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Breaking new ground: Using and evaluating collaborative autoethnography to enhance teacher adaptability in higher education

Authors

  • Elisabeth Valiente-Riedl University of Sydney, Australia
  • Helena Robinson University of Technology Sydney, Australia
  • Jennifer Fletcher University of Sydney, Australia
  • Leela Cejnar University of Warwick, United Kingdom

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53761/6dtsce37

Keywords:

reflective practice, online learning, emergency remote teaching, academic professional development, teaching innovation

Abstract

The combined impacts of dramatic social, industrial, environmental, and technological changes on higher education demand continuous adaptation and reinvention of teaching approaches. We evaluate collaborative autoethnography as a methodology that permits educators to share and interrogate their practices, activating critical reflection, experimentation, and just-in-time teaching innovation, while also cultivating a community of learning. As four education-focused academics teaching into a senior undergraduate experiential learning program, we experimented with collaborative autoethnography to cooperatively assess and develop our teaching practice during the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our experiences suggest collaborative autoethnography's strong potential to amplify teachers’ critical reflection and formally support professional development, including through the formation of productive collegial networks. However, we also encountered methodological challenges. These include ethical dilemmas with collaborative autoethnography research conducted in emergency contexts, as well as concerns over the integrity of the reflection process, both in terms of reaching consensus in the interpretation of different narratives and the sufficiency of voices included and excluded in authorship. Ultimately, the strengths and challenges of collaborative autoethnography represent a critical opportunity for teachers in higher education to contribute to further developing this tool not only as a research methodology, but also as a professional development process.

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Published

2024-08-19

Versions

Issue

Section

Developing Teaching Practice

How to Cite

Breaking new ground: Using and evaluating collaborative autoethnography to enhance teacher adaptability in higher education. (2024). Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 21(09). https://doi.org/10.53761/6dtsce37