Reflection On Autoethnography

The goal of narrative therapy is to change the impact that the problem or issue has on one’s life (Shapiro & Ross, 2002, hence changing the individual. The individual narrates their life story as the clinician strives to assist the client’s in identifying with their experience and to address concerns in their life after a social, political and/or cultural lifestyle. (Shapiro & Ross, 2002).

‘Employing a qualitative methodology, underpinned by a constructivist world view, has provided the means to generate rich, deep and contextualised understandings of the research issue, and an appreciation of the socially constructed and experienced realities of the participants.’ (Highfield 2012)

Thus, this method gives a researcher an in-depth understanding of the participants’ experiences using qualitative inquiry to determine the why, when, where, what, and how of the study.

According to Mary Louise Pratt’s Arts of the Contact Zone, an autoethnographic text can be defined as a text where the author describes himself or his people using mechanisms provided by others. Such texts are almost always the product of a “contact zone” or a place where cultures meet and clash. In other words, autoethnographic texts are those in

Autoethnographies combine elements of both autobiographies and ethnographies. Specifically, autoethnographies are academic essays that are introspective and narrative-oriented looks at the self, much like autobiographies and memoirs. However, autoethnographies are set apart from autobiographies and journals in that they join that introspection with ethnographic research methods concerned with connections between community and the self. Due to their unique nature, ethnographies are beneficial in enhancing cultural understanding of the connections between groups and individuals, as well as the self; and have the potential ability to transform the self and others through the cross-cultural building of bonds and understanding (Chang 2007). Using public and locations can be a helpful tool in self insight, as they encompass a specific discourse (Thomas 1987). The authors reactions to that discourse as well as their identity within the discourse In my own autoethnography, I will examine my own reactions to the courtyard in the

To begin, I will start with narrative research. According to Cresswell (2013), a narrative could be a phenomenon being studied. An example of this would be a phenomenon of an illness; what meaning does one ascribe to an illness? A method that is often viewed in narrative research is to listening to the experiences that are expressed in stories from individuals. The defining features of

In this qualitative phenomenological research, the researcher went to the building that the participants’ schools were located for participants’ convenience. The researcher followed a protocol of first conducting individual interviews with each of the ten participants. A semi-structured, conversational style of individual interviewing was adopted in order to explore the respondents’ stories which made interviewing multiple subjects more methodical (See Appendix A for Interview Protocol). According to Meehan, 20014),

1. I am a Christian and a kindness shown me by one Muslim girl, Salamatu, changed my perspective on Islam as a whole.

This is because it is an on-going observation and interview that will lead to interpretive analysis through themes, patterns and narrative synthesis among others. The method will lead to inductive findings through creative and critical reflection of the researcher. The situation therefore, requires an ongoing process so that the researcher may understand the situation through the changes that he or she observes in the course of time. This method is a journey in which experiences are built on the previous ones.

Denis-Friske’s narrative approach states sanctions people as experts in their own life which effectively empowers them in their self-perspective and counseling relationship (2014). Through storytelling, clients impacted by traumatic are allowed the opportunity to narrate their own experiences as a process of emotional and psychological catharsis. In enabling people as experts over their own life, child and youth care counselors do not dictate what they ought to do in their process of overcoming traumatic or crisis experiences but act as guidance figures in client’s lives towards their healing (Denis-Friske, 2014). As victims of abuse, giving people the time and space to create their own meanings in narrative making and focus on their inner character’s strength and resiliency, people are made experts of their own lives by authoring their own stories and taking into control how they want to perceive their situation – in spite of adversity, strength can be recovered from deep within.

Narrative Therapy is an approach to counseling that places people as the professionals in their own lives. This type of therapy aims to view problems as separate individuals to people, assuming that the individual’s set of skills, experience, and mindset will assist them in reducing the influence of

This article from the Journal of the International Ombudsman Association (JIOA) is wonderful! For me, the fact both authors – Jan Newcomb and Dawn Duquet- have been used autoethnography as their form of exploring concepts it is great and I found it fascinating. This method allows them to use self-reflection to explore their own personal experiences (The JIOA editorial board, 2017). Even though both authors have different personalities and nationalities, they both reflected about similar aspects and coincidentally both ended with pretty similar self-reflections. For example, Duquet is an introvert external organizational ombudsman counselor located in Montreal, Canada while Newcomb is an extrovert independent lawyer and coach located in California, United States.

Qualitative research is conducted in a natural setting and attempts to understand a human problem by developing a holistic narrative and reporting detailed views of informants about the culture of a problem. It forms a report with pictures and words. One of the most important distinctions that sets qualitative research apart from more traditional types of research is that qualitative research is holistic in that researchers study phenomena in their entirety rather than narrowing the focus to specific defined variables” (p. 93). Similarly, Cresswell (1984) indicated that qualitative research “is defined as an inquiry process of understanding a social or human problem, based on building a holistic picture, formed with words, reporting detailed views of informants, and conducted in a natural setting” (p. 2). Cresswell’s definition clearly delineates the major characteristics of qualitative research. Pg. 50 (Smith & Davis, 2010).

It is also assumed that the act of telling a story can provide insight into past, present and future events (Espinoza, 1997). By going through this process, individuals can find the importance of certain events and assign roles to people who are a part of their story. This act can allow a client to find new meaning and understanding to their reality (Espinoza, 1997). Not only is a

Our autobiographical narratives also support the construction of identity, by using cultural models of self narration as well as drawing on our own experiences, who we associate with, when and where, all have an impact on how we tell our stories (Hewitt, 2007). This serves in understanding how identities are fluid and are always changing from situation to situation, an aspect which anyone from the psychosocial school of thought