Self, reflexivity and the crisis of “outsideness”

Abstract

This chapter is inspired by the Russian philosopher and literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin. Bakhtin’s influence in education research is widespread, yet the translation, interpretation and application of Bakhtin’s work from Russian to English has often been problematic. The self and other are integral to Bakhtin’s work and these notions have also become synonymous with the dialogical and reflexive research methodologies in education. But what is meant by self and other? Through problematising Bakhtin’s notion of the crisis of ‘outsideness’ (vnenakhodimost), this chapter discusses the reflexive merits of autoethnography by problematising the precariousness and limitations which can inhibit the approach. I argue, through Bakhtin, that autoethnography is besotted by an overspill in self in the ways the self can perpetually violate the other in research and practice. At the end of the chapter I will explore an engagement with Bakhtin’s crisis of outsideness to propose a dialogical approach for critical autoethnographic studies in education.