Autoethnography as/in Higher Education

Abstract

We explore autoethnography as a complex and potentially transformative methodology for understanding and enacting higher education. First, we position higher education in the context of global corporate managerialism and consider the possible effects of this on lived educational experiences and practices. In what follows, we each offer an account of how our individual learning about autoethnography as/in higher education has evolved concerning particular research interests: learning and teaching (Kathleen), academic identities (Daisy), academic leadership (Inbanathan). We argue that creating and teaching autoethnography can open spaces to experience higher education as a social, ethical, and collective endeavor. Autoethnography illuminates the relational, often unseen, complex nature of higher education—portraying participation that calls for care, connectedness, and sensitivity. In thinking and working autoethnographically, we choose to understand the academic self and vocation as personal, social, emotional, embodied, and mindful.