Korea TESOL Journal

Korea TESOL Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2
from impressionistic personal memories and musings to more
traditionally “objective” data like field notes and informant interviews.
Indeed, for many, a key virt ue of autoethnography is its methodological
openness” (p. 64). The methods of autoethnography may be embedded
in the text, discussed in parts of the text, “if in fact it addresses
methodological issues explicitly at all” (p. 65). Some possible data
sources for autoethnography research include the following (Georgio,
2015, p. 409):
Stories (written or told previously or in the present)
Artifacts (photos, videos, trinkets, souvenirs, mementos)
Field notes
Recorded and transcribed interviews or audio recordings
In Boylorn’s (2015) account of meaningful lessons from her
childhood, the author uses expressions – “sayin’s” – as a form of
recollected data to construct a performative autoethnography focusing on
the connections between language and cultural learning in the black
community where she grew up. These “sayin’s” represented reminders
and warnings, and the author learned to abide these expressions in her
actions. For example, “Sit with your legs crossed” represented the
constant theme of behaving properly in front of strangers. “If somebody
hits you, hit ’em back harder” was a reminder that life would not be
easy for a black woman, and you better be prepared to defend yourself.
“It was through sayin’s that I learned the politics of my existence and
the agency of my voice,” writes Boylorn (p. 174).
Toyosaki (in Toyosaki & Pensoneau-Conway, 2015) and
Canagarajah (2012) separately reflect on moments of conflict and
professional self-awareness in autoethnographies related to inequitable
treatment of non-native English-speaking teachers. In Toyosaki’s case,
the author annually feels the weight of students’ perceptions of his
variety of English on the first day of class; some drop the course,
possibly when they discover he is not a native speaker of English. In
another memory, a journal reviewer critiques the language of a
submission as not sounding natural: “I have to learn the (perceived and
somewhat mysterious) linguistic oppressors’ language to make sure my
lived experiences are legible to them” (p. 564). Canagarajah’s (2012)
autoethnography witnesses similar collisions between self and other as he
learns what it means to be a TESOL professional. After giving a
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