Autoethnography as a Creative Analytical Practice

• In Event: Disrupting by Imagining: Rethinking Early Childhood Research

Abstract

(1, 2, 3, 5, & 6 addressed in the intro of session)

4. In the first paper, the authors evoke the notion of autoethnography as pedagogy through storytelling (see Banks & Banks, 2000). The inquiry begins with a hopeful story about creative teaching, trusting one’s teacher intuition and process, caring for the child, and believing that children will respond to opportunities to learn music when they are invited with thoughtful care. By considering autoethnography as a form of creative, didactic non-fiction, the authors sing out with a call for transformation in how we engage with young children in teaching and learning music, on how we engage in a ‘listening pedagogy’ (Malaguzzi, 1993, 1994; Rinaldi, 2001) to transform piano learning into a much more expressive, meaningful, playful, positive, lifelong learning experience. This autoethnographic inquiry also includes a narrative discussion of early childhood music research and pedagogy, all presented in a holistic way that invites new understandings of the relationships between researchers, early childhood teachers, and young learners. As is the case with most artist-researcher-teachers, we have struggled for years with finding ways of expressing and representing the holistic ways of knowing and learning in creative, artful endeavors. We hope to demonstrate how autoethnography, as a creative analytical practice, is an effective way of representing teaching and learning experiences in early childhood settings.

Authors

• Peter J. Gouzouasis, The University of British Columbia

• Jee Yeon Ryu, The University of British Columbia