Being and becoming human in higher education: A co-autoethnographic inquiry

Pithouse-Morgan, Kathleen; Pillay, Daisy; Naicker, Inbanathan

Abstract

We are South African academics in teacher development studies and educational leadership and management. In this chapter, we inquire, what have we learned through our autoethnographic explorations for re/humanizing learning and teaching, academic selves, and academic leadership in higher education? In our co-autoethnography (collaborative autoethnography), our selves and interactions with others provided a lens for examining linkages between human experiences and societal concerns. We studied our selves in the presence of others as a means of better understanding group culture in the context of higher education. Using the creative literary co-autoethnographic modes of personal narrative writing and poetry, we elicited and interpreted lived experiences in dialogic ways. Our inquiry reveals how, through narrative and poetry, evocative expressions of the personal can create connected ways of being and becoming academics. In higher education, the collaborative creative practice of an ethic of relationality and dialogue can make a re/humanizing difference.

Citation

Pithouse-Morgan, K., Pillay, D., & Naicker, I. (2021). Being and becoming human in higher education: A co-autoethnographic inquiry. In E. Lyle (Ed.), Re/humanizing education (31-42). Brill Academic Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004507593_004

• Online Publication Date: May 16, 2022
• Publication Date: Dec 14, 2021
• Deposit Date: Sep 22, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 23, 2022
• Publisher: Brill
• Pages: 31-42
• Series Title: Bold visions in educational research
• Series Number: 74
• Book Title: Re/humanizing education
• ISBN: 9789004507586
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004507593_004
• Keywords: collaborative autoethnography; higher education; personal narrative; poetry
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/9898089
• Publisher URL: https://brill.com/view/book/9789004507593/BP000013.xml