Autoethnography Pedagogy and Practice: Stories of Interdisciplinary Innovation

Autoethnography Pedagogy and Practice supports and generates new insights into how autoethnography can be taught, supervised and practised by sharing the experiences and reflections of researchers from a wide range of fields and disciplines.

An international cast of leading researchers provide practical examples of how autoethnography can be successfully introduced into health and human sciences curricula, showcasing examples of the power of autoethnography within and beyond academia. By privileging contributors’ experiences within their own field of study as students, teachers, supervisors and researchers, this book explores how autoethnography can be introduced, nurtured and sustained in challenging academic environments. Each chapter considers three interrelated areas: Disciplinary Contexts, which examines autoethnography’s impact across different fields; Relationships, which considers how to successfully manage relational and care dynamics from undergraduate through professor levels; and Ethics, which addresses the many ethical considerations that can arise across a wide range of contexts.

Autoethnography Pedagogy and Practice is a book that encourages readers to engage in autoethnographic practice to create innovative, dialogical and collaborative texts that push the boundaries of polyvocality and diversity within their own disciplines. It will be of interest to researchers in Psychology, Medicine, Pharmacology, Allied Health, Nursing, Mental health, Sport and Exercise Science, Coaching, Sociology, Psychotherapy, Theatre Studies and Communication Studies.

Kitrina Douglas is an award-winning video/ethnographer, performer, storyteller, musician and narrative scholar whose research spans the arts, humanities and social sciences. Broadly, her research interests span mental health, arts-based methods and public engagement. With David Carless, she pioneered the YouTube series “Qualitative Conversations” and carried out research for a variety of organisations, including the Department of Health, Addiction Recovery Agency, Royal British Legion, Women’s Sports Foundation, UK Sport, local authority and NHS Primary Mental Health Care Trusts. She holds a professorship in narrative and performative research at the University of West London.

David Carless is a researcher, writer, songwriter and musician working across health and social science. He specialises in arts-based, autoethnographic and narrative research, published widely as journal articles, books and book chapters, as well as online in multimedia forms such as films and music. David is with the School of Health and Life Sciences at the University of the West of Scotland and is an honorary professor in the Centre for Creative Relational Inquiry at the University of Edinburgh.