Category: Temple Building

The Ethnographic I: A Methodological Novel about Autoethnography by Carolyn Ellis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I appreciate the author’s effort to make research methods and ethics more accessible to novice scholars. Unfortunately, the attempt fell flat. There seemed too much attention to making this a “novel,” when the text was not about characters. The characters (a mix of composite and actual people) were used as a vehicle to explain the history, methods and challenges of doing autoethnographic work, but more often than not, writing “through” them got in the way of the very information the author was trying to get across. It was stiff and stilted, and eventually I gave up reading it as a novel.

In a moment of frustration, I turned to the table of contents and located a chapter and subheading of interest. Voila! Treating the work as a traditional textbook or reference book proved much more useful. Dr. Ellis’ writing is clear, easy to understand, and full of helpful information. Informative gems once hidden in “I look down at the notes prepared on the issue” and “Jack raises his eyebrows showing interest in the conversation,” now easily came to the forefront. I hopped around from section to section, finding the information I wanted contextualized by the human interactions.

Having read through the text in this way, I still get the impression that autoethnography might be a good method for me, although I don’t have a deep enough understanding to be sure. I’ll need to read some examples of it, and thanks to Dr. Ellis’ extensive notes, I know where to start.

I would strongly recommend that readers begin with the front matter and Class One to get a feel for the text, then skim and skip around as needed. It does not work as a novel, but I do think it’s a helpful text for someone who is completely new to autoethnography and needs a quick introduction to the basics.

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I just completed Seidman’s Interviewing as Qualitative Research. It was everything I didn’t know I needed. I’m grateful.

I am teaching Qualitative Research Design this semester and as a first time prep, I’ve had to review/reread materials I read as a student of the course and investigate new resources. Seidman is someone I’d seen cited often by fellow doctoral students who were conducting in-depth interviews for their research. As I wasn’t, I never thought much about him or his work.

My advisor, Janette, has taught the course previously and she graciously offered to help me with the course design. She shared her readings, and his text was on the list. I’d read Patton’s work as a student, but found it wanting. I went with Seidman and was instantly glad. His words resonated with me again and again. As Louise Hay would say, I felt and heard my “inner ding.”

For the unfamiliar, Seidman discusses in-depth interviewing; specifically phenomenological interviewing. He interviews to understand people’s stories. To get their subjective experience through their own words. It hit home for me as I am seeking to develop a new conceptual framework and clarify my niche. Narrative has been a stable interest of mine, but up until this point, my focus has been on participants (physically) writing their own.

This will be a nice addition to my toolkit. Although not everyone is suited to interviewing, I have a hunch it may be a good methodology for me.  When I get the chance to try out my first series of phenomenological interviews, I’ll let you know if this is indeed a good fit. Fingers crossed.

xoxo