Use of Collage in Autoethnography

Abstract

In this critical reflection, I will explore my use of collage in critical autoethnography. This reflection was prompted by my participation in a seminar that took place in June 2022, entitled ‘Being a Researcher’. This seminar was co-organised by the Non-Traditional Research Methods Network (NTRM), of which I am one of three founder members, and the Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE). I reflect upon two properties of collage. I suggest that embodiment in the process of making collage, enables researchers to draw upon embodied and affective ways of understanding the world. Furthermore, I propose that the constructive and deconstructive properties of collage enable a critical engagement with one’s personal narratives in autoethnography. I conclude that the literally messy aspects of collage pose questions about tidy and messy ways of knowing, and in so doing raise questions what it means to be a researcher in practice.