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In:Reflexive and Reflective Research Approaches in Applied Linguistics
Edited by Pejman Habibie and Richard D. Sawyer
[Research Methods in Applied Linguistics 8] 2025
► pp. 22–40

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Chapter 2
Transformative possibilities of autoethnography

 | Cleveland State University
Published online: 3 March 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/rmal.8.02bil
Abstract
This chapter presents autoethnography, an increasingly popular albeit controversial research methodology that draws on the practices of autobiographical writing, narrative inquiry, and ethnography, to interrogate aspects of the researcher’s own life experiences in order to illuminate and critique personal, social, and cultural phenomena. After presenting a brief history of autoethnography, this chapter will describe how one might interrogate one’s own reality, seen as a construct highly dependent on cultural environment and social interactions, using the tools of self-reflexivity, subjectivity/intersubjectivity, emotionality, and storytelling to make connections between the inner world of the self and the socio-cultural world out there. Some of the debates around orientations to analytic, critical, interpretive, evocative, and artistic styles of autoethnographic research will be considered including how autoethnographers use a range of narrative forms to tackle sensitive topics and controversial positions sometimes ignored, distorted, or silenced in traditional research. Finally, the overall purpose of autoethnography — to represent, break, and remake our personal and shared understandings of individual experiences as well as systemic practices in need of change — is presented as a transformative pedagogical practice.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • A short history of autoethnography
  • Overview of the methodology
    • Self-reflexivity
    • Subjectivity and intersubjectivity
    • Emotionality
    • Personal narrative and story telling
  • Questions of methodological boundaries
  • Ethical issues
  • Pedagogical value
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (80)
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