Narrative Strategies In Educational Research: Reflections On A Critical Autoethnography
Source: Educational Action Research, Volume 18, Issue 2 (June 2010), pages 239 - 254.
This article consists of critical reflections on an inclusion story that the author wrote about his own practice as a local education authority educational psychologist in the United Kingdom.
The aim is to shed light on the process of producing stories and possibly also on criteria for judging them.
As a critical reflective practitioner, the author saw himself as writing an autoethnographic story of 'resistance' but also one of 'hope without illusions'. In an extended commentary on samples of writing, the author addresses issues to do with form and style in relation to the overall purpose of the story and the intended audiences.
A number of concepts are identified that were found useful in constructing a narrative: life-world; hegemony and discourse; aesthetic merit; reflexivity; polyvocality; autobiography/autoethnography; confession.