Collaboration and conversation: CRADLE collaborative autoethnography workshop
25 October 2019
CRADLE’s A/Prof. Margaret Bearman and I recently facilitated a workshop on Collaborative Autoethnography (CAE) with Deakin staff from the Faculty of Arts and Education, the Faculty of Business and Law, and staff from Deakin Learning Futures (DLF) and CRADLE from the Portfolio of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education. It was a fabulous opportunity for participants to share their knowledge and learn from others across Deakin about their own practice and research, their interests in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and to collaborate on their learning about CAE.
The workshop aimed to provide participants with a basic understanding of the methodological approach, an opportunity to simulate discussion-based self-study, and to build insight into how CAE can intersect with the SoTL.
CAE involves collaboration and conversation that explore complex and nuanced questions in a safe and collegiate space. Academics become participant-researchers to support reflection on their own practice, while simultaneously reflecting on their colleagues’ experiences collectively. This method ensures participant-researchers are not being researched on, nor researching on colleagues; rather, they are researching with their colleagues to make meaning of their individual and combined experiences (Heron & Reason, 2006; Chang, Ngunjiri & Hernandez, 2016).
The workshop was successful in bringing together Deakin staff in conversation not only about what CAE is, but why they are interested in the methodology and how they might go about doing it in their own practice/research. It allowed those already involved in CAE research to voice their experience and answer questions for participants interesting in beginning research utilising CAE.
The discussion around the table generated insight into the methodology as participants voiced questions and personal knowledge on the benefits and challenges, the ethical considerations, and the meaning of rigour in self-study research.
The conclusion of the workshop left participants with a better understanding of the potential for CAE in higher education in regards to supporting academics across faculties and institutions at Deakin and in SoTL. Moreover, it was a great opportunity for participants to foster deeper learning through collaborative and collective exploration of themselves, their colleagues and their contexts.
