Autoethnography, Narrative Analysis, and a Principal’s Reflection on Moral Purpose Jim Lane, Ed.D. University of Phoenix International Conference of Qualitative Inquiry University of Illinois May 19, 2017

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! The Story of Tom and Rita Sexual Infidelity Alcoholism Addiction to Prescription Drugs Campus-wide disruption Emotional and Professional Collapse

My Background Free-lance Magazine Writer High School English Teacher 11 years Middle School Assistant Principal 7 years Principal Orange Pines Middle School 7 years Principal Meeks Middle School 3 years

Personal Motivations Childhood traumas Death of my mother Father’s two disastrous marriages and professional failures Middle class comfort and economic hardships.

Professional Motivations Many school principals unreflective and unempathetic Haunted by stories that I carried with me Needed framework and methodology to understand my own decision making

Starratt’s Ethical Frameworks for Ethical Dilemmas Ethic of Critique deals with questions of social justice and human dignity. Ethic of Justice implies more specific responses to unethical practices identified through the lens of critique. It is often connected with legal or codified procedures. Ethic of Care focuses on relationships from a personal rather than legalistic regard.

Data Collection Notes- the “James Comey” approach Memos Agendas Emails Analytic memos Reflective journals

Method Narrative Inquiry & Three-Dimensional Space Autoethnography Clandinin & Connelly : To adequately understand an experience or event, one must “experience it simultaneously in three ways and to ask questions pointing each way”. Autoethnography I will inductively analyze and reflect primarily on self-authored texts tied to critical professional ethical dilemmas so as to discover emergent themes, patterns, insights, and epiphanies in the development of my persona as a morally directed school leader.

Three-Dimensional Space Interaction (personal and social; inward and outward) Continuity (past, present, and future; backward and forward) Situation (place) I will re-create these critical events through descriptive vignettes in which I will capture personal and social implications of the experiences using Clandinin and Connelly’s model of three-dimensional narrative space.

Autoethnography & Vignettes Auto-ethnographies show people in the process of figuring out what to do, how to live, and what their struggles mean. Writing difficult stories is a gift to self, a reflexive attempt to construct meaning in our lives and heal or grow from our pain Carolyn Ellis Cole and Knowles note that thematic interpretations are finally represented “in the form of detailed and rich life history accounts” (2001, p. 13).

Ethical Frameworks Ethic of Critique Ethic of Justice Ethic of Care

Implications for Further Study Call for more autoethnographic studies, not only by principals, but by other school leaders I see a particular need for studies that examine the ethics of justice and critique

Closure Long have you timidly waded holding a plank by the shore, Now I will you to be a bold swimmer, To jump off in the midst of the sea, rise again, nod to me, shout, and laughingly dash with your hair. Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, Stanza 46,ll. 35-38