Creative writing and autoethnography: a layered approach to exploring positionality

Abstract

In this paper I describe how I used the creative writing of Interactive Fiction (IF) and autoethnographic playthroughs to gain a richer understanding of my professional identity as a secondary school English teacher and my positionality as a qualitative researcher working in the context of CentreTown academy. Using this novel combination of research methods, I offer insight into the discomfort and unease that I experience as an English teacher working in a large, inner-city secondary academy in England, as well as the factors that motivate me as a teacher-writer. These personal insights are remarkable, for in an education sector preoccupied with improving measurable outcomes, nuanced accounts of the discomfort that results-driven, performative approaches to education can produce become noteworthy counter-narratives.