Collaborative autoethnography and social work

Val Gant

doi:10.1921/swssr.v23i2.2085

Authors

Val Gant Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Chester, UK https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0623-3476

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1921/swssr.v23i2.2085

Keywords:

autoethnography, social work, collaborative autoethnography, CAE, empathy

Abstract

Like autoethnography, (AE), collaborative autoethnography (CAE) results in highly personalised narrative accounts of the researcher’s engagement with specific sociocultural contexts. CAE adds a collective interpretation to that engagement. While CAE has thus far been little used in social work practice and education, it is an emerging methodological approach that offers new and different insights and opportunities. This paper discusses CAE and its relationship with social work practice and education. In it I discuss how CAE allows for a collective exploration of an individual experience and how these explorations, and the process of obtaining them, have many benefits for social work practitioners and social work students alike. The similarities between CAE and social work are highlighted, by focussing on some of the very core skills and values that lie at the heart of social work, such as listening, collaborating and showing empathy, CAE would seem a natural progression for inquiry within social work. This contribution to the special issue has implications for both social work practice and social work education.

Author Biography

Val Gant, Associate Professor of Social Work, University of Chester, UK

I am a qualified and registered social worker and currently work as an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Chester, UK. My background is in qualitative research particularly relating to family carers, and social work education.

References

Barr, M. (2019) Autoethnography as pedagogy: Writing the ‘I’ in IR. Qualitative Inquiry, 25, 9-10, 1106-1114

Beattie, L. (2022) Symbiotic Autoethnography: Moving Beyond the Boundaries of Qualitative Methodologies. London. Bloomsbury Academic

de Bie, A., Chaplin, J., Vengris, J., Dagnachew, E. and Jackson, R. (2021) Not ‘everything’s a learning experience’: racialized, Indigenous, 2SLGBTQ, and disabled students in social work field placements. Social Work Education, 40, 6, 756-772

Bendall, M.J. and Robertson, C. (2018) The crisis of democratic culture? International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 14, 3)

Braye, S., Orr, D. and Preston-Shoot, M. (2017) Autonomy and protection in self-neglect work: The ethical complexity of decision-making. Ethics and Social Welfare, 11, 4, 320-335

Buck, G. (2020) Peer Mentoring in Criminal Justice. Routledge

Caffrey, B., Fruin, H., McHale, J.B., Ridgway, V. and Mchale, R.B. (2020) The use of photo elicitation to explore the impact of social work student’s perceptions of placements on social work tutors and consider their role in practice learning. Practice, 33, 3, 191-205

Devlieghere, J., and Gillingham, P. (2021) Transparency in social work: A critical exploration and reflection. The British Journal of Social Work, 51, 8, 3375-3392

Egeli, C. (2017) March. Autoethnography: A methodological chat with self. The British Psychological Society

Ellis, C. (2007) Telling secrets, revealing lives: Relational ethics in research with intimate others. Qualitative Inquiry, 13, 1, 3-29

Ferreira, S.B. and Ferreira, R.J. (2019) Fostering awareness of self in the education of social work students by means of critical reflectivity. Social Work, 55, 2, 119-131

Fook, J. (2014) Chapter 5. Learning from and researching my own experience, In Witkin, S.L. (Ed.) Narrating Social Work through Autoethnography. Columbia University Press

Gant, V. (2017, a) The use of language in hospice care and the impact on patients and families. Journal of Palliative Care, 32, 3-4, 141-143

Gant, V. (2017, b) ‘Reflections on a birthday’: An auto-ethnographic account of caring for a child with a learning disability. Qualitative Social Work, 16, 5, 734-741

Gant, V., Cheatham, L., Di Vito, H., Offei, E., Williams, G. and Yatosenge, N. (2019) Social work through collaborative autoethnography. Social Work Education, 38, 6, 707-720

Hanley, J. (2021) The ‘quality’ of social work students in England: A genealogy of discourse 2002–18. Critical and Radical Social Work 9, 2, 253-268

Healy, K. (2022): Social Work Theories in Context: Creating Frameworks for Practice (3rd ed) London. Bloomsbury Academic

Hernandez, K.A.C. (2021) Collaborative Autoethnography as Method and Praxis: Understanding self and others in practice. In Autoethnography for Librarians and Information Scientists (pp. 61-76) Routledge

Hernandez, K.A.C., Chang, H. and Ngunjiri, F.W. (2017) Collaborative autoethnography as multivocal, relational, and democratic research: Opportunities, challenges, and aspirations. a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, 32, 2, 251-254

Hewson, M. and Gant, V. (2020) ‘It’s more than confusing our b’s and d’s’: A commentary on the lack of understanding of the needs of social work students who have dyslexia. Critical and Radical Social Work, 8, 2, 273-281

Hodge, L., Oke, N., McIntyre, H. and Turner, S. (2021) Lengthy unpaid placements in social work: Exploring the impacts on student wellbeing. Social Work Education, 40, 6, 787-802

Hornsby, E.R., Davis, A. and Reilly, J.C. (2021) Collaborative autoethnography: Best practices for developing group projects. InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching, 16, pp.104-114

Hothersall, S.J. (2017) ‘Everyday knowledge’: A mixed-methods study using factor analysis and narrative approaches to explore social worker’s knowledge. Social Work & Social Sciences Review, 19, 2)

Hothersall, S.J. (2019) ‘Epistemology and social work: Enhancing the integration of theory, practice and research through philosophical pragmatism’ [Invited paper], European Journal of Social Work, 22, 5) 860-870. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13691457.2018.1499613]

Iancu, P. and Lanteigne, I. (2022) Advances in social work practice: Understanding uncertainty and unpredictability of complex non-linear situations. Journal of Social Work, 22, 1, 130-149

Kopelman, L.M. (1997) The best-interests standard as threshold, ideal, and standard of reasonableness. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 22, 3, 271-289

Lapadat, J.C., Black, N.E., Clark, P.G., Gremm, R.M., Karanja, L.W., Mieke, L.W. and Quinlan, L. (2010) Life challenge memory work: Using collaborative autobiography to understand ourselves. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 9, 1, 77-104

Lewis, C.A. (2022) Blood is thicker than water! In, Narrating Estrangement (pp. 118-132) Routledge

Liabo, K., Cockcroft, E.J., Boddy, K., Farmer, L., Bortoli, S. and Britten, N. (2022) Epistemic justice in public involvement and engagement: Creating conditions for impact. Health Expectations, 25, 4, 1967-1978

McAuliffe, D. (2021) Interprofessional Ethics. Cambridge University Press

Mason, K. and Evans, T. (2020) Social work, inter-disciplinary cooperation and self-neglect: Exploring logics of appropriateness. The British Journal of Social Work, 50, 3, 664-681

Morley, C. and Fleming, J. (2021) Can critical reflection improve social work practice in organisations? In Reflective Practice in Education and Social Work (pp. 87-102) Routledge

Morley, C. and O’Bree, C. (2021) Critical reflection: An imperative skill for social work practice in neoliberal organisations? Social Sciences, 10, 3) p.97

Nordesjö, K., Scaramuzzino, G. and Ulmestig, R. (2022) The social worker-client relationship in the digital era: A configurative literature review. European Journal of Social Work, 25, 2, 303-315

Phillips, L., Christensen-Strynø, M.B. and Frølunde, L. (2021) Thinking with autoethnography in collaborative research: A critical, reflexive approach to relational ethics. Qualitative Research, p.14687941211033446

Rojek, C. (2012) Social Work Received Ideas. Routledge

Rogerson, C.V., Prescott, D.E. and Howard, H.G. (2022) Teaching social work students the influence of explicit and implicit bias: Promoting ethical reflection in practice. Social Work Education, 41, 5, 1035-1046

Shaw, S.C., Anderson, J.L. and Grant, A.J. (2016) Studying medicine with dyslexia: A collaborative autoethnography. The Qualitative Report, 21, 11) p.2036

Strang, J. (2021) Peer-led group supervision: A model to support and inspire social work students to be ‘active discoverers and constructors of their own knowledge’. Journal of Practice Teaching & Learning, 18, 3)

Thelin, A. (2021) Care ethics for supported decision-making. A narrative policy analysis regarding social work in cases of dementia and self-neglect. Ethics and Social Welfare, 15, 2, 167-184

Timmerman, G. and Baart, A. (2022) The continuing formation of relational caring professionals. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, pp.1-16

Voyce, A. and Carson, J. (2020) Our lives in three parts: An autoethnographic account of two undergraduates and their respective psychiatric careers. Mental Health and Social Inclusion, 24, 2, 197-205

Wahab, S., Mehrotra, G.R. and Myers, K.E. (2022) Slow scholarship for social work: A praxis of resistance and creativity. Qualitative Social Work, 21, 1, 147-159

Walker, J. and Gant, V. (2021) Social work students sharing practice learning experiences: Critical reflection as process and method. Practice, 33, 4, 309-327

White, S. (2003) Autoethnography: An appropriate methodology. Qualitative Research Journal, 3, 2, 22-32

Witkin, S.L. (ed) (2014) Narrating Social Work through Autoethnography. Columbia University Press

Ylvisaker, S. and Rugkåsa, M. (2022) Dilemmas and conflicting pressures in social work practice. European Journal of Social Work, 25, 4, 643-654