Abstract:

This presentation summarises the essence of the researcher's new book (Atherton, 2023). This presentation reports on a collaborative autoethnography (Atherton & Pratt, 2022). The project initially drew from a database of podcasts created by the researcher to examine how Covid-19 had enabled edtech providers and educators to develop their own resilience in partnership with their own pupils. It developed into the start of a study of how postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) student teachers of Secondary English engage with the Secondary English curriculum. Participants were asked to reflect upon their own feelings towards the English curriculum by recording their voices on Vocaroo - a voice recording website. While each participant had their own approach to the process of using audio to share their feelings, all demonstrated a notable candour, which solitude and the use of the human voice facilitated. The paper proposes that the act of recording one’s voice alone could help student teachers engage with and therefore understand hitherto suppressed emotions and feelings. In addition to this, the deployment of reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2019) was appropriate as a way of framing the analysis of the human voice, with its varieties in vocabulary, grammar, tonality and timbre. The underlying risk of thematic analysis is a potential lack of focus, which may be seen as lacking rigour, as the researcher is actively involved in the production of meaning. Furthermore, the use of thematic analysis by the lead researcher helped begin an evocative, iterative reflexive journey, which will be developed in future research into reflective practice in teacher education.

The study proposes complementary theoretical frameworks. The work proposes that rhizomatic learning addresses the non-linear nature of trainees' learning (Hordvik et al, 2021), connectivism recognises the fluidity of knowledge networks (Shukie, 2019) and enactivism explores the co-emergence of the researcher, their subject matter and their environment. In doing so, the goal may be to decolonise the research process by acknowledging the entanglement of the researcher, the data and their environment (Li, 2012).

References:
[1] Atherton, P. and Pratt, A. (2022) From reflective models towards collaborative autoethnography. 14th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies. 07 Mar 2022 - 08 Mar 2022. EDULEARN Proceedings. IATED. Mar. 2022. DOI: 10.21125/inted.2022
[2] Atherton, P. (2023). Goal-Setting and Problem-Solving in the Tech-Enhanced Classroom. New York: Routledge
[3] Braun, V. and Clarke, V., (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, [online] 11(4), pp.589-597. doi:10.1080/2159676X.2019.1628806
[4] Hordvik, M., Fletcher, T., Haugen, A., Møller, L. and Engebretsen, B., 2021. Using collaborative self-study and rhizomatics to explore the ongoing nature of becoming teacher educators. Teaching and Teacher Education, [online] 101, p.103318.doi:10.1016/j.tate.2021.103318>
[5] Li, Q.(2012). Understanding enactivism: a study of affordances and constraints of engaging practising teachers as digital game designers. Education Tech Research Dev 60, 785–806 doi:10.1007/s11423-012-9255-4
[6] Shukie, P. (2019). Connectivism, chaos and chaoids. PRISM 2(2), pp. 39–61. doi: 10.24377/LJMU.prism.vol2iss2article282

Keywords:

Podcasting, theory, autoethnography, edtech, technology, teacher education.