Turning the Mirror on (My)Self: Autoethnography as Interrogation of Settler-Colonial Heritage

• In Event: Taking Responsibility: Autoethnography as Reflexive Practice in Social Studies Research and Teaching

Abstract

As my work is founded on challenging settler-colonial traditions as a means to support the aims of decolonization means to exist in the struggle between “being and being more human, between being conditionally free and being free...between visceral knowledge of subjugation and theories of oppression” (Diversi & Moreira, 2009, p. 207). Engaging in autoethnography as a way to hear, see, feel my positionality toward social studies research and education requires I seek spaces to engage (my)self and my ancestry in order to interrogate seen and unseen privileges of being of European origins. Brenton (2008) wrote eloquently on this struggle:

"I know that decolonization necessarily challenges my privileged treatment, and I also know that I and my fellow colonizers have vested material interests in keeping things “as is.” But more than that, I know that my social conditioning and the socially constructed sense of who I am—all the mental, emotional, and material habits that I have been raised to accept—support oppression in a thousand subtle and blatant ways. These dynamics of oppression have been rendered invisible to me, however painfully visible they are to others. The decolonizing work begins here with naming these dynamics, so that I can engage the lifelong work of breaking their hold" (McCaslin and Brenton, 2008, p. 519).

This tension of being both a colonizer and an advocate of decolonization calls for me to take on the lifetime commitment of engaging my research reflexively in order to prevent, as much as possible, the reinforcement of hegemony in communities with whom I work (Swadener & Mutua, 2008).

In addition, Vine Deloria, Jr. (1969) and Linda Tuhiwai Smith (1999) wrote extensively on the imperialistic and colonialist nature of research, especially with regards to Indigenous peoples. I agree with Smith (1999) that much of Western research has been on Indigenous communities rather than for or in allegiance with Indigenous wishes. As such, research for too long has been dehumanizing and objectifying. Unpacking our own positionality and power as researcher—learning how to (un)see—is paramount to honoring the perspectives of Indigenous peoples and building alliances. Along these same lines, reflexivity “is not a matter of looking harder or more closely, but of seeing what frames our seeing—spaces of constructed visibility and incitements to see which constitute power/knowledge ... [of] seeing what frames our seeing” (Lather quoted in Davies, Browne, Gannon, Honan, Laws, Mueller-Rockstroh, & Petersen, 2004, p. 364). As such, my autoethnographic work engages not only a study of (my)self, but also includes the study of my own readings of research methodology and social studies teacher education. Implications for current and future research, as well as my own teaching of elementary social studies methods are also shared.

Author

• Sarah B. Shear, The Pennsylvania State University - Altoona