Collaborative Autoethnography and Duoethnography

By Janet Salmons, Ph.D., Research Community Manager, Sage Methodspace

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While autoethnographic research can include other sources, sometimes the dialogue with others is part of the inquiry. If two researchers conduct an ethnographic study, we call that a duoethnography. If more than two researchers are involved, we could call it a collaborative ethnography. (See a related post about autoethnography.)

Research in Dialogue

Awhile back (before the pandemic) a friend and colleague from the US was teaching in Turkey for a semester. I picked up the book by Richard D. Sawyer and Joe Norris that introduced the concept of duoethnography, and suggested that we use the opportunity to try it out. We decided to focus on work and place, asking what are the factors of a work environment that allow us to be at our best? I was working remotely and teaching online from my home, while she was working in a physical university away from home. We came up with specific questions for each exchange. We wrote back and forth, and also shared images that included photographs, diagrams, and drawings. We also shared readings and quotes, both academic and literary. We responded to each other’s writings using tracked comments and notes. We also scheduled video chats to discuss each stage. Each discussion sparked new questions!

This is a visual I created in response to the dynamics that stood out in some of her writings, about the physical and knowledge work.

A visual summary of points from my research partner’s writings

We presented our study at a qualitative research but alas, never published it. Still, the experience taught that a multiple voice ethnography allows for a deep exploration of a topic when you have a partner who is open to deep dialogue, and who offers meaningful comments and questions along the way. Duoethnography also builds in accountability, because you need to be timely in communications to keep the process flowing. The open-access articles listed below dig into forms of group ethnography.

Collaborative or Team Ethnography

According to the The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods, collaborative research “is research “with” rather than research “on.” It is research that arises out of the expressed needs, interests, and questions of the stakeholders who are most invested in the research and its findings, and it is research conducted in relationship with them.”

Bieler, P., Bister, M. D., Hauer, J., Klausner, M., Niewöhner, J., Schmid, C., & von Peter, S. (2021). Distributing Reflexivity through Co-laborative Ethnography. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 50(1), 77–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241620968271

Abstract. In ethnographic research and analysis, reflexivity is vital to achieving constant coordination between field and concept work. However, it has been conceptualized predominantly as an ethnographer’s individual mental capacity. In this article, we draw on ten years of experience in conducting research together with partners from social psychiatry and mental health care across different research projects. We unfold three modes of achieving reflexivity co-laboratively: contrasting and discussing disciplinary concepts in interdisciplinary working groups and feedback workshops; joint data interpretation and writing; and participating in political agenda setting. Engaging these modes reveals reflexivity as a distributed process able to strengthen the ethnographer’s interpretative authority, and also able to constantly push the conceptual boundaries of the participating disciplines and professions.

Hackett, A. (2017). Parents as researchers: collaborative ethnography with parents. Qualitative Research, 17(5), 481–497. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794116672913

Abstract. This article describes a series of studies of young children’s experience of place in which parents acted as co-researchers, collecting and analysing data. This approach to research resulted in an emphasis on sensory engagement and embodied experience, for both adults and children. As my own young daughter accompanied me during this research, the boundaries between parent and researcher were further blurred. As research progressed, parents became increasingly critical of pathologising discourses about parenting, and stated more strongly the expertise they possessed in their own children. Collaborative research with parents opened up new possibilities for understanding the perspectives of very young children, by drawing on the expertise parents have.

Harris, A., Wojcik, A., & Allison, R. V. (2020). How to make an omelette: A sensory experiment in team ethnography. Qualitative Research, 20(5), 632–648. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794119890543

Abstract. Sensory ethnographers deploy methods such as drawing, video and photography in order to examine the more ineffable and non-representational aspects of practices. Usually, these studies are conducted by individual researchers who deal only with their own material. What happens when a team of ethnographers explores questions of a sensory or non-representational nature? How do they share their findings not only with their audiences, but also with each other? Team ethnography is becoming increasingly common across the social sciences and humanities, yet to date there has been little attention paid to the important work of communicating findings within a group. To explore this further, we conducted a methodological ‘proof of concept’ study, observing and documenting people learning to make omelettes. We found that sensory methods have a role not only in studying practices but crucially, in also facilitating a form of immersion into the ethnographic practices and imaginations of others within the team. In the end, we suggest that experiments with sensory methods, such as through proof of concept methodological studies, are useful for thinking about how teams of social scientists work together, whether their research deals with sensory topics or not.

Lee, B. K., & Gregory, D. (2008). Not Alone in the Field: Distance Collaboration via the Internet in a Focused Ethnography. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 7(3), 30–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690800700303

Abstract. Ethnography as method remains orthodox in its application. It is largely replicated through the lone field ethnographer model. In challenging this fieldwork model, the authors describe distance collaboration via the Internet linking two researchers across space and time in the fieldwork process: one in the field, the other home based. Using a reflexive, retrospective analysis of e-mail correspondence generated during the fieldwork experience, they explicate key factors in their successful collaborative effort. In addition, interchanges conducive to “thickening” the ethnographic inquiry are highlighted. The collaborative process, facilitated through the Internet, lent psychological strength to the field researcher and added to research quality, timeliness, and trustworthiness in this focused ethnography. Cybertechnology invites exploration of new approaches and resultant challenges in conducting ethnographic fieldwork.

Duoethnography

According to the The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods, duoethnography involves juxtaposing the stories of two or more disparate individuals who experience a similar phenomenon. Data is generated from the written or verbal dialogue between the researchers. They can also draw on images or artifacts to prompt memories or enliven the exchange.

Burleigh, D., & Burm, S. (2022). Doing Duoethnography: Addressing Essential Methodological Questions. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 21. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069221140876

Abstract. Duoethnography is a collaborative research methodology that invites researchers to serve as sites of inquiry. Through juxtaposition, the voices of each researcher are made explicit, working in tandem to untangle and disrupt meanings about a particular social phenomenon. We gravitate to duoethnography for its evocative power and the opportunity this methodology provides to engage in meaningful self-study in the presence of another. Yet, we grapple with methodological issues related to the unseen and unspoken enactments of the methodology. This article makes transparent the process of engaging in duoethnography by modeling its polyvocal dialogic nature while simultaneously addressing five essential questions about this collaborative research methodology. In this article, we retrace our collective journey engaging in duoethnography over the past 10 years, reflecting upon how our understanding and engagement with the methodology has shifted and expanded with each new inquiry. We make visible what is often invisible in the process of doing duoethnography, explicitly discussing our process for beginning and concluding a duoethnography, addressing what constitutes duoethnographic data, and the importance of cultivating a trustworthy and safe dialogical space. This article contributes to the existing methodological literature on duoethnography and further substantiates and generates transparency and teachability of this collaborative research approach.

Cummins, M.W., & Brannon, G. E. (2022). Implicating Ourselves Through Our Research: A Duoethnography of Researcher Reflexivity. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 51(1), 85–102. https://doi.org/10.1177/08912416211021898

Abstract. Researcher reflexivity is not a new concept in qualitative research. However, how/if researchers engage in that reflexivity varies. In this essay, the authors engage in reflexivity about a research project they conducted together. The previous project consisted of semi-structured interviews with U.S.-based mothers regarding their perceptions about motherhood. We then used intensive motherhood as a theoretical lens through which we analyzed the interviews. The project also encompassed mothers’ perceptions during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Through duoethnography, the researchers reflexively consider major dead angles of their project, challenges they faced, and what reflexivity brings to the forefront. They further reflect on their own communication processes throughout the research project and discuss implications for future researchers. As a result, the authors call for researchers to consider their own positionalities and the effects on research more deeply through collaboration and continual reevaluation.

Le, G. N. H., Tran, V., & Le, T. T. (2021). Combining Photography and Duoethnography for Creating a Trioethnography Approach to Reflect Upon Educational Issues Amidst the COVID-19 Global Pandemic. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 20. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069211031127

Abstract. This study proposes a new research design, combining duoethnography and photography into a trioethnography that opens an artful lens through which educational changes, emerging and unfixed problems, and unexplored/unseen values and hopes were examined. Central to this trioethnography was voices of three Vietnamese doctoral students with transnational experiences in Canada and Australia, around three educational topics: researcher positionality, education inequity, and mindfulness in relation to the global crisis within and beyond higher education contexts. Living transnationally in these insecure and rocky times of a pandemic gives us a unique opportunity to contemplate the global educational shifts, moves, and changes in and after the crisis. We formed our discussions in the three circles of the Indigenous approach, in which we shared cultural artifacts, such as photographs, and used them as the catalysts for personal and interactive reflections. Taking up the spirit of duoethnography, we have seen that findings might be emerging from our dialogues and discussions; we gathered three different voices of contemplative educators to juxtapose our diverse perspectives and experiences of how education is changing, evolving, and shifting significantly amidst the COVID-19. In this process, we have shown efforts in progressing the traditional methodological practices of duoethnography through our trioethnographic conversations. Within the back-and-forth conversations, we have seen multiple facets of our narrative experiences through photographs, including personal sophisticated emotions, struggles, hopes, and losses.

Sawyer, R. D., & Liggett, T. (2012). Shifting Positionalities: A Critical Discussion of a Duoethnographic Inquiry of a Personal Curriculum of Post/Colonialism. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 11(5), 628–651. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691201100507

Abstract. This article first presents a study of two educational researchers' history and curriculum of colonialism. Using a process of duoethnography, we engage in dialogic and collaborative personal ethnographies in which we contrast and analyze critical educational incidents and products (e.g., a high school report card, old personal photos, and current teaching lesson plans at the high school and college levels). We focus this process on the ideological scripts framing and informing our educational histories, as students and then as teachers, in order to unpack some of the cultural underpinnings of our views of teaching language arts for equity and diversity. Furthermore, in the article we critique the duoethnographic process, analyzing and discussing issues surrounding representation, trustworthiness, and self-reflexivity.

Snyder, K. M., & Turesky, E. F. (2023). Dancing the Data: A Duo-Ethnographic Exploration Toward Dialogic Reflexivity in Qualitative Data Analysis. Qualitative Inquiry, 29(5), 558–570. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004221118687

Abstract. Qualitative researchers continue to push methodological boundaries to study social phenomena using arts-based practices. Research methodologists suggest that the arts open new possibilities in research through the very nature of the arts to stimulate and evoke perspectives. The arts promote dialogue, which yields new insights, highlights multiple meanings, and questions norm-based traditions. This article presents findings from a duo-ethnography to explore the application of the arts as a dialogic-reflexive process during the data analysis phase in qualitative research. Findings contribute with insights into how science and culture are combined methodologically to facilitate dialogic-reflexivity in research and meaning-making.

Learning to Be An Ethnographer

Blair, H., Filipek, J., Lovell, M., McKay, M., Nixon, R., & Sun, M. (2011). Our Journey to Becoming Ethnographers: An Exploration of Rhetorical Structures as Lived Experience. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 10(2), 140–150. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691101000203

Abstract. This article, originally written as a performative piece, presents the experiences and perceptions of five graduate students and one professor as they reflect on and write about becoming ethnographers throughout a graduate-level research course. Data sources include reflective journals, synthesis papers, and academic literature. Following the completion of the course, the group came together and applied grounded theory to analyze the data and write collectively about their experiences, feelings, and insights on ethnographic work. They present the data as a readers theatre that incorporates portions of a children's book with the group's reflections. Like authors of other academic literature the group discusses the challenges and benefits of ethnographic research. Their collaborative writing reflects their polyvocality as they negotiated their journeys toward becoming ethnographers.

Ravindran, A., Li, J., & Marshall, S. (2020). Learning Ethnography Through Doing Ethnography: Two Student—Researchers’ Insights. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406920951295

Abstract. In this article, we present the accounts of the field experiences and challenges of two graduate student-researchers practising ethnographic methodology, conducting fieldwork, and writing up “post-modern” ethnographies that are both creative and “integrative”. We describe the complexities and tensions when two student-researchers negotiated many issues in the field and “behind the desk” as they transformed the texts: epistemology and ontology, reflexivity and auto-ethnography, and writing researchers and participants in and out of accounts. We conclude with a discussion on pedagogical implications, and consider the value of learning ethnography through doing ethnography.

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