Critical Duoethnography

Critical duoethnography, as a research methodology, can be used in innovative ways to assist educational researchers engaged in social justice research projects. This chapter offers four responses to the question of how critical duoethnography, as a form of qualitative inquiry, can be used by educational researchers to further social justice initiatives. First, critical duoethnography will be described as a tool for reflexivity; second, as an engaged form of collaborative reading and deciphering; third, as an interactive feminist approach to interviewing; and fourth, as a research methods pedagogy.

The Affordances of Digital Social Reading for EFL Learners

The goal of this study is to illustrate the affordances mediated by digital socio-literacy practices of university-level EFL learners engaging in collaborative reading of texts from an ecological perspective. For this purpose, a total of 38 first-year undergraduate students taking a compulsory EFL course in Turkey participated in the research. Data collected from learners' digital annotations on a digital annotation tool (DAT) and reflective papers were qualitatively analyzed. As a result, the construct of affordance was operationalized in an EFL digital social reading context through indicators derived from learners' annotations. The findings based on student-reported data showed that digital collaborative reading practices had contextual, social, and linguistic affordances for EFL learners. Following the discussion of the findings, the study invites future research to examine L2 learners' practices in a DAT-mediated environment in relation to affordances for specific language areas such as grammar and writing.

NGO-Research Collaborations and Conflicts

Ethnographers collaborating with NGOs and non-profits while simultaneously researching their organizational structure, practices, and beliefs about service, advocacy, and activism face myriad challenges. However, collaboration – as it exists in a dialectical relationship between stakeholders working towards common goals – may also generate ethnographic insights that add to anthropological knowledge of NGOs. According to Lassiter (2005a, 2005b), researchers undertaking collaborative ethnography have four commitments: (1) ethical responsibilities to stakeholders; (2) honesty/transparency about research; (3) accessible writing; and (4) collaborative reading, writing, and interpretation. Collaborations may be interrupted at various points, but especially where bureaucratic structures and operations intervene. For example, agreements and documentation (e.g., memoranda of understanding, or MOUs) often challenge the interests and affect of collaborative work. In this article I draw on five years of collaborative NGOgraphy, Lassiter’s conceptualization of collaborative ethnography, and respond to Hymes’ (1972) call for a personal ethnography, in order to discuss the challenges and opportunities of NGO-researcher collaboration.