The aim of this paper is to reflect on the two uses of multi-vocality in autoethnographic research – as an ‘insider’ researcher completing my PhD by publication and as the ‘outsider’ teacher-educator advocating the use of the practice to pre-service teachers.

Autoethnographic research allows the reader to both self reflect and then to move out from the self to view the experience as ethnography. (Ellis, 1998, Humphreys,2005). Additionally autoethnography allows the life, experience of the researcher to have a presence. Bahktin’s (1981) work on voice has been influential in the development of multi-vocality within social science although with a view that the multiple voices do not merge or interact with each other. Mizzi (2010) asserts rather differently that ‘the narrative voice encounter and build upon what each is saying and, through this process, they situate themselves either in agreement or contradiction with each other.’ It is the latter stance that I adopt in this research with the anticipation that openness of the voices can enable the tensions and the emotions of the narrative to be felt by the reader and thus to be more able to empathise with the lived experiences of the author. An interpretivist framework will be adopted.

The context within which my own research is situated acknowledges the tension between being ‘research active’ and being a teacher educator in a context where pragmatism and external accountability can be seen to be the daily driving forces. The study relates to – my own development as a teacher-educator and researcher working towards a PhD by publication who, late in the day, has begun to more fully recognise the place of complementary, and at times, competing voices within myself. The paper argues that a potential intellectual barrier to teacher educators engaging in research could be their failure to recognise their unique offering. This discussion asks the question ‘How does retrospective multi-vocal analysis contribute to critiquing the competing tensions inside an autoethnographer as she unites the personal self to the social context? The discussion proposes that the use of multi-vocality in autoethnography could contribute to enabling researchers to acknowledge their specific contribution within a wider role, for example as ‘teacher-educator’ and be a means of ensuring research was conducted.

The second area presents my ‘teacher-educator’s voice’ and an exploration into the use of multi-vocality with pre-service teachers. This area reflects on how multi-vocality may be useful within reflective practice.  The works of Schon (1983) and Stenhouse have a long history in the development of ‘reflective practitioners’. Furthermore the role of the individual in reflection may have been enhanced by learning journals (Smith, M 1999, 2006,2013).  The current exploratory study asks the question ‘How does using an additional layer of reflection –multi-vocal analysis- on critical incidents in pre-service teacher development impact on the response to the incident?’

Whilst the context is within the UK the application of using multi-vocality to explore one’s auto-ethnographic journey extends to all ‘practice- professions’. The proposal suggests that multi-vocality as a research practice may be helpful in: developing research careers where practitioners join the academy prior to completing a higher research degree and in encouraging deep reflective practice of professionals.

Ellis, C. (1997) Evocative autoethnography: writing emotionally about our lives In W.Tierney and Y.Lincoln (eds) Representation and the text: Re-framing the narrative voice (pp116-140) NewYork, State University of New York Press) Exploring loss Humphreys M. (2005) Getting personal : reflexivity and autoethnographic vignettes. Qualitative Inquiry, 11, (60 840 – 860. Mizzi, R. (2010) Unravelling researcher subjectivity through multivocality in autoethnography. Journal Of research Practice, Volume 6 , Issue 1, Article M3, 2010 Schon, D. A. (1983) The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. London, Temple Smith. Smith, Mark (1999, 2006, 2013), ‘Keeping a learning journal. A guide for educators and social practitioners’, the encyclopaedia of informal education. [http://infed.org/mobi/writing-and-keeping-journals-a-guide-for-educators-and-social-practitioners