Publications
Publication details [#11861]
Pourreau, Leslie. 2014. Analyzing Flying Chameleons: Using Autoethnography to Explore Change in the Female Educator. The Qualitative Report 19 (102) : 1–22. 22 pp. URL
Abstract
This paper analyzes the role of a chameleon in the world of education and her definition from a professional and personal point of view. It constitutes an autoethnography which attempts to study the meanings and implications that the chameleon metaphor has in the personal and professional spheres of my life as a female educator. For that, I try to provide answers to questions by Mitchell and Weber (2005): Just who do I think I am? My focus is on the analysis of my own autobiographical journals where I use a Listening Guide with four different parts (Gilligan, Spencer, Weinberg, & Bertsch, 2003), combined with a theme-based family code in order to examine changes in my personal and professional experiences. I conclude that notions of home, belonging, and change as a journey, appeared to be used to shape my identity. Similarly, they demonstrated how important it is for educators to include self-inquiry as a usual practice within the context of their profession.