Reading Autoethnography: The Impact of Writing Through the Body

Authors

Katarina Tuinamuana, Australian Catholic UniversityFollow
Joanne Yoo, University of Technology SydneyFollow

Abstract

In this paper, we explore alternative ways in which academic writing can have impact, specifically in how it can move from the clearly measured to the deeply felt. We do this by writing a creative nonfiction narrative of our experimentation with autoethnography, detailing our responses to four published autoethnographic articles. We found that reading and engaging with these papers meant that we also had to listen and reconnect to our bodies in ways that initially seemed foreign to us as academics. But we persevered, and this project strengthened our resolve to create time/space to engage writing/research that deeply moves and transforms us. Within our experience, this writing offers alternatives to the dominant techno-rationalistic certainty of academic discourses that work to artificially separate mind from body.

Keywords

Autoethnography, Creative Nonfiction, Writing as Inquiry, Embodiment, Narrative Writing

Author Bio(s)

Katarina Tuinamuana, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in Education Studies at the Australian Catholic University, Sydney where she teaches and researches socio-cultural practices of education, analysing the changing social and political contexts that govern educational practice. Correspondence can be addressed directly to: katarina.tuinamuana@acu.edu.au.

Joanne Yoo is Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney in Australia She has worked extensively across a wide range of subjects in the primary and secondary teacher education programs. Joanne’s research interests include developing collaborative teaching partnerships, teaching as an embodied practice, action research and arts-based research methodologies, such as narrative inquiry and autoethnography. Correspondence can also be addressed directly to: joanne_hyun_yoo_@hotmail.com.

Publication Date

4-19-2020

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2020.4006

Recommended APA Citation

Tuinamuana, K., & Yoo, J. (2020). Reading Autoethnography: The Impact of Writing Through the Body. The Qualitative Report, 25(4), 999-1008. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2020.4006