Leather, M. (2020). Autobiography as a research method AM (original) (raw)
2020, Research Methods in Outdoor Studies.
This chapter considers autobiography as a useful method for outdoor studies. It draws on educational texts as well as utilising theoretical perspectives from both geography and sociology to argue for its effectiveness. Our sense of becoming as an outdoor person becomes illuminated when we use autobiography. While this critical self-reflection is acknowledged as not the only way of knowing ourselves and our outdoor practice, it is an effective and practical approach in gaining awareness into one's life as well as the contexts we inhabit. Criticisms of this method are addressed, as well as the related terms of autoethnography and hermeneutic inquiry. This chapter is as much a story about my research journey as it is about the method of autobiography as part of my professional outdoor practice. If you have ever pondered the questions, who am I? And how on Earth did I end up here doing this? Then I suggest you have already started your autobiographical journey. Why should you consider autobiography? In general terms, the personal and human decisions that are made about all research methods are inherently human, as Letherby (2015) emphasises; accepting that all research and scholarly writing takes place somewhere on an autobiographical continuum highlights how important it is to always keep a research diary within which the researcher(s) records connections to (or not), and personal, as well as intellectual, reflections on the research process (p.165).
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