The role of autoethnography in higher degree research supervision
Location
1049
Format Type
Event
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
January 2019
End Date
January 2019
Abstract
In all higher degree research, it is imperative that candidates have interrogated their role as the Researcher in the Research. I supervise a large number of doctoral candidates and have come to use autoethnography underpinned by phenomenology as a way to explore assumptions and biases based on past experiences and understandings. By knowing who they are in the research, doctoral candidates find the tensions inherent in the emic/etic positions they inhabit easier to articulate. This forms a strong basis for bracketing which is essential in research. There is the added benefit, that the autoethnographic writing allows me (as supervisor) to come to know my students well. Often I am surprised which indicates that I too hold assumptions that I must question. In my presentation I will address autoethnography per se and offer examples of how my students’ autoethnographic writings have unfolded. This will be followed by a discussion of strategies to foster autoethnographic thinking and the role of questioning in prompting self-investigation and self-reflection. I will conclude with a discussion of crafting autoethnographic writing and possible strategies for publication.
Keywords
Autoethnography, doctoral candidates, self-reflection, researcher in the research
The role of autoethnography in higher degree research supervision
1049
In all higher degree research, it is imperative that candidates have interrogated their role as the Researcher in the Research. I supervise a large number of doctoral candidates and have come to use autoethnography underpinned by phenomenology as a way to explore assumptions and biases based on past experiences and understandings. By knowing who they are in the research, doctoral candidates find the tensions inherent in the emic/etic positions they inhabit easier to articulate. This forms a strong basis for bracketing which is essential in research. There is the added benefit, that the autoethnographic writing allows me (as supervisor) to come to know my students well. Often I am surprised which indicates that I too hold assumptions that I must question. In my presentation I will address autoethnography per se and offer examples of how my students’ autoethnographic writings have unfolded. This will be followed by a discussion of strategies to foster autoethnographic thinking and the role of questioning in prompting self-investigation and self-reflection. I will conclude with a discussion of crafting autoethnographic writing and possible strategies for publication.
Comments
Breakout Session D