Can Autoethnography Be "Consequential Education Research"? Do We Want It to Be?

• In Event: Interrogating Qualitative Methodologies

Abstract

This year’s AERA theme calls on members to “interrogate consequential education research” that helps us in the “pursuit of truth.” The proposed paper applies this challenge to the qualitative methodology of autoethnography. It asks three central questions: What do we mean by consequential in reference to autoethnography? Is pursuing “truth” really a goal of autoethnography, and can it realistically achieve truth? And is autoethnography inclusive enough? In offering these provocations rather than definitive answers, I interrogate how the methodology might become more consequential in the ways it wants to be and, thus, better placed to pursue “truth” in a more inclusive sense.

Author

• Marcus B. Weaver-Hightower, Virginia Tech
  Presenting Author