Reflecting on our unsettling inter-disciplinary research as we explore a new field: Enabling research practice and developing insight though co-created autoethnography

In this paper three researchers from different subject disciplines are researching a field that is new to them, incorporating both the subject matter of critical action learning and the politics of the new research area. In doing so the principles of autoethnography are used. Auto-ethnography being a qualitative research method where the subjective experiences of the researcher(s) are seen as important and the researcher is encouraged to make meaning of experiences alongside the persons who are the object of the study (Siddique, 2011). The paper offers two interconnected contributions to research practice;Firstly, that the practice of autoethnography is an enabling heuristic allowing us to pay attention to how we work together to notice and explore mundane and striking events and improve our research. We are aware of and chart the development and movement of our thought, noticing small steps that might otherwise be missed, or unsustainable steps in argumentation, contributing to both knowledge and validity in action.Secondly, in terms of understandings, our study highlights our ability to notice and talk about issues of power amongst ourselves, the field and how this impacts on our research, both as individuals and together. The heuristic autoethnographic process involved the writing of narratives, transcripts of conversations and letters to explicate and make sense of our experiences thus enabling further reflexive conversations. Here we illustrate this process with the use of vignettes to show the development of our thought and impact on our research practice.Against this background, we consider how different literature that we have read over many years is brought to play in a very natural way to enable this sensemaking, and how this is challenged and explored between us from our different backgrounds forming our identities as researchers. In short, how the use of a social science affects our research practice and its potential outcomes.