Qualitative Data Analysis: An Introduction

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Qualitative Data Analysis An Introduction

• Carol Grbich
• Chapter 9 Autoethnography.

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Autoethnography definition

• Autoethnography is an autobiographical genre of
  writing and research that displays multiple
  layers of consciousness, connecting the personal
  to the cultural. Back and forth ethnographers
  gaze, first through an ethnographic wide-angle
  lens, focussing outward on social and cultural
  aspects of their personal experience then, they
  look inward, exposing a vulnerable self that is
  moved by and may move through, refract, and
  resist cultural interpretations. (Ellis and
  Bochner, 2000739).

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Key points of an Autoethnography

• You are the focus of the research study
• You research your activities, feelings and
  emotions in depth within particular cultural
  contexts
• You need a well developed capacity for critical
  reflexivity in order to avoid the pitfalls of
  self indulgence
• Your capacity to present data innovatively and to
  create an impact on the reader by bringing them
  in close to your experiences is very important

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Data sources

• Personal memory
• from notes or memories of a powerful event the
  details of which are imprinted on your mind
• Self-observational data
• you chronicle events close to their actual
  happening through observing the self in situ,
• Self-reflective data
• maintain a detailed critically reflexive journal
  of thoughts and feelings emotional self
  disclosure
• Other data
• any audio/visual/written or other documentation
  regarding the event/situation
•  

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Data analysis

• Preliminary data analysis (see chapter 2)
• Editing for re-presentation in some way to bring
  the reader closer to experiencing situations
• Thematic analysis and data fracturing and
  fragmenting is rarely done

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Data presentation options

• Dialogue or play
• Story individual or multiple (triangulated)
• Poetry
• Visual options painting, drawing, video etc
• Pastiche (an interwoven quilt of stories and
  voices (written and aural)
• Any combinations of the above

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Advantages of Autoethnography

• Delves into difficult to access topics
• Makes researcher very transparent
• Elucidates emotions of both researcher and
  researched
• Allows reader to access experiences
• Encourages a wide variety of creative
  representations.

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Criticisms of Autoethnography

• Too indulgent, self absorbed and introspective
• Is exposing the experiential emotions of the self
  and others real research? Or just
  obsessiveness?
• Have others given proper permission to be
  included in your stories? (ethics).
• In centering oneself, one can highlight ones own
  role and marginalise those of others
• Discussion of very personal events may create a
  situation of vulnerability
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Assessment criteria for Autoethnographies

• Assess the contribution of the writing to our
  increased knowledge of social life
• Examine the style of presentation is it
  satisfyingly complex?
• Reflexivity has the author been able to move
  between the inside and outside subjectivities?
• What emotional impact has it had on the reader?
• (Adapted from Richardson, 200015-16