Evoke (y)our authentic: an (auto)ethnographic exploration of my higher education classroom(s)

Abstract

This ethnographic work explores the concept of authenticity in the higher education classroom – specifically in my own first, second and third/fourth year undergraduate Change Makers classrooms. Presented as an evocative auto- and other ethnography, the research details a cross-sectional insight into my own and my students’ experiences during a single academic year at a STEMM-focussed, research-intensive university. As my role entails the design and delivery of the highly interactive, student-centred Change Makers modules, this work specifically explores the interplay between the design, teaching and research domains. This exploratory work brings the highly reflexive (auto)ethnographic lens not only to the experience under study, but to the conduct of such work, examining philosophical, epistemological and ontological issues arising from the aims, method and analysis within this research. Rather than accounting for, mitigating or otherwise trying to control the messy and problematic nature of this type of highly subjective and qualitative work, the research aims to surface and exploit these very issues to generate deeper, more complex and polysemous insights into our classroom experiences. Privileging the integrity and wholeness of the ethnographic story-world and the experiences within, the narrative attempts to situate all component parts of the research within that story-world, both revealed and contained by the autoethnographic authorial exposition. Embracing all of the above, this thesis subverts the norms of academic writing to capture existentialist sensibilities towards the notion, exploration and expression of authenticity. Notably, the work attempts to centre the role, experiences and insights of the reader in the conduct and communication of the analysis, whilst using varied and creative methods to present student voices alongside those of the author within the narrative.