An Invitation to the Less‐Treaded Path of Autoethnography in TESOL Research

Abstract

Although alternative perspectives continue to be part of TESOL research methodology, there are approaches to social science inquiry that are still not widely known to researchers in the field. More specifically, it may be argued that language education research needs further qualitative approaches that can interweave research and life, language and context, and self and society in processes of inquiry. Therefore, in this article the author invites the academic community of TESOL to consider autoethnography as a qualitative research approach with significant potential for research on issues of language teaching and learning. Based on a discussion of the theoretical and methodological perspectives of autoethnographic inquiry, he argues that, by bringing the self and society together, such an approach can contribute to the ongoing endeavor for deepening the epistemological understanding and widening the methodological scope of research in the field.

Toward identity‐oriented teacher education: Critical autoethnographic narrative

“…One type of identity‐constructing narrative that can offer TCs an active role in their teacher learning and identity negotiation is autoethnography, in which writers construct and reconstruct their fluid understanding of connections between their personal lived experiences and the social cultural structures. Defined as “stories of/about the self told through the lens of culture” (Adams, Holman Jones, & Ellis, , p. 2), autoethnography was originally adopted and theorized as a method of qualitative inquiry in educational research (Denzin & Lincoln, ); it is “an emerging genre” (Mahboob et al., , p. 52) and a “less‐treaded path” (Mirhosseini, ) of research methods in TESOL and the broader field of language studies. It has been used as a research tool to explore the stories of language learning and teaching that involves (re)negotiation and (re)authoring of identities (Cadman & Brown, ; Corah‐Hopkins, ; Pavlenko, ).…”

Mixed Methods Research in TESOL: Procedures Combined or Epistemology Confused?

“…The quest for wider and more profound visions and approaches in TESOL research cannot cease (Mirhosseini, 2017b) because "the field increasingly grapples in methodologically sophisticated ways in the attempt to address a growing number of urgent, real-world problems" (King & Mackey, 2016, p. 209). In dealing with complex language education phenomena, more sophisticated understandings of knowledge and ways of gaining knowledge should be continuously sought (Hashemi & Babaii, 2013;Riazi & Candlin, 2014).…”

Identities and ideologies in a language teacher candidate's autoethnography: Making meaning of storied experience

“…Autoethnography is an established qualitative methodology in the social sciences (Denzin, ). It has recently gained traction as an emerging genre of research in language education (Canagarajah, ; Mirhosseini, ; Solano‐Campos, ). Autoethnography is based on narrative ontological and epistemological commitments.…”