Home Linguistics & Semiotics Chapter 2. Transformative possibilities of autoethnography
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Chapter 2. Transformative possibilities of autoethnography

  • Wendy Bilgen
View more publications by John Benjamins Publishing Company
Search
Reflexive and Reflective Research Approaches in Applied Linguistics
This chapter is in the book Reflexive and Reflective Research Approaches in Applied Linguistics

Abstract

This chapter presents autoethnography, an increasingly popular albeit controversial research methodology that draws on the practices of autobiographical writing, narrative inquiry, and ethnography, to interrogate aspects of the researcher’s own life experiences in order to illuminate and critique personal, social, and cultural phenomena. After presenting a brief history of autoethnography, this chapter will describe how one might interrogate one’s own reality, seen as a construct highly dependent on cultural environment and social interactions, using the tools of self-reflexivity, subjectivity/intersubjectivity, emotionality, and storytelling to make connections between the inner world of the self and the socio-cultural world out there. Some of the debates around orientations to analytic, critical, interpretive, evocative, and artistic styles of autoethnographic research will be considered including how autoethnographers use a range of narrative forms to tackle sensitive topics and controversial positions sometimes ignored, distorted, or silenced in traditional research. Finally, the overall purpose of autoethnography — to represent, break, and remake our personal and shared understandings of individual experiences as well as systemic practices in need of change — is presented as a transformative pedagogical practice.

Abstract

This chapter presents autoethnography, an increasingly popular albeit controversial research methodology that draws on the practices of autobiographical writing, narrative inquiry, and ethnography, to interrogate aspects of the researcher’s own life experiences in order to illuminate and critique personal, social, and cultural phenomena. After presenting a brief history of autoethnography, this chapter will describe how one might interrogate one’s own reality, seen as a construct highly dependent on cultural environment and social interactions, using the tools of self-reflexivity, subjectivity/intersubjectivity, emotionality, and storytelling to make connections between the inner world of the self and the socio-cultural world out there. Some of the debates around orientations to analytic, critical, interpretive, evocative, and artistic styles of autoethnographic research will be considered including how autoethnographers use a range of narrative forms to tackle sensitive topics and controversial positions sometimes ignored, distorted, or silenced in traditional research. Finally, the overall purpose of autoethnography — to represent, break, and remake our personal and shared understandings of individual experiences as well as systemic practices in need of change — is presented as a transformative pedagogical practice.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Chapter 1. Reflectivity and reflexivity in qualitative research and scholarship 1
  5. Part I. Reflectivity and reflexivity in research
  6. Chapter 2. Transformative possibilities of autoethnography 22
  7. Chapter 3. Duoethnography 41
  8. Chapter 4. Toward an understanding of currere as a research method 61
  9. Chapter 5. Telling stories matters 80
  10. Part II. Reflectivity and reflexivity and Applied Linguistics Research
  11. Chapter 6. Affordances and limitations of autoethnography as a research method in Applied Linguistics 98
  12. Chapter 7. The role of duoethnography in critical ELT research 120
  13. Chapter 8. Currere 139
  14. Chapter 9. Narrative inquiry in Applied Linguistics Research 152
  15. Part III. Reflective and reflexive studies
  16. Chapter 10. An autoethnography of migration, language, and power dynamics 172
  17. Chapter 11. Duoethnographic inquiry into translingualism and language teacher identity 188
  18. Chapter 12. Past, present, and future 206
  19. Chapter 13. When children don’t learn to read 223
  20. Coda
  21. Chapter 14. Contemporary Applied Linguistics Research 248
  22. Author index 267
  23. Subject index 269
https://doi.org/10.1075/rmal.8.02bil

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Chapter 1. Reflectivity and reflexivity in qualitative research and scholarship 1
  5. Part I. Reflectivity and reflexivity in research
  6. Chapter 2. Transformative possibilities of autoethnography 22
  7. Chapter 3. Duoethnography 41
  8. Chapter 4. Toward an understanding of currere as a research method 61
  9. Chapter 5. Telling stories matters 80
  10. Part II. Reflectivity and reflexivity and Applied Linguistics Research
  11. Chapter 6. Affordances and limitations of autoethnography as a research method in Applied Linguistics 98
  12. Chapter 7. The role of duoethnography in critical ELT research 120
  13. Chapter 8. Currere 139
  14. Chapter 9. Narrative inquiry in Applied Linguistics Research 152
  15. Part III. Reflective and reflexive studies
  16. Chapter 10. An autoethnography of migration, language, and power dynamics 172
  17. Chapter 11. Duoethnographic inquiry into translingualism and language teacher identity 188
  18. Chapter 12. Past, present, and future 206
  19. Chapter 13. When children don’t learn to read 223
  20. Coda
  21. Chapter 14. Contemporary Applied Linguistics Research 248
  22. Author index 267
  23. Subject index 269
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 24.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/rmal.8.02bil/html
Scroll to top button