Easier Said than Done: Writing an Autoethnography

Abstract

Autoethnography is an intriguing and promising qualitative method that offers a way of giving voice to personal experience for the purpose of extending sociological understanding. The author's experience of writing an autoethnography about international adoption has shown her, however, that autoethnography can be a very difficult undertaking. In writing her autoethnography, she confronted anxietyproducing questions pertaining to representation, balance, and ethics. As well, she dealt with the acceptability of her autoethnography by informal and formal reviewers. In this article she discusses the challenges she faced in her autoethnographic project to inform future autoethnographers and to inspire them to share their experiences and reflections. For the author questions linger, but she hopes that sharing issues that arise in autoethnographic work will strengthen our understandings of this challenging yet highly promising form of inquiry.

Negotiating and Navigating my Fat body - feminist autoethnographic encounters

“…Engaging with this confusing experience is ever developing, where I started two and a half years ago is not where I am now. What has been a constant is the importance of connecting my personal experience with theory (Wall, 2008). This is not just as a retrospective exercise of locating my particularity in wider discourses, but also one which reveals my attachment to emergent fixed abstract constructs as if I was separate from the interwoven and every changing landscape of self (Lovell, 2005).…”

“…Sarah Wall (2008) too writes about this dilemma of representation in her autoethnography of international adoption. Her concern was that, as she explored her own ethnographic relatedness to this phenomenon, she was replicating the dominant dis-course of privilege of which she very much didn't want to be a part.…”

“…April Chatham-Carpenter (2010) in her research on her eating disorder found that her autoethnographic encounters retriggered anorexic behaviours and she had to take time away in order to put into place 'self-care' and limits to her drive for authenticity. Sarah Wall (2008) writes about the risks of disclosing too much that is not hers to disclose. Wolff-Michael Roth (2009) writes about the risks of writing/research the self without acknowledging the other in how we understand ourselves.…”

Reflections on Teaching and Mentoring

“…Autoethnography has three main elements, which may be emphasized in varying degrees: the self, the sociological or cultural aspect, and the application of the research process. 11,12 The emphasis on these three elements depends on the individual researcher, and his or her purpose in conducting the work. 12,13 Furthermore, the form of the data may vary; in some cases, the study is based on written material such as reflective journals or other personal records.…”

“…11,12 The emphasis on these three elements depends on the individual researcher, and his or her purpose in conducting the work. 12,13 Furthermore, the form of the data may vary; in some cases, the study is based on written material such as reflective journals or other personal records. In other cases, memory of the experiences is the data.…”