Autoethnography as a Lighthouse: Illuminating Race, Research, and the Politics of Schooling: A Book Review

Abstract

What do a lighthouse and an autoethnography have in common? Whether symbolically or literally, both elements seek to help to navigate through rough waters by providing warnings and guidance. Using this powerful analogy, the editors Stephen Hancock, Ayana Allen, and Chance W. Lewis (2015) crafted a powerful narrative, titled Autoethnography as a Lighthouse: Illuminating Race, Research, and the Politics of Schooling as a volume in the book series Contemporary Perspectives on Access, Equity, and Achievement, edited by Chance W. Lewis and published by Information Age. As poignantly stated right at the beginning of the introductory chapter, the primary aim of this collective work is to “move from invisibility to visibility and silence to voice” (Hancock, Allen, & Lewis, 2015, p. 3). Ultimately, this book attempts to lend voice to often marginalized and “othered” scholars who conduct autoethnographic research from a racial, gendered, and critical theoretical framework, which is the so-called culturalized autoethnography. Equally important, however, this edited volume aims to serve as a lighthouse to the readers—illuminating pathways through which readers might navigate more knowledgeably and consciously through the deeply entangled intersections of race, research, and school politics.