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| Unit name |
Autoethnography |
| Unit code |
EDUCM0009 |
| Credit points |
10 |
| Level of study |
M/7
|
| Teaching block(s) |
Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52)
|
| Unit director |
Professor. Speedy |
| Open unit status |
Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
Introduction to Qualitative Methods in the Social Sciences |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department |
School of Education |
| Faculty |
Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Description including Unit Aims
This unit aims to:
- Deepen participant's critical understanding and knowledge of reflexivity, ethnography and autobiographical narrative as vehicles for researching social life
- Position auto-ethnography as an interdisciplinary research genre and critically assess its legitimacy as a site for explorations of the interplay between selves, identities and cultures.
- Develop a critically informed appreciation of the differences between evocative, performative and analytic research studies of 'lived experience'.
- Provide opportunities to undertake a brief auto-ethnographic study
Intended Learning Outcomes
Module specific skills:
- Engage in debate and discussion about the relationship between biographical research and ethnography
- Identify and describe different auto-ethnographic approaches, their development, their purposes and their interrelationships.
- Demonstrate a firm conceptual grasp of contemporary auto-ethnographic and auto/biographical theory and its application within research contexts
- Successfully incorporate auto-ethnographic writing into their research practices
Discipline specific skills
- Demonstrate and apply a critical understanding of the philosophical debates surrounding autobiographical and autoethnographic approaches to educational research.
- Develop and design auto-ethnographies that take account of relevant ethical issues in specific contexts
- Develop a critical understanding of the appropriate and particular use of auto-ethnography in education.
- Personal and key skills
- Critical analysis and evaluation
- Ability to reflect on personal/ethical issues raised by these methodological approaches.
- Collaborative and reflexive ways of working
- Presentation skills
Teaching Information
Teaching and learning opportunities will include tutor and student presentations, guided critical close reading of indicative texts, seminars, small group work, VLE and workshops.
Assessment Information
Formative: Presentation (15minutes)
Summative: Essay (2,000 words) OR multi-modal assignment (1,000 words plus digital/visual text or video-paper).
The choice between summative assessment options will be negotiated with the Unit Tutor.
Reading and References
- Reed-Danahay, D (Ed.) Auto/ethnography: Researching the self and the social, Oxford: Berg
- Holman-Jones, S (2005) Auto-ethnography: Making the personal political, in: Denzin, N & Lincoln, Y (Eds.) (3rd Ed.) Sage Handbook Of Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
- Delamont, S (2009) The only honest thing: auto-ethnography, reflexivity and small crises in fieldwork, Ethnography and Education, 4(1), 51-63.
- Ellis, C (2008) Revision: Autoethnographic Reflections on Life and Work, Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press
- Spry, T (2011) Body, Paper, Stage: Writing and Performing Autoethnography, Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press
