An Identity Montage Using Collaborative Autobiography

Abstract

As counsellors, educators, and helping professionals in small communities, we were curious about the relationship between personal and professional identity. We wondered how people like ourselves negotiate role, view our contributions, and construe our place in history. Working within a narrative inquiry paradigm, our approach was both autoethnographic and collaborative. Each of us contributed a piece of autobiographical writing, and we pooled the texts for thematic analysis. Using polyphonic montage, we compare two of the analyses, and interpret what they reveal about identity and role. Through telling and hearing stories of experience, we have pieced together autoethnographic texts to speak beyond the self about a vision of community and making a difference.