely and unexpectedly turned into a summary of the main points.

Overall, a very rich experience.

Autoethnography Research – Approved Version

Thank you all for your help thinking through this project. Here is the final version that just received ethical (IRB) approval.

Now, I am searching for a few people to interview who have published autoethnography – any assistance in locating people for a brief interview in the next 2 weeks will be appreciated.

Title
Educational Explorations of Autoethnographic Inquiry: A Tale of 2 Teachers

Research Problem
Autoethnography is increasingly used as a research method, pushing the boundaries of qualitative inquiry by focusing on a phenomenon in the life of the researcher as the central aspect of study and publishing the findings as a cultural critique. With online technologies making the entire research process more transparent and potentially interactive, the researcher’s process and goals themselves may be explored, as the steps can be studied as part of the process, rather than by looking only at the final, published product. Of particular interest is transparency in the research process itself, especially when the autoethnographic inquiry is done in public, such as through a blog, discussion forum, or other technology where reader input can inform the process and researcher’s thinking. Little is known about the researcher’s learning goals for his or her readers, as well as how the researcher’s own learning develops through the process of conducting the autoethnographic research itself.

Literature Review
This will focus on autoethnographic inquiry: what it is, why it is done, and what is learned through it. I am planning to focus around the work of Carolyn Ellis, Art Bochner, Deborah Reed-Danahay, and Jean Clandinin and Michael Connelly. I will also search for literature that explores the intended goals and learning of the autoethnographer.

Purpose & Research Design
The purpose of this case study is to understand researcher learning goals and personal learning itself in those who engage in autoethnographic inquiry. This will be a qualitative research design, with a constructivism philosophical worldview. The strategy of inquiry will be case study. The research methods will be semi-structured interview.

There are no expected ethical issues in this research. Participants will remain anonymous, with fictitious names being used and the transcripts from the research secured on a password-protected computer.

This research is important to me because I am interested in learning more about how autoethnography can be used as a method in online and distance education, particularly for its seeming relationship with reflective practice and transformative learning. This is part of a large research interest of mine, which I am seeking to begin exploring in this smaller research project. I hope to better understand this to ultimately help improve the effectiveness of online teaching and learning practice.

Methods
As this is an exploratory case study, there will be 2 people interviewed for this research. I will reach out to my network of colleagues and distribution lists to locate 2 people who have published autoethnographic inquiries (I have already had two offers for autoethnographers to be interviewed; I will actively look for other possible participants once this proposal is accepted). Interviews will be conducted over the phone. Open-ended interview questions will be used:

  1. Why did you choose to use autoethnographic inquiry? 
  2. Who is your intended audience? 
  3. What goals did you have for your readers or learners?
  4. What role did technology play in your research? 
  5. What did you learn in the process of this autoethnographic inquiry? 
  6. If you were to conduct further autoethnographic inquiry, what would you do differently?

Interview results will be hand-transcribed and sent back to the participants for their review and approval.

Analysis
The transcripts will be hand-coded (as per Stake, 1995 and Wolcott, 1994), with the results sent to the participants for their review. Grounded theory will be used to understand the results (Fernandez, 2004, http://tinyurl.com/cbcqb3 ).

Findings and Next Steps
TBD; exploratory in nature.

Personal Learnings
I will explore what I learned in preparing and conducting this research project.

My personal learning objectives include:

  1. Collaborate on the design process, actively seeking feedback from colleagues on the design and development of this research project
  2. Investigate how others experience the autoethnographic research process
  3. Assess how the findings broaden my perspective on the method as an educational experience

References
Listed as used.

Autoethnography Research Informed Consent – for Review

I have never created an informed consent form on my own (that has always been a research partner’s role), so here is another new learning experience for me.

This is the informed consent form I created for my developing project. It may change, as I am still waiting for my tutor’s feedback on my revised proposal (which I will post on my blog once it is finalized).

Any thoughts on this?

Informed Consent to Participate in Research

Researcher: Jeffrey Keefer
Email: j [DOT] keefer [AT] lancaster [DOT] ac [DOT] uk
Title of Research: Educational Explorations of Autoethnographic Inquiry: A Tale of 2 Teachers

Thank you for agreeing to participate in this study conducted by Jeffrey Keefer, studying in the Educational Research Department of Lancaster University. It will take place from May 1, 2009 to May 31, 2009.

Purpose
The purpose of this project is to understand the autoethnographic researcher’s learning goals for his or her readers and how the researcher’s own learning develops through the process of conducting the autoethnographic inquiry.

Procedures
The research involves my asking you several open-ended research questions, including:
1. Why did you choose to use autoethnographic inquiry? 
2. Who is your intended audience? 
3. What goals did you have for your readers or learners?
4. What role did technology play in your research? 
5. What did you learn in the process of this autoethnographic inquiry? 
6. If you were to conduct further autoethnographic inquiry, what would you do differently?

I will hand-record the responses and conversation, and I will send you a transcript of the discussion for your review. I will then code the discussion (for themes) and again send to you for your review (both times to confirm I captured what you said and / or intended). It is expected that the entire time commitment will be 60 minutes (30 minutes for the interview, and 15 minutes each for your review of my notes and coding).

Risks
There are no known risks for participating in this research.

I guarantee the following conditions will be met:
1. Your real name will not be used at any point of information collection, or in the written case report; instead, you and any other person and place names involved in your case will be given pseudonyms that will be used in all verbal and written records and reports.
2. Your participation in this research is voluntary; you have the right to withdraw at any point of the study, for any reason, and without any prejudice, and the information collected and records and reports written will be destroyed.
3. All research notes and communication will be maintained within my password-protected computer; nobody else will have access to them.
4. I will use this information to write a case study for my doctoral class and, based on feedback, consider submitting a revised version for research publication.
5. You will receive a copy of the final paper that is submitted to my instructor.
6. You are encouraged to ask any questions at any time about the nature of the study and the methods that I am using. Your suggestions and concerns are important to me; please contact me at any time at the address/phone number listed above.

Benefits
This research is important to me because I am interested in learning more about how autoethnography can be used as a method in online and distance education, particularly for its seeming relationship with reflective practice and transformative learning. I hope to better understand this to ultimately help improve the effectiveness of online teaching and learning practice.

Consent
I agree to the terms listed above:

Respondent ___________________________ Date _____________

I agree to the terms listed above:

Researcher ___________________________ Date _____________