Critical autoethnographic inquiry for culture‐sensitive professional development

Abstract

A question asked by a Year 10 student – ‘What is a Mozambican chemistry?’ – constituted for me, a school teacher at the time, a matter of wonder and subsequently a key focus of interrogation for my professional practice. This critical event shaped my one‐year research journey in which writing about my own lifeworld experience was a way of inquiring into science teacher education in Mozambique. A critical autoethnographic methodology enabled me to represent and interrogate some of the complexity of learning and teaching science in Mozambique. I drew on my evolving professional perspectives – trainee teacher, science teacher, science teacher educator – to generate multiple narratives intended to engage myself and my reader in pedagogical thoughtfulness. In this paper, I reflect on the research process, especially how autoethnography enabled me to explore and reflect critically on the sensitivity of my professional practice to Mozambican culture.

Keywords:

• autoethnography
• critical
• narratives
• decolonization
• methodology