Autoethnographic Stories Research Articles

Editorial: Tools for research (and to predetermine) the world

Pushing authors to make themselves visible in the text ‒ through autoethnography ‒ to account for the decisions that drive their em­pirical research work, explain the performative relationships that link them to their tools, and show the process of cyclical adaptations between them, their tools and the world, guest editors Donato Ricci and Jamie Allen challenged the traditional canons of academic publishing, more focused on displaying results and describing processes than on ques­tioning the means we use to research, test, and validate. These autoethnographic stories ‒ provoc­ative, experimental, and introspective ‒ make us aware of the relationship that we establish with our research tools. Along with this, they urge us to redefine research and publication practices and to question the boundaries between dualistic catego­ries like subject/object, truth/fiction, writer/reader, user/producer, culture/nature and collaboration/ competition, calling for correspondence, inclusion, care, fiction, political soundness, collaboration, post-production, readiness to be affected, pro­to-politics, and the relational dimension of data.

To Be a (M)other: A Feminist Performative Autoethnography of Abortion

This is an abortion story. A feminist story. A body story. An autoethnographic story. This is a story of learning how to story abortion in a culture unforgiving to abortion stories. A story of embodying a body deemed unworthy of embodiment. A story of enfleshment enmeshed amid silence and violence. Influenced by feminist embodied auto-epistemologies, this essay seeks to disrupt the functionality of the U.S. American abortion debate through a performative, somatic reclamation of my experience from the semantic constrictions of highly medicalized, politicized, and individualized hegemonic discourses. Engaging a feminist performative autoethnographic praxis informed by écriture feminine, I center my corporeal body as a site of epistemological value to speak back against the limiting narratives of/about abortion while illustrating the critical creative potentials of performative autoethnographic storytelling. This essay weaves theory, lyric prose, epistolary, and poetry to performatively reconstruct, reframe, and reclaim my abortion experience through an embodied autoethnographic framework, in hopes of illuminating possibilities for others to “[experiment] with how we might tell stories differently rather than simply telling different stories” (p. 16).

Research into the diversification of university careers in learning and teaching and intentionally closing-the-loop on graduate employability

Universities are both a source of employable graduates and careers. This paper examines universities as developers and employers of their own graduates from the perspective of employees and recruited positions. Research questions were: what do learning and teaching careers look like at universities, and; what are the occupational patterns, satisfactions and concerns of the staff in those careers? An autoethnographic account of employees’ career journeys (all of whom were employed in learning and teaching or closely related areas) from five different universities were shared, compared and contrasted. Two of these universities are profiled as having a large proportion of students from target equity groups and therefore have intentionally recruited learning and teaching staff to widen student participation. A desktop review of six months of university employment vacancies from these two universities was conducted. A consistent theme across the autoethnographic stories was a feeling of being an outsider. The authors’ hypothesis is that this is related to haphazard preparation for learning and teaching positions. Of the 322 university vacancies, 84% were for professional staff, 23% of which were in learning and teaching, with the most prevalent role being Coordinator. Fourteen per cent were for academic staff, 64% of which involved learning and teaching, and the most prevalent title was Lecturer/Senior Lecturer. Key takeaways include recommendations for universities to intentionally enhance the employability of graduates who pursue learning and teaching positions within universities, and for prospective university learning and teaching staff to enhance their employability.

Shaming as a Form of Social Activism: Autoethnographic Stories

In this article, the author uses a poem and two vignettes to argue for the power of autoethnographic stories as a means for social activism and advances three propositions: (1) Autoethnographic stories can make people feel shame (pathos); (2a) Shame is one way to get those in power to act (ethos); (2b) Shame, fear, and rage are closely related; and (3) We can use autoethnography to shame those in power to do the right thing (logos). The author uses the metaphor of the vulnerable as a hamster killed by the family dog to highlight how we can move from fear to rage in order to shame those in power to address issues of sexual assault at the university.

‘Please tell me when you are in pain’: A heartbreaking story of care, grief and female–canine companionship

What could the underdeveloped research area of canine–human companionship teach us about gendered body work as well as offer to the field of organization studies more broadly? This article responds to recent discussions on the animal in the organizational academy. We share an autoethnographic story of female–canine companionship as experienced by one of the authors of the article and her beloved dog, who is currently living on the borderlines between life and death, joy and mourning. We find this example relevant for raising important feminist concerns among organizational scholars about silenced questions around care and grief as well as for developing more inclusive and ethically grounded approaches to exploring research topics dealing with vulnerability. Finally, this article offers a critical reflection on the potential and limitations of alternative research in the field of organization studies that recognizes our affective relations with animals.

Career transition as identity learning: an autoethnographic understanding of human resource development

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the phenomenon of career transitions in terms of learning using an autoethnographic story of our own career moves. In the contemporary world of globalized flexible employment, inter-organizational career moves are increasingly prevalent and the learning associated with such transitions needs to be better understood within human resource development (HRD). We show that the learning required in career transitions extends beyond the acquisition of new knowledge and the development of new skills to the appropriation of new identities. We overview identity theorizing and, adopting a social constructionist perspective, explain the concept of identity work to understand the nature of identity learning in career transitions. We then reflexively examine our autoethnographic methodology, proceed to tell the story of our career transitions, and then interpret this story in terms of identity learning. Conclusions are drawn showing how the learning associated with career transitions involves conscious and unconscious identity work to release an established way of being, cultivate a new and desired way of being, and to cope with the existential anxieties associated with transition. Significant implications for international HRD scholarship, policy, and practice are proposed.

Accessing uncolonized terrains of organizations: uncanny force of sleep and dreaming

ABSTRACTThis paper joins the debate on the ambiguous, complex, and shadowy realities of organizational life. It suggests that the psychoanalytical concept of uncanny provides an apt lens for making sense of the uncolonized terrains within organizations that escape rationalization, but that still give rise to organizational subjectivity. We propose that sleep and dreaming afford an uncolonized terrain that allows us to reveal blind spots of organizational subjectivity. Our auto-ethnographic stories, produced in the authors’ academic organization and outside the physical borders of academia, are grouped under two themes – threatening insecurity and traumatic dreams, shocking becomings – demonstrating how the uncanniness of dreams and sleeping is experienced in organizations. Put together, they manifest repressed forms of organizational subjectivity, reflecting its true vulnerable nature arising from insecurity, uncertainty and instability.

On representing autism and the altruism of self-reflexive writing

Autoethnographic stories about illness and disability are usually written for, and with, readers in mind, engaging in the ‘reciprocity that is storytelling (whereby) the teller offers herself as a guide to the other’s self-formation’ (Frank 1995: 17–8). While selfreflexive narratives can be immensely healing for the writer, they also invite readers to reflect upon the issues at hand and bring about a shift in their own thinking. As such, self-reflexive writing can be a powerful tool for advocacy and for challenging the status quo. By allowing readers to empathise and connect with the subject matter at a very personal level, it can illuminate nuanced moments of adversity or insight, and capture a depth of understanding that more traditional texts may not always depict. This article draws on interviews with families living with high functioning autism and the exemplar text Far from the tree: Parents, children and the search for identity (Solomon 2014). Following Solomon, the article’s author reflects upon personal experiences and embraces self-reflexivity as a way of better understanding herself, representing her subjects, and helping to illuminate a common theme that difference is a value worth nurturing.

“VER, OÍR, CALLAR Y… ABURRIRSE” EN EL TRABAJO DE CAMPO DE UNA PRISIÓN: UN RELATO AUTOETNOGRÁFICO

Como uma forma de pesquisa narrativa, autoetnografía enfatiza a parte mais pessoal do processo de investigação. Neste artigo, a história autoetnografica é usada para refletir sobre o trabalho de campo de um estudo etnográfico anterior realizado no pavilhão desportivo de uma prisão espanhola de segurança máxima. Os dados recolhidos nesse momento são re-analisados para fazer crítica explícita das decisões tomadas. Assim, eles revelam os dilemas éticos enfrentados, as relações sociais complexas que surgem durante o processo de pesquisa e a falibilidade das decisões tomadas.

Opening Up about Birth: An Autoethnographic Account of Prolonged Labour

A woman’s first pregnancy can be both emotionally exciting and daunting. There are many changes to make, but there is little emotional support to adjust to the role, the focus being on the physical process which is most often managed medically (Spear, 2008; Zasloff, Schytt, & Waldenström, 2007) though warnings about what could occur are not routinely told (Kaitz, 2007, pp. 720-721). This paper presents an autoethnographic story of first time pregnancy and the unfolding labour. The methodology of autoethnography is a useful tool for conveying stories of lived experience at a level of detail often previously unrecorded, evoking for the reader a powerful insight into sometimes very personal but universal human experiences. Utilising the tools of narration, autoethnography is a powerful device for conveying plot, character and events. This autoethnography provides the vehicle to juxtapose the joy and excitement of a first pregnancy and the plan for a natural delivery with a developing complicated labour and the ongoing difficulties of breast feeding, and concludes with some thoughts about how better to support first time mothers through the process.

True confessions: why I left a traditional liberal arts college for the sins of the big city

PurposeBy means of several auto-ethnographic stories (including a scene from a working script for a proposed film), the author interrogates numerous ideas and misconceptions about gay youth, both past and present. A “bargain of silence” sometimes following gay sexual encounters in youth is described. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachThe author recounts a sexual experience with a male college student in his past. This dissonance catapulted the author to move from his small liberal arts college to the city and begin his education again at an art college.FindingsThe author then describes his personal attraction to a 16-year-old boy who lived near his lodgings during one summer’s break from art college. This time, the relationship remained purely platonic, but that did not seem to matter where the boy’s parents were concerned. The author’s social position and pretence coupled with his romantic outlook convinced him that anything was possible, even this platonic love. The painful lesson learned that summer was that this was not the case, and never would be. The boy’s parents threatened Jones, and he never saw the youth again. The author continues by discussing his award-winning research-based film, Rufus Stone, and the reactions and conversations following screenings, particularly with youth. This present generation seems to Jones to be a sexually ambivalent one, more comfortable with multiple choices or no choice at all. Nonetheless, these young people do identify with the complexity of feelings and insecurities presented by youth within the film.Research limitations/implicationsIn a recent report on sexuality of American high school students by the Center for Disease Control, researchers found an ambivalence and “dissonance” amongst youth regarding sexuality and choice. The author acknowledges that there remains a contemporary problem of genuine acceptance by society, and that there still is work to be done. He also admits that present-day attitudes by youth regarding sexuality are one that he had previously assumed to be historical ones.Originality/valueBeing straight or being gay can be viewed within the wider culture’s need to set up a sexual binary and force sexual “choice” decision-making for the benefit of the majority culture. Through the device of the fleeting moment, this essay hopes to interrogate the certainties and uncertainties of the “norms” of modernity by portraying sexuality in youth.

An Autoethnographic Story of Abuse: Healing and Finding Hope Through a Sexual Health Promotion Project for Adolescents With Developmental Disabilities.

This case report is the story of my son's alleged abuse, told from my perspective. At the time, Jordan, a boy with Down syndrome, was 14 years old when his disclosure of sexual abuse by a school employee occurred. As part of the healing process, I use autoethnography to tell the story. I also describe and discuss a school-based program, which I developed and deliver, to provide sexual health promotion and sexual abuse prevention to adolescents with developmental disabilities.

Walking the complexities between two worlds: A personal story of epistemological tensions in knowledge production

In this article, I tell the autoethnographic stories of epistemological tensions emerging from my entanglement with Indigenous and Western ways of knowing in my journey towards my doctoral research in social work. I link these tensions to broader socio-political and historical tensions that tie together the West and the Global South. I highlight the sharp contrasts and contradictions as well as the nuanced contestations in the production of knowledge. I follow a chronological order to organize my narratives into four parts. In the first part, I describe my experiences of walking in two worlds. In the second part, I explore how I knew what I knew, depicting my indigenous ways of knowing. In the third part, I examine Western ways of knowing, depicting the subjugation of my indigenous ways of knowing. In the final part, I address the hybrid ways of knowing that I embody by walking in many worlds.

“Passing as Normal”

This autoethnography presents a narrative account of the author’s experience of living and coping with the stigma of deafness. First, the autoethnographic stories explore the author’s experience of face-to-face encounters with hearing people in which he attempts to pass himself off as normal. The stories illustrate how stigma played a central role in the framing of social interactions inside and outside of school. Second, the article draws on Erving Goffman’s theories on stigma and identity management in an attempt to illuminate an understanding of what the author was coming to terms with. Finally, the author offers his own reflections on the stories including details of some life-changing moments that provided the impetus to transform the stigma of deafness into a positive attribute.

Living Bodies of Thought

There is a vital, yet often unrealized relationship between storytelling and critical approaches to autoethnography. Where autoethnography brings the personal, the concrete, and an emphasis on storytelling to our scholarship, it often leaves us wanting for clear and powerful theoretical frameworks for understanding how such stories help us write into or become the change we seek in the world. Critical theory provides us with such frameworks, though it is often dismissed as jargon-laden, difficult, and impersonal. The “critical” in critical autoethnography reminds us that theory is not a static or autonomous set of ideas, objects, or practices. Instead, theorizing is an ongoing process that links the concrete and abstract, thinking and acting, aesthetics, and criticism in what performance studies scholar Della Pollock describes as “living bodies of thought.” This essay engages a practice of performative and queer storytelling that links the concreteness, risk, and poetry of autoethnographic stories with the powerful intellectual and political commitments of critical theory as one example of critical autoethnography as a living body of thought.

Including alternative stories in the mainstream. How transcultural young people in Norway perform creative cultural resistance in and outside of school

ABSTRACTThe development of an inclusive pedagogy takes on new urgency in Norwegian schools as the student body has become increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse. Traditionally, the Norwegian school has been dominated by homogenising and assimilating discourses, whereas alternative voices have been situated at the margins. In response to this tendency, we present two transcultural students’ autoethnographic stories produced in alternative spaces to the Norwegian mainstream, that is, in a transition class for newly arrived students and on Facebook. Both spaces are perceived as contact zones in the sense that they are culturally and linguistically complex. This article illustrates how the students perform cultural and linguistic resistance towards dominant homogenising discourses as the transition class and Facebook seem to offer opportunities for constructing alternative stories. Moreover, we contend that these alternative stories offer important knowledge for conventional education contexts since they represent stories of competence in contrast to the assumed limitations of these students.

(Re)imagining “Normal” Movement

This autoethnographic story is constructed around the skeleton of a play performed at the 2014 Doing Autoethnography conference. I delve into, and write through, the difficult experience of coming to terms with the chronic illness Dystonia. When readers absorb my explanation of how I have chosen to live my life, it becomes apparent that my attitude towards the illness is a departure from the expected “acceptance of disability.” I consider Dystonia to be a disruption to my life. I “acknowledge” Dystonia because it is something that will forever be present; I will never “accept it.” I critically examine the notion of “normal,” and outline how my “normal” has changed. Throughout the article run reflections on my evolving “movement.”

Content Curators as Cultural Intermediaries: “My reputation as a curator is based on what I curate, right?”

Content Curators as Cultural Intermediaries: “My reputation as a curator is based on what I curate, right?”

<i>Vhuthu</i> in the <i>muta</i>: A practical theologian's autoethnographic journey

A practical theologian constructs his autoethnographic and interactive narrative with Venda people and others. His own journey is integrated with those of church and community members. These joint lived experiences were shared in the households and families of the relevant co-participants. The concept of Vhuthu in the muta is explored in relation to its potential and problematics by means of auto ethnographic stories, relevant literature, art,poems and linguistics. The article appreciatively and critically reflects upon Vhuthu and its possible value for practical theology.

Tracing Mom

This three-part autoethnographic short story explores the materiality of loss.