Reflective Journals as a Tool for Auto-Ethnographic Learning: A Case Study of Student Experiences With Individualized Sustainability

Abstract

This paper critically evaluates the use of journals as a pedagogic tool to encourage reflection, critique and self-analysis by students. Based within a postgraduate teaching module that has operated annually since 2008 and was awarded the Royal Town Planning Institute's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2009, reflexive journals were employed as a method of assessment which, supplemented by conventional lectures and student focus groups, sought to explore the relations, opportunities and obstacles for sustainable development at the individual level.

Keywords:

• Reflective diary
• auto-ethnography
• sustainability

Notes

¹ In more detail, the module is taken by approximately 20 students every year, with 75 per cent of these being full-time students and 25 per cent part-time students. The gender balance is approximately 50:50, and the home:overseas student ratio is also approximately 50:50. Attendance is excellent at both lectures and focus groups, although a register is not taken, and attendance is not compulsory. In general terms, there are no significant patterns identifiable in grades achieved when analysed in terms of gender, age or point of origin.

² This was particularly true for students from overseas, as the following Chinese student maintains:

In order to be an auto-ethnographer, it is necessary to start writing my own life diary about how I live, which kinds of energy utilization I have everyday and what benefits I can get if I change my life styles. To reflect upon my thoughts and actions with reference to specific texts has been challenging for me.

However, many ‘home’ students experienced similar apprehension at the beginning of the module:

This exercise has made me think about my life differently and pause for thought over the reasons why I make the choices in life that I do. I was initially daunted by the idea of the journal but it has been an interesting exercise in reflection.

³ And of course to the marker. With this in mind, it was also made clear to students at the beginning of the module that these diaries would be anonymised for marking, and would be archived anonymously for research use such as these. All students signed consent forms to allow this latter use of their material.

⁴ Over the course of the module, however, this student did modify their opinion:

However, having been given allocated time to think about sustainability and environmental issues, I can conclude that there are many problems that modern society has created and I have been given some self-empowerment to deal with some of these issues…. Without this reflective journal and auto-ethnography, my thought would not have been provoked.

⁵ In practice, a range of subjects were considered by students; however, the vast majority were connected in some way to those raised in lectures and focus groups (for more information on these subjects, see www.citizensustainability.com).

⁶ In academic year 2010–2011, the average (mean) student grade on this module was 64 per cent. This figure also represents the average mean grade taken across all modules within the MSc degree of which this module is a part.