Autobiographical narrative inquiry is an approach with a specific set of methodological commitments that guide research practice, yet its place and position within the work on reflexive practice are lost or misrepresented. Reflexivity in the form of autobiographical narrative inquiries comes out of the relational ontological commitments of narrative inquiry. By inquiring into Michael’s (the first author) experience as a researcher–practitioner, the purpose of this article is to show how reflexivity, in the form of narrative beginnings, is situated in the ongoing stream of experience. It provides narrative inquirers with avenues to make clear their research justifications/puzzles, become wakeful and open in their inquiries, and support shifts in relational knowing and being. By looking back and noticing the ways stories work on us, rather than us on them, this research explores the reverberations of past experiences and the ripples that carry forward into our future inquiries.
BassoK. H. (1996). Wisdom sits in place: Landscape and language among the western Apache. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
2.
CaineV. (2010). Narrative beginnings: Traveling to and within unfamiliar landscapes. Qualitative Health Research, 20, 1304-1311.
3.
CaineV.EstefanA.ClandininD. J. (2013). A return to methodological commitment: Reflections on narrative inquiry. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 57(6), 574-586.
4.
CardinalT. (2011). Stepping-stone or saving story. Learning Landscapes, 4, 79-92.
5.
CarrD. (1986). Time, narrative and history. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
6.
CaseyA.SchaeferL. (2016). A narrative inquiry into the experience of negotiating the dominant stories of physical education: Living, telling, re-telling and re-living. Sport, Education and Society, 21, 114-130.
7.
ClandininD. J. (2013). Engaging in narrative inquiry. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
8.
ClandininD. J.CaineV.LessardS.HuberJ. (2016). Engaging in narrative inquiries with children and youth. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
9.
ClandininD. J.ConnellyM. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
10.
ClandininD. J.LessardS.CaineV. (2012). Reverberations of narrative inquiry: How resonant echoes of an inquiry with early school leavers shaped further inquiries. Educação, Sociedade & Culturas, 36, 7-24.
11.
ClandininD. J.RosiekJ. (2007). Mapping a landscape of narrative inquiry: Borderland spaces and tensions. In ClandininD. J. (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 35-75). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
12.
ColesR. (1989). The call of stories: Teaching and the moral imagination. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
13.
ConnellyF. M.ClandininD. J. (1990). Stories of experience and narrative inquiry. Educational Researcher, 19(5), 2-14.
14.
ConnellyF. M.ClandininD. J. (1999). Shaping a professional identity: Stories of educational practice. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
15.
ConnellyF. M.ClandininD. J. (2006). Narrative inquiry. In GreenJ.CamilliG.ElmoreP. (Eds.), Handbook of complementary methods in education research (pp. 375-385). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
16.
CritesS. (1971). The narrative quality of experience. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 39, 291-311.
17.
DenzinN.LincolnY. (2011). The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
18.
DeweyJ. (1938). Experience and education. New York, NY: Collier Books.
19.
DowneyC. A.ClandininD. J. (2010). Narrative inquiry as a reflective practice: Tensions and possibilities. In LyonsN. (Ed.), Handbook of reflection and reflective inquiry: Mapping a way of knowing for professional reflective practice (pp. 285-397). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
20.
DubnewickM. J. (2016). Gardening in tension filled rows: Autobiographical narrative inquiry of gardening and space on the margins. Leisure/loisir, 40, 423-445.
21.
DubnewickM. J.FoxK. M.ClandininD. J. (2013). Tending to the soil: Autobiographical narrative inquiry of gardening. Leisure/loisir, 37, 415-431.
22.
FinlayL. (2002). Negotiating the swamp: The opportunity and challenge of reflexivity in research practice. Qualitative Research, 2, 209-230.
23.
FreemanM. (2007). Autobiographical understandings and narrative inquiry. In ClandininD. J. (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 120-145). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
24.
GreeneM. (1995). Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
25.
HuberJ.LiY.MurphyS.NelsonC.YoungM. (2014). Shifting stories to live by: Teacher education as a curriculum of narrative inquiry identity explorations. Reflective Practice, 15, 176-189.
26.
KingT. (2003). The truth about stories: A Native narrative. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
27.
LugonesM. (1987). Playfulness, “world”-travelling, and loving perception. Hypatia, 2(2), 3-19.
28.
OkriB. (1997). The way of being free. London, England: Phoenix House.
29.
ParaschakV.ThompsonK. (2014). Finding strength(s): Insights on Aboriginal physical cultural practices in Canada. Sport in Society, 17, 1046-1060.
30.
RichardsonL. (1994). Writing: A method of inquiry. In DenzinN.LincolnY. (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 959-978). London, England: SAGE.
31.
RosiekJ. L. (2013). Pragmatism and post-qualitative futures. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26, 692-705.
32.
RossiT.RynneS. (2014). Sport development programmes for Indigenous Australians: Innovation, inclusion and development, or a product of “white guilt”?Sport in Society, 17, 1030-1045.
33.
SalehM.MenonJ.ClandininD. J. (2014). Autobiographical narrative inquiry: Tellings and retellings. Learning Landscapes, 7, 271-282.
34.
SarrisG. (1993). Keeping slug woman alive: A holistic approach to American Indian texts. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
35.
Truth and Reconciliation Canada. (2015). Honouring the truth, reconciling for the future: Summary of the final report of the truth and reconciliation commission of Canada. Winnipeg, Manitoba: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
36.
WilsonS. (2001). What is an indigenous research methodology?Canadian Journal of Native Education, 25, 175-179.
