“Are You the TA?” An Autoethnography About a Graduate Student and Her Dissertation

• In Event: Poster Session 7
  In Poster Session: Division D Section 3 Qualitative Research Poster Session

Abstract

My dissertation examines how explicit focus on identity affects students’ transition to college. Participants were all enrolled in a course structured to foster identity development. During my data collection, I realized I was also recording my thoughts about the relationship between my identity and the ways in which I would, and could, talk about my participants’ stories of their transition to college. I needed a way to think through and talk about these complex issues. I have found autoethnography to be a powerful tool through which I can effectively tackle my data collection experience. This paper focuses on autoethnography’s ability to “communicate the emotional truth” of being a graduate researcher in an undergraduate course (Berger & Ellis, 2002, p. 153).

Author

• Michelle Beth Bass, University of Wisconsin - Madison