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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. 41–60

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Chapter 3
Duoethnography

A collaborative, organic self-study methodology for personal and societal reconceptualization

ORCiD logo with link | Washington State University
ORCiD logo with link | Washington State University
Published online: 3 March 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rmal.8.03saw
Abstract
In this chapter we provide an overview of the inquiry method of duoethnography, highlighting its evolution as a living, reflexive self-study methodology. We introduce duoethnography, present its tenets, and examine its affordances and limitations. We give examples of how it facilitates researchers’ critical examination of knowledge production and dissemination, as well as how their own positionality discursively frames the inquiry. Falling within a tradition of ethnographic research practices, duoethnography draws from the work of diverse educational researchers, including Mikhail Bakhtin and William Pinar. Duoethnographers work in pairs (or occasionally trios), juxtaposing and intertwining storytelling with story-listening in trans-conceptual (analysis and synthesis) and transtemporal (past, present, and future) ways. It facilitates stratified, nested auto-autoethnographic accounts of a given research context or question designed to emphasize the complex, reflexive and aesthetic aspects of the work in process and product. A goal of duoethnography is researcher change and praxis, as well as self-understanding.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Methodological roots
    • A place walking trioethnography on a college campus
  • Central tenets
    • Naming their narrative: Duoethnographers tell their own story
    • Centering dialogue and creating heteroglossia
    • Restorying: A reflective pedagogical intent and stance
    • Mixing transtemporal and trans-conceptual meanings: The use of currere
  • Unpacking for understanding: Affordances of duoethnography
  • Limitations to duoethnography
  • Pedagogical dimensions and potentials?
  • Ethical considerations
  • Conclusion
  • References
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