CC Social Psych Autoethnography & Educational Experiences Presentation

What is an Autoethnography?

https://nv.instructuremedia.com/fetch/QkFoYkIxc0hh…

Autoethnography is a reflexive account of one’s own  experiences situated in culture. In other words, in addition to  describing and looking critically at one’s own experience, an  autoethnography is also a cultural practice. It is a  form of autobiography, self-reflection and writing that explores one’s  personal experience and connects their autobiographical story to wider  cultural, political, and social meanings and understandings. 

Autoethnographies differ from autobiographies because while they are  written from your perspective as an individual, you also emphasize the  experience of a sociocultural group (or more). Sociocultural group is  such a group of people that can be defined on the basis of race, color,  nationality, socioeconomic status, gender, language, sexual orientation,  physical or mental health, Dis/Ability, citizenship status, etc.

You will be bringing to the center of attention the perspective and  experience of a sociocultural group, revealing connections between  personal experience and collective reality. To qualify as an  autoethnography in this class, you must 1) examine the effects of  dominant culture(s) – whether or not you are a member, 2) explore the  connections within and across minoritized or oppressed cultures, and 3)  strategize for hope and collective resistance. 

Autoethnography focuses on the writer’s subjective experience rather  than, or in interaction with, the beliefs and practices of others.  Further, it is a cultural narrative in which you use research to examine  your lived experiences in context of broader communities, and as a  means to understand larger social, political, economic, cultural,  psychological, etc. phenomena shaping your life and those with whom we  culturally identify or are identified. Typically,  autoethnographies are a form of qualitative research (used by  anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, etc.). However, for this  assignment, you will apply the tenets of autoethnography and utilize  autoethnographic methods and reflection to create a slide-based  presentation. You will create an autoethnography  regarding your educational experiences (with a focus/emphasis on your  experiences in this psychology/social psychology class in particular)  and how they have influenced your trajectory as a student.

Objective and Purpose:

You are not only learning about a specific research tradition and  methods for carrying out autoethnographic research, but you are also  actively and simultaneously a participant and researcher in this  context. You will also have a chance to apply theory and concepts  learned in this course to lived experiences.

Also, as we have learned in this class, our experiences shape our  worldviews and in turn, our notions of education and psychology, who we  are as students, as well as who we are as human beings. Our experiences  and knowledge are shaped by political, economic, social, and  psychological forces within the context of history, institutions, and  culture. Thus, our (perceived) roles and realities are shaped by  contexts and forces greater than ourselves, and whether we are conscious  of this or not.

Through this assignment, you  will tell a story/produce a narrative that elevates your knowledge of  self and raises the consciousness and understanding others may have of  you. By documenting your autoethnographic narrative, you  have the power to critically understand your reality and those located  (or not located) within it. Sharing stories also has the potential to  humanize the relationships among unfamiliar people, communities, and  cultures in that they explain how we see the world, experience life, and  relate to the various cultural groups of which we are a part.

Your Task:

You  will create a presentation (using PowerPoint, Google Slides, Prezi,  Canva, etc.) and present to me (not live, but you will present through  Canvas using the audio or video recording feature). You can also create a  video and upload that to Canvas. Your presentation can range from 10 to  15 minutes (of course if you go over or under this, that is okay as  well, as long as you have done enough to sufficiently and appropriately  respond to the prompts/guiding questions below). If you have questions  about how you might go about recording/narrating your slides. In  response to those questions, I have made this brief video (I hope it is  helpful!): https://lbcc-edu.zoom.us/rec/share/XnN28QRq0jAclbh0Nesi7F7RiJsKKDgXHEE2D7RZA8pXvGlOXcowzMB07bynwbo6.q9wUpeXbPG_Cqhvk

Please feel free to use other tools outside of the ones I have  offered. You can be creative and use whatever platform you feel  comfortable with and that of which you have access that will not serve  as a barrier to you completing the assignment.

Also,  you may use and build on previous reflective discussion responses/posts  for this assignment (there is a lot of information from the discussions  that you can choose to incorporate into your final presentation). 

Please narrate your presentation (i.e., include a recording of you  taking me through and explaining each slide). If this is something you  feel you cannot do, please reach out to me and let me know.

Guiding Questions/Prompts:

PROMPT: Share  an education-related experience – a defining moment or a series of  events – (in this class in particular, in college, in high-school,  elementary school, or a combination, etc.) that informed/influenced your  life and shaped your educational/student identity and trajectory as a  student. How does this experience reveal something deep about yourself  as a human being (i.e., why you acted a certain way, why you thought a  certain way, why you felt a certain way, how you interacted with others,  how you formed relationships, etc.), and at least one sociocultural  group with whom you identify? 

So  essentially, I am asking you to reflect back on your time in this course  and also your experiences prior to this course, and where you are now  –  think about how you got here and what you have learned and realized  about yourself/others in the process. Who were you at the start of this  course, and who are you now? In what ways have you changed/grown?

You must incorporate the following in your narrative and story:

1. How are these  experiences reflective of racism, classism, patriarchy,  cisheteronormativity, ableism, audism, nativism, carcerality, genderism,  and/or other structural oppression?;
2. In what ways in particular have you/others/the field of education and/or psychology produced, reinforced, and/or contested/resisted dominant cultural norms and narratives? Think about what kind of baton you have received and what you pass on.
3. How would  you describe your educational path and educational/student identity?  What were critical factors in you getting there?What made it  challenging? What assisted you?
4. How do  you/others move mental/psychological health discourse forward? How might  you/others continue to interrogate, disrupt, and critique the canon of  psychology, the way that psychology and psychological topics are  generally/traditionally taught in this course (and therefore the type of  knowledge that is disseminated)?
5. How do we  move toward restorative and transformative healing? What is the future  that you hope for yourself, psychology/social psychology and other  health/helping professions? For education? For society and y/our world? 
6. What are some “lessons learned” from this/these experience(s)? How  did you come into/arrive to consciousness? (i.e., a high level of  awareness; a profound realization that you had, or an “aha”/”lightbulb”  moment) 

Consider these additional guiding questions (these are suggestions –  please use your sound judgment and discretion to select questions that  help you to build your narrative, support your thesis, and answer the  larger/broader prompt). You can focus more on particular questions and  less on others. You also do not have to respond to every question. 

1. In  efforts to unpack and critique cultural competency, reflect and think  more deeply about the distinctions between the constructs of “normal”  vs. “abnormal”, and “natural” vs, “unnatural” as well as deficit  approaches/notions to diagnosis and treatment; i.e., how psychology as a  field, is deeply rooted in ableist assumptions and White, Western,  Eurocentric, colonial ideology, thought, and culture, that tends to  pathologize individuals and communities and produce damage-centered  narratives that those bodies living with mental illness/mental health  issues are “burdensome”, “broken”, “damaged”, “defective” and  “unnatural”, etc. if they do not meet White, Western standards of health  and being, such that cure rides on the back of “normal” and “natural”  states of being, which means non-disabled, the absence of mental  illness, middle-class, heterosexual, white, and gender-conforming.  Therefore, the underlying assumption is that these bodies need to be  repaired/cured and eradicated and are therefore abnormal; at the core,  is a historical legacy of treating and naming mentally ill people and  people with disabilities (developmental, learning, etc.) as not fully  human, or even nonhuman. 
2. What does it mean to socially “construct” our realities and the world around us? Please also critique how society influences the social construction of the self/identity and interpret how  the definition/notion of mental illness is socially constructed (i.e.,  what are some of the structural conditions in society that contribute to  distress and how might mental health influence your sense of identity  and interactions with others)?;
3. How  has this course helped to shape your understanding of the field/subject  of psychology/social psychology? How have your views on the  subject/field of psychology/social psychology developed and evolved over  the semester and what influenced your views/perspectives?  What do you  understand better now than you did when you first started the course?  Where are you now? 
4. What particular skills/tools have you gained as a result of this  course?  How do you think you can use these skills/tools in your  subsequent/ future coursework/classes and in your personal life (not  limited to your job/employment, relationships, etc.)?;
5. What is/are the  value(s) of social psychology for you? What is/are the most important  thing(s) people should know? (value here denotes what you find important  and meaningful);
6. How  has this course shaped your understanding of psychological/social  psychological research and scientific investigation? How have you  experienced, developed, and learned about social psychological  phenomena, research, and scientific concepts/ideas/principles in this  class/as a result of this class? For  example, you might discuss the methodology used in the early social  psychological experiments with attention to ethical dilemmas (concerning  power, privilege, etc.) related to the conduction of the research. Or,  you may discuss constructionism/constructivism paradigms of research  which is premised upon the belief that research findings are always  already partial and situated; that they actively construct the social  world which is itself an interpretation and in need of interpretation;  that knowledge is not regarded as an insight into some objective  reality, but instead constructed by humans, partly through social  interactions. You may also reflect on/discuss White Logic/White Methods (i.e.,  how Western and positivist research values the notions of neutrality,  objectivity, and validity in research and how these may function as a  practice of power through the de/legitimization of social knowledge,  research practice, and experiential knowledge/possibilities);
7. Discuss  the extent to which this class acknowledged, honored, and celebrated  culture and diverse views /perspectives/ways of knowing and being in the  world. 
8. Discuss  to what extent social psychology (as a field and/or this course) offers  opportunity for deeper understanding of behavior/psychological health  and wellbeing in social, political, historical, economic, cultural,  and/or spiritual context (in other words, understanding how behavior and  mental health/functioning/wellbeing is influenced, shaped, and bound by  these contextual and structural factors)
9. How does your experience compare to other students/people in, and beyond, your community? 
10. Any other final thoughts/reflections you would like to share not listed here (related to the assignment purpose and topic)