Walking Toward the Demonumentalization of Qualitative Research: A Collaborative Autoethnography Account While Producing an Educational Podcast

Authors

Carmen H. Guerrero-Nieto, Universidad Distrital "Francisco Jose de Caldas"iFollow
Alvaro H. Quintero-Polo, Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de CaldasFollow

Abstract

This article examines how two teacher educators, as researchers and as research teachers, engaged in a collaborative interpretation of their autoethnographies about questioning an instrumentalist and positivist research culture in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT). The autoethnographies simultaneously emerged from the research activities related to the production of a bilingual podcast named “Conversing about "Investigación Cualitativa.” Specifically, the authors conducted a qualitative study of autoethnographic and collaborative nature while working on their podcast. The data were individual written retrospective accounts, which were shared, discussed, and interpreted in online live meetings. The outcomes of the study were encapsulated in a major theme called Qualitative research: The path traveled from dogma to critical awareness, and three subsidiary themes named Questioning the culture of scientificity from our research experiences; Adopting a critical perspective (but still teaching by the book); and Empowering ourselves as teachers and as research teachers. Overall, this study emphasized a questioning attitude toward building a critical perspective from which examine alternatives to demonumentalize qualitative research without falling into extremes. Thus, it contributes to finding a balance between dogma and skepticism through a dialogue between local and global research agendas.

Keywords

autoethnography, English language teaching, formative research, positivist research, qualitative research, teacher education

Author Bio(s)

Carmen Helena Guerrero Nieto, Ph.D. is a full professor at Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas. She is faculty in its Doctoral program in Education, and the chair of the MA program in Communicación Educación of the same University. Her research interests and publications are in critical pedagogy, critical discourse analysis, bilingualism, language policies and teacher education. She is the main researcher of the group Critical Studies on Educational Policies. She is a former president of ASOCOPI. Please direct correspondence to chguerreron@udistrital.edu.co

Álvaro Hernán Quintero-Polo holds a Doctorate in Education and an MA in applied linguistics. He is a full professor of Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas (Colombia). His areas of interest are language teacher education, critical discourse studies, and educational policies. He is co-director of the research group ESTUPOLI. Please direct correspondence to aquintero@udistrital.edu.co

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to the peer reviewers who took the time to read and provide us with insightful comments and suggestions. Their insights led us to reflect on our piece and helped us improve and enrich the final product. Any misunderstanding or mistake is solely our responsibility.

Publication Date

2-3-2024

Creative Commons License

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

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2024.6275

Recommended APA Citation

Guerrero-Nieto, C. H., & Quintero-Polo, A. H. (2024). Walking Toward the Demonumentalization of Qualitative Research: A Collaborative Autoethnography Account While Producing an Educational Podcast. The Qualitative Report, 29(2), 464-483. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2024.6275

ORCID ID

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4011-788X

ResearcherID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0315-8802