When you are the researcher and the participant with autoethnography
by Janet Salmons Ph.D., Research Community Manager for Sage Methodspace
“I’m gonna sit right down and write myself a letter”
I am preparing for a new project that will involve extensive travel (more about that soon!) When I travel I usually art journal along the way, and make notes in both digital and analog formats. Given the complexity of this project, I am already setting up a journal and file system to keep track of everything. I’ve been wondering whether the project merits taking another step and conducting an autoethnographic study. Let’s take a look at this method of research, where the researcher serves as investigator and subject.
What is autoethnography?
The SAGE Dictionary of Qualitative Inquiry (2007) describes autoethnography:
a particular form of writing that seeks to unite ethnographic (looking outward at a world beyond one's own) and autobiographical (gazing inward for a story of one's self) intentions. The aim in composing an autoethnographic account is to keep both the subject (knower) and object (that which is being examined) in simultaneous view.
Unlike journaling for your own reflexive process, or literary forms of memoir, autoethnographic research also involves analysis. Eichsteller and Davis (2022) distinguish autobiography as “the writing of one’s own history,” a narrative self-portrait, from autoethnography, that describes and systematically analyzes one’s experiences to understand them in relation to their context (p. 24). This explanation from Sage Research Methods Foundations similarly highlights the distinction:
Autoethnography places the self within a social and cultural context. However, autoethnography is not primarily about the self, and in this way, it differs from autobiography. … For some who use the term, it is primarily about forms of self-ethnography, but for others, it is about ethnographic reflections upon one’s own group. Emphasis can be placed, therefore, more on the self or the social. (Reed-Danahay, 2019)
The social context might include our disciplinary/interdisciplinary spaces of academic or scholarly life. In a volume discovered in the depths of my bookshelf, Mindful Inquiry in Social Research (1998), Bentz and Shapiro discuss ways researchers find their places as a members of communities, including the scientific community of researchers.
These varied interpretations of the method invite autoethnographers to introduce other data in addition to one’s own thoughts and reflections. Leon Anderson (2006) explains that autoethnographic researchers can engage in dialogue with informants beyond the self to improve understandings of broader social phenomena (p. 374). Bentz and Shapiro suggest that this is not a “purely intellectual or cognitive process” (p. 7), opening the door to creative expressions as well as written records.
In other words, while researchers write about first-person experiences, they also use interviews, observations, and/or documents, arts, and other materials to gain a deeper perspective on the social or cultural context of the events or phenomena. This all sounds like a fit for the project I have in mind, and I will keep Methodspace readers apprised of my progress over the next year as the process unfolds!
The open-access articles listed below offer practical ideas and insights about designing and carrying out an autoethnographic study. (See this related post for additional resources.)
References
Anderson, L. (2006). Analytic autoethnography. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 35, 373–395.
Bentz, V. M., & Shapiro, J. J. (1998). Mindful inquiry in social research. Sage Publishing.
Eichsteller, M. J., & Davis, H. H. (2022). Biographical research methods. Sage Publishing.
Reed-Danahay, D., (2019). Autoethnography, In P. Atkinson, S. Delamont, A. Cernat, J.W. Sakshaug, & R.A. Williams (Eds.), SAGE Research Methods Foundations. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526421036815143
Schwandt, T. A. (2007). . (Vols. 1-0). SAGE Publications, Inc., https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412986281
Bolade-Ogunfodun, Y., Richmond Soga, L., & Laker, B. (2022). Entwined Positionality and Interpretive Frames of Reference: An Autoethnographic Account. Organizational Research Methods, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10944281221111401
Abstract. This paper investigates the ethnographic researcher's positionality and its role in sensemaking within the research process. Using autoethnographic data of the first author - a black female West African (Yoruba) scholar in a Western organizational context, we adopt a critical sensemaking approach to make sense of the researcher's field experience. We propose a conceptualization of the researcher's positionality as one that is entwined in the field, being an active interaction of the researcher's formative context with her sensory capabilities. We demonstrate how openness to the researcher's entwined positionality generates interpretive frames of reference and uncovers nuances in the sensemaking process, which widens the scope for reflexivity. We offer a methodological roadmap for engaging entwined positionality in reflexive practice and contribute to the body of research which challenges the idea of the detached researcher; thus, we respond to the growing calls for integrating the elements of a researcher's positionality into research in a way that enhances reflexivity.
Hager, B. A. (2022). Autoethnography in Research: An Interview with Dr. Robin Grenier. New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, 34(3), 69–75. https://doi.org/10.1002/nha3.20363
Abstract. This article contains an interview with Dr. Robin Grenier, a professor and qualitative methodologist with expertise in autoethnography. The interview was conducted in February 2022 by Bethany Hager, a PhD student in the School of Leadership and Human Resource Development at Louisiana State University. In this interview, Dr. Grenier discusses the use of autoethnography in her own research.
Holt, N. L. (2003). Representation, Legitimation, and Autoethnography: An Autoethnographic Writing Story. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 2(1), 18–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690300200102
Abstract. The purpose of this article is to critique representation and legitimation as they relate to the peer review process for an autoethnographic manuscript. Using a conversation derived from seven reviewers' comments pertaining to one autoethnographic manuscript, issues relating to (a) the use of verification strategies in autoethnographic studies; and, (b) the use of self as the only data source are discussed. As such, this paper can be considered as an autoethnographic writing story. The problematic nature of autoethnography, which is located at the boundaries of scientific research, is examined by linking the author's experiences of the review process with dominant research perspectives. Suggestions for investigators wishing to produce autoethnographic accounts are outlined along with a call for the development of appropriate evaluative criteria for such work.
Kamlongera, M. I. (2023). ‘So what’s arts got to do with it?’: An autoethnography of navigating researcher positionality while co-creating knowledge. Qualitative Research, 23(3), 651–667. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941211045611
In this autoethnography, I share about my journey navigating multiple researcher positionalities. I commence with a reflection on how one of my positionalities as an ‘outsider-within’ influences my onto-epistemological stance and approach to the research. Through my shared case, where I am a ‘marginal intellectual’ with an intersectional researcher positionality, I highlight the complexities of negotiating power in co-creating knowledge with participants whilst navigating the insider/outsider/in-between researcher positions. I illustrate how a reflexive methodology incorporating Arts-Based processes (ABP) facilitated navigation of power dynamics in order to mitigate the ‘representation crisis’ often resulting from researcher positionalities.
Koopman WJ, Watling CJ, LaDonna KA. Autoethnography as a Strategy for Engaging in Reflexivity. Global Qualitative Nursing Research. 2020;7. doi:10.1177/2333393620970508
Abstract. Reflexivity is a key feature in qualitative research, essential for ensuring rigor. As a nurse practitioner with decades of experience with individuals who have chronic diseases, now embarking on a PhD, I am confronted with the question “how will my clinical experiences shape my research?” Since there are few guidelines to help researchers engage in reflexivity in a robust way, deeply buried aspects that may affect the research may be overlooked. The purpose of this paper is to consider the affordances of combining autoethnography (AE) with visual methods to facilitate richer reflexivity. Reflexive activities such as free writing of an autobiographical narrative, drawings of clinical vignettes, and interviews conducted by an experienced qualitative researcher were analyzed to probe and make visible perspectives that may impact knowledge production. Two key themes reflecting my values—fostering advocacy and favoring independence and autonomy were uncovered with this strategy.
Tienari, J. (2022). Academic work and imagination: Reflections of an armchair traveler. Management Learning, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/13505076221136932
Abstract. In this paper, I offer an autoethnography of academic work and imagination. I write as an “armchair traveler” who joins others in research endeavors that they have initiated. Imagination takes center stage in what I do: I use my imagination in analyzing empirical materials and in theorizing and writing meaningful research. Together with others, I engage in studies where I am close to the subject of inquiry and feel sameness, but also in research that for me is grounded in difference and otherness. Through my autoethnography, I elucidate the potential and limits of imagination in different research initiatives. Reflecting on my experiences and learning, I discuss how imagination relates to ethico-politics in doing research. I argue that imagination thrives in small acts of generosity in research collaboration, which harbor a sense of togetherness and solidarity. This has implications for understanding academic work that is obsessed with performance in publishing.
Wall, S. (2006). An Autoethnography on Learning About Autoethnography. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(2), 146–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690600500205
Abstract. Autoethnography is an emerging qualitative research method that allows the author to write in a highly personalized style, drawing on his or her experience to extend understanding about a societal phenomenon. Autoethnography is grounded in postmodern philosophy and is linked to growing debate about reflexivity and voice in social research. The intent of autoethnography is to acknowledge the inextricable link between the personal and the cultural and to make room for nontraditional forms of inquiry and expression. In this autoethnography, the author explores the state of understanding regarding autoethnography as a research method and describes the experience of an emerging qualitative researcher in learning about this new and ideologically challenging genre of inquiry.
Wall, S. (2008). Easier Said than Done: Writing an Autoethnography. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 7(1), 38–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690800700103
Abstract. Autoethnography is an intriguing and promising qualitative method that offers a way of giving voice to personal experience for the purpose of extending sociological understanding. The author's experience of writing an autoethnography about international adoption has shown her, however, that autoethnography can be a very difficult undertaking. In writing her autoethnography, she confronted anxiety-producing questions pertaining to representation, balance, and ethics. As well, she dealt with the acceptability of her autoethnography by informal and formal reviewers. In this article she discusses the challenges she faced in her autoethnographic project to inform future autoethnographers and to inspire them to share their experiences and reflections. For the author questions linger, but she hopes that sharing issues that arise in autoethnographic work will strengthen our understandings of this challenging yet highly promising form of inquiry.
Stahlke Wall, S. (2016). Toward a Moderate Autoethnography. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406916674966
Abstract. Autoethnography is an avant-garde method of qualitative inquiry that has captured the attention of an ever-increasing number of scholars from a variety of disciplines. Personal experience methods can offer a new and unique vantage point from which to make a contribution to social science yet, autoethnography has been criticized for being self-indulgent, narcissistic, introspective, and individualized. Methodological discussions about this method are polarized. As an autoethnographer and qualitative methodologist with an interest in personal experience methods, I have had the opportunity to review several autoethnographic manuscripts over the years. As my reviews accumulated, I began to see themes in my responses and it became apparent that I was advocating for an approach to autoethnography that lies in contrast to the frequently offered methodological polemics from philosophically divergent scholars. In this article, I draw from the reviews I have done to address topics such as applications and purposes for autoethnography, the degree of theory and analysis used within the method, data sources and dissemination of findings, and ethical issues. I then connect the concerns I see in the reviewed manuscripts to examples in the autoethnographic literature. Ultimately, I propose a moderate and balanced treatment of autoethnography that allows for innovation, imagination, and the representation of a range of voices in qualitative inquiry while also sustaining confidence in the quality, rigor, and usefulness of academic research.
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