Blogging as Autoethnography... A Very Personal Challenge!

 

The last few weeks have been challenging.  I didn't really expect to begin my experience as a researcher by examining my own personal values and beliefs so closely.  Don't get me wrong, I'm learning a lot.  But putting myself under a microscope and examining my own scholarship practice in this way has been something of an eye opener, particularly in coming to the realisation that my work, my reading, my blogging and the narrative I've chosen so far may come to be viewed by the academic community as autoethnography.

("BLOG IDEAS" by owenwbrown is licensed under CC BY 2.0.)

Until very recently I was unaware of the term and what it meant - thanks Vicky!  After having read some autoethnographic case studies I've come to realise that might be true.  I  may be something of a budding autoethnographer.  But I'm also learning that this can both be a badge of honour and something of an accusation at the same time.

I started the week reading about complexity theory and how, according to Cohen et al. (2018) schools, colleges, universities, educational institutions in general could be regarded as complex adaptive systems which by definition defy examination using the methods employed in the positivist traditions.  

"Out go the simplistic views of causality (Radford, 2007; Morrison, 2009; Byrne and Callaghan, 2014; Boulton et al, 2015), the ability to predict, control and manipulate, to apply reductive techniques to research, and in come uncertainty, networks and connection, holism, self-organisation, emergence over time through feedback and the relationships of the internal and external environments, and survival and development through adaptation and change."  (Cohen et al., 2018, p. 27).

Perhaps my positivist leanings reminded me to always remember Bernoulli's maxim which is that in order to assess the probability of a hypothesis being true we must examine all evidence.  So when I was directed to look at the work of Campbell (2017) I was shocked to realise that there was another way to do things and a growing body of work that I'm starting to realise is important.  Indeed I was shocked in a number of ways.

("shocked" by apdk is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.)

Firstly I was shocked at the first person narrative style of the account.  I had never read a paper like this before but it reminded me of the way I write my blog.  Indeed I've come to understand that is part of the value in this form of evocative writing.  It engages the reader, bringing them on a journey, enabling them to experience from the author's point of view the thoughts, feelings, emotions and observations of the writer.  Yet Campbell (2017) also documents how twitter trolls residing within the academic community targetted her and others demeaning and deriding her work.  Quoting from Twitter she quotes one of her critics:

"You've hit the nail on the head there.  It's called 'autoethnography'.  It's how idiots get PhDs."

I find myself asking the question as to whether my own reputation as a professional, as an academic, could be somehow damaged by my blogging activity?  Cohen et al. (2018) points to some very specific criticism where Delamont (2007, as cited by Cohen et al. (2018)) describes the method as, "essentially lazy, literally lazy and intellectually lazy."  Is that how people perceive me and the work I do on here?  Little more than self-indulgent prattle?  

But then I'm reminded of the writing of Weller (2011) how argues that technology continues to change the definition of what constitutes a scholar.  Moreover, Dennis (2015) highlights that digital spaces such as this blog can "constitute a form of lifelong learning".  So as an educator, I find myself in a unique situation where the practice of reflection and introspection is viewed from within the workplace as good teaching practice.  Yet from within the academic community this same practice is viewed by some as unscientific.  While I will likely learn to resolve and/or accept these tensions in time, at this moment in time I think I just want to document the fact that this is an uncomfortable place to be.  

("Wife, - 'Sleepless night on an uncomfortable bed, makes life a burden' Husband,-'I know it, I will spend a hundred dollars & a week's time to find a comfortable mattress.' (front)" by Boston Public Library is licensed under CC BY 2.0.)

Yet I am more and more convinced of the importance of this work.  Today, reading a paper by Ilisko et. al. (2010) I was struck by the comment:

"By doing research, teachers express their voice; teachers' voice is an expression of their frame of reference.  This is also a way of making their perspective public."

In that single line, I found myself experiencing a moment of clarity.  Autoethnography gives voice to the individual.  Maybe some people who read my blog hear my voice and listen.  Others might hear my voice and immediately reach for their metaphorical ear plugs.  But as an approach, I do believe that there should be a space whereby the views of individuals can be accommodated in the literature.  

But this work can't be considered objective or even generalisable I hear you say.  Absolutely!  But does that mean that it should be dismissed?  I want to finish this article by recounting what I learned from a case study entitled, "Utilizing an Autoethnographical Case Study Approach tto Expllore Patient Centred Care and Its Principles in an Oncology and Palliative Care Setting." (Condon et. al, 2018).

In this article (which I have to say makes for some difficult reading) explores the experiences of the author who was herself both a healthcare professional and a cancer patient.  As I'm sure many people do, on her diagnosis, the author comes to terms with her condition and begins to research alternative treatments.  One of her concerns seemed to be that chemotherapy would have an adverse impact on her underlying heart condition.  Yet when approach her consultant with her own thoughts on radiotherapy, surgery or hormone therapy, her own research was largely dismissed.  Now, while I can understand the views of a consultant oncologist, their emotional state and the patient's inability to be subjective, to dismiss the warnings of an underlying hear condition was quite inappropriate.  The author recounts:

"The emphasis on chemotherapy was persistent, so I relented and began chemotherapy.  Unfortunately, not long afterwards, I became acutely unwell due to chemotherapy causing my heart to spasm, resulting in a 7-day hospital admission in the cardiac ward."

("Hospital room equipment" by ricardodiaz11 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.)

What struck me here wasn't the moral dilema of the consultant, nor the emotive and graphic account provided by the author.  It was the fact that a reliance on objectivity and "proven" science was used to silence the voice of the individual, herself a professional in the same field.

There is power in positivism.  But one must take care in how that power is wielded.        

References

Campbell, E. (2017) "Apparently Being a Self-Obsessed C**t is Now Academically Lauded": Experiencing Twitter Trolling of Autethnographers.  Forum: Qualitative Social Research, Vol. 18, No. 3, p. 16, ISSN 1438-5627.

Cohen, L., Manion, L. and  Morrison, K. (2018)  Research Methods in Education, 8th Edn., Oxon, Routledge.

Condon, A., Johns, L. and Chester, P. (2018) Utilizing an Autoethnographic Case Study Approach to Explore Patient-Centred Care and Its Principles in an Oncology and Palliative Care Setting.  Illness, Crisis and Loss. Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 241 - 256.  

Dennis, C. A. (2015).  Blogging as public pedagogy: Creating alternative educational futures.  International Journal of Lifelong Learning, 34 (3) pp. 284 - 299.  

Ilisko, D., Ignatjeva, S. and Micule, I. (2010) Teachers as researchers: bringing teachers' voicee to the educational landscape.  Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 51 - 65.

Weller, M. (2011)  The Digital Scholar:  How Technology is Transforming Scholarly Practice,  London, Bloomsbury.