Dual Reflections on Teaching and Learning of Autoethnography: Preparing Doctoral Students Authentically for a Career in the Academy

Abstract

This paper conveys the reflections of an instructor and a graduate student after participating in a graduate course on autoethnography, offered in a college of education at a large public research institution in the United States. In addition to the course focus on autoethnography as a qualitative research approach, the course used authentic practices, which are commonly used by academics, to socialize doctoral students from the social sciences to the demands of their future careers in the academy. Although the number of published autoethnography articles in academic journals has increased, few autoethnography courses are being offered, and even fewer are described in the research literature. The authors share their experiences and address their own assumptions, challenges and breakthroughs across practices, including: informal peer-reviews, drafts revisions, and the ongoing composition of a full-length autoethnographic manuscript to be (potentially) submitted for publication, and, thus, shared with a larger audience of readers. The authors call for more explicit and authentic preparation and socialization of social science doctoral students throughout graduate coursework—especially in light of the growing competition for tenure-stream faculty positions across the social sciences and the humanities.

Adapting to the Transitional Stage of the Doctoral Environment: An Autoethnography of Socialization

“…If we define doctoral socialization as interacting and integrating into an environment to become a part of that group (Johnson et al, 2017), then doctoral socialization occurs when a student engages with other members of the doctoral culture-fellow students, faculty, and staff-so the student becomes familiar enough with the norms and expectations, the skills, abilities, and even values of their departments to eventually become a member of the community. Recent attention has been given to socializing doctoral students into their future professions (Elliot et al, 2019;Rubinstein-Avila & Maranzana, 2015;Russell et al, 2016) and the benefits of mentoring (Anekstein & Vereen, 2018;Duffy, et al, 2018;Esposito et al, 2017;Malin & Hackmann, 2016); however, less attention has been given to the experiences of incoming students as they navigate the unfamiliar territory of new expectations and academic uncertainty during their first year of doctoral coursework, and even less attention has been given to students resistant to social learning. This article fills that gap by sharing an autoethnographic narrative of my adaptation process during the first year of my doctoral program.…”

Formarse en la Investigación Educativa: una Comunidad de Pensamiento en Torno a la Escritura de la Tesis Doctoral

“…Y abrazar ese camino ha posibilitado que la labor investigativa fuera acogida como una experiencia en sí, problematizando continuamente los supuestos teóricos, metodológicos, relacionales que emergen durante el trabajo investigativo. Una experiencia, por tanto, en la que también hemos sentido vulnerabilidad porque, a pesar de sostenernos en un determinado horizonte teórico, el acto de dejarnos tocar por los otros, así como de sentirnos perdidos en el camino para descubrir otros modos de indagar, nos ha permitido vivir un movimiento y desorientación necesarios para nuestro quehacer investigativo (Behar, 1996;Rubinstein-Avila & Maranzana, 2015). Mas, en este andar, la experiencia no ha prescindido de un método o de un horizonte teórico que ha guiado el camino, pues como señala María Zambrano (2011): la verdadera experiencia no puede darse sin la intervención de un tipo de método.…”

“…c) Y, si lo que hemos intentado es dar cuenta de la experiencia vivida, el modo de nombrar y pensar lo vivido no se ha podido dar fuera del tiempo de la vivencia. Lo vivido, el tiempo humano, se articula en modo narrativo (Ricoeur, 2004;Bárcena & Mèlich, 2014). Por ello, en Huerting hemos necesitado de la narrativa como forma de dar cuenta de nuestra experiencia investigativa.…”