Ron Chenail, Sally St. George, Maureen Duffy, Robin Cooper, marcela polanco, Kenneth Carano, and TBD

The Qualitative Report

Fifth Annual Conference

Qualitative Research Artistry and Craft

Nova Southeastern University

Fort Lauderdale, Florida USA

January 18, 2014

The Art and Craft of Autoethnography

Auto-Ethno-GraphyAuto – personal

experience

Ethno – cultural experience

Graphy – analyzing and writing experience

(Ellis, Adams, & Bochner, 2011, ¶ 1)

Definitions

“…a form of self-narrative that places the self within a social context” (Reed-Danahay, 1997, p. 9)

“…retrospectively and selectively write about epiphanies that stem from, or are made possible by, being part of a culture and/or possessing a particular cultural identity” (Ellis, Adams, & Bochner, 2011, ¶ 8)

Definitions

“…a research method that utilizes the researchers’ autobiographical data to analyze and interpret their cultural assumptions” (Chang, 2008, p. 9)

“…seeks to address that muddled idiosyncratic, florid eccentricities that make us unique as opposed to part of a population” (Muncey, 2010, p. xi)

Autoethnography

Methodology

Product / Performance

Intervention

History and ContextsEthnography

CultureOtherObjectivity

AutobiographyNarrativeSelfSubjective

TensionsNative ethnography: Studying

one’s own group

Ethnographic autobiography or Native autobiography: One’s life story has ethnographic interest

Ethnography becoming more biographical

Autobiography becoming more reflective of societal and cultural frames of reference (Reed-Danahay, 1997, pp. 8-9)

ContinuumsBiographical –

EthnographicSelf-Narrative –

CultureInsider – OutsiderObjective –

SubjectivePersonal memory

data – Field data (observations, interviews, and artifacts)

Artistic – Scientific

Types

Individual / Collaborative

Evocative / Interpretive / Performance / Critical

Analytic

Evocative Autoethnography“Back and forth autoethnographers gaze, first through an ethnographic wide-angle lens, focusing outward on social and cultural aspects of their personal experience; then they look inward, exposing a vulnerable self that is moved by and may move through, refract, and resist cultural interpretations.” (Ellis & Bochner, 2000, p. 739)

Evocative Autoethnography“As they zoom backward and forward, inward and outward, distinctions between the personal and cultural become blurred, sometimes beyond recognition.” (Ellis & Bochner, 2000, p. 739)

“The goal is to enter and document the moment-to-moment, concrete details of a life. That’s an important way of knowing as well.” (Ellis & Bochner, 2000, p. 737)

Evocative AutoethnographyStart with your personal

lifePay attention to your

physical feelings, thoughts, and emotions

Employ systematic sociological introspection and emotional recall to understand your experience

Explore your particular life to understand a way of life (Ellis & Bochner, 2000, p. 737)

Analytic AutoethnographyAlternative to

Evocative or Emotional Autoethnography

Realist and Analytic Ethnographic Paradigm

Traditional Symbolic Interactionism

Self-related Ethnographic Study (Anderson, 2005, p. 375)

Analytic Autoethnography:Key Features

Complete Member Researcher (CMR) Status in the Research Group or Setting

Analytic ReflexivityNarrative Visibility of the

Researcher’s SelfDialogue with Informants

Beyond the SelfCommitment to Theoretical

Analysis Focused on Improving Theoretical Understandings of Broader Social Phenomenon (Anderson, 2005, pp. 375, 378)

Methods and TermsPersonal memory

dataEpiphaniesSelf-observationsSelf-reflectionsExternal data

InterviewsArtifactsLiterature

Products

ProsePoetryVisualMusicPlaysDanceStand-up

Quality

Reliability – Credibility

Validity – Verisimilitude

Generalizability – Reader Response (Ellis, Adams, & Bochner, 2011, ¶ 32-35)

Ethical ConcernsMemoryPrivacy,

Confidentiality, and IRB’s (Chang, 2008, pp. 68-69)

Relational ethics (Ellis, Adams, & Bochner, 2011, ¶ 28-31)

Narrative responsibilitiesPrivilegeMediaViolence (Muncey, 2010, p. 105)

Producing Autoethnographies

AuthorsReviewersEditors

StudentsFaculty

Questions To Ask

Person: Who is writing the autoethnography?

Populace: What is the social group to which the person is identifying?

Position: What is the person’s relationship to the populace?

Questions To Ask

Problem: What is the challenge experienced by the person/populace?

Purpose: Why is the person writing the autoethnography?

Perspective: What is the person’s lens?

Questions To Ask

Plan: How was the autoethnography created?

Product: What is the autoethnography?

Praxis: What are the implications of the inquiry?

Best Autoethnography of 2013

Royalsby

Lorde

I've never seen a diamond in the fleshI cut my teeth on wedding rings in the moviesAnd I'm not proud of my addressIn the torn up town, no post code envy

But every song's like:

Gold teethGrey GooseTripping in the bathroomBloodstainsBall gownsTrashing the hotel room

We don't care, we're driving Cadillacs in our dreams

Royals

But everybody's like:CrystalMaybachDiamonds on your timepieceJet planesIslandsTigers on a gold leashWe don't care, we aren't caught up in your love affairAnd we'll never be royals (royals)It don't run in our bloodThat kind of lux just ain't for us, we crave a different kind of buzzLet me be your ruler (ruler)You can call me queen beeAnd baby I'll rule, I'll rule, I'll rule, I'll ruleLet me live that fantasy

Royals

My friends and I we've cracked the code We count our dollars on the train to the partyAnd everyone who knows us knowsThat we're fine with this, we didn't come from moneyBut every song's like:Gold teethGrey GooseTripping in the bathroomBloodstainsBall gownsTrashing the hotel roomWe don't care, we're driving Cadillacs in our dreams

Royals

But everybody's like:CrystalMaybachDiamonds on your timepieceJet planesIslandsTigers on a gold leashWe don't care, we aren't caught up in your love affairAnd we'll never be royals (royals)It don't run in our bloodThat kind of lux just ain't for us, we crave a different kind of buzzLet me be your ruler (ruler)You can call me queen beeAnd baby I'll rule, I'll rule, I'll rule, I'll ruleLet me live that fantasy

Royals

ooh ooh oh ooh We're better than we've every dreamed And I'm in love with being queenooh ooh oh ooh Life is great without a care We aren't caught up in your love affairAnd we'll never be royals (royals)It don't run in our bloodThat kind of lux just ain't for us, we crave a different kind of buzzLet me be your ruler (ruler)You can call me queen beeAnd baby I'll rule, I'll rule, I'll rule, I'll ruleLet me live that fantasySongwriters: Little, Joel / Yelich-O'Connor, Ella Published by © EMI Music Publishing

Royals

Nine P’s of Autoethnography

PersonPopulacePositionProblemPurpose

PerspectivePlanProductPraxis

Questions and Comments

ReferencesAnderson, L. (2006). Analytic

autoethnography. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 35(4), 373-395.

Chang, H. (2008). Autoethnography as method. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast.

Ellis, C., Adams, T. E., & Bochner, A. P. (2010). Autoethnography: An overview. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 12(1), Art. 10, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1101108

References

Ellis, C., & Bochner, A. P. (2000). Autoethnography, personal narrative, reflexivity: Researcher as subject. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 733-768). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Muncey, T. (2012). Creating autoethnographies. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

Reed-Danahay, D. (1997). Introduction. In D. Reed-Danahay (Ed.), Auto/ethnography: Rewriting the self and the social (pp. 1-17). Oxford, UK: Berg.

Ron Chenail, PhDThe Qualitative ReportNova Southeastern UniversityGraduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences3301 College AvenueFort Lauderdale, Florida USA 33314Phone: 954.262.3019Email: ron@nova.edu

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