T-Rex and Me: A Reluctant Autoethnography

• In Event: 29.091 - Poster Session 4
  In Poster Session: 29.091-1 - Division K Section 3 Poster Session 2

Abstract

This project looks back at my experience tutoring a sixth-grade boy in literacy and mathematics. First, by (re-)viewing the tutoring sessions and my reaction to them, I represent the experience in the form of a narrative. However, I do not narrate the experience into submission, as the meaning of this story (or any story) cannot be molded into any tidy grammar (Bochner, 2000), nor do I place criteria on what counts as a self-reflexive text. Second, my purpose is to trouble my own notions of “validity” in autoethnography, a research method that I have vehemently and vocally resisted, to discuss ways it can be used as a call to action against unfair and ultimately devastating special education policies and practices.

Author

• Tessa Bishop, Tennessee Technological University