In this article, the author describes how the methodological approach of autoethnography enabled her to interrogate the philosophical underpinnings of the learning and teaching practices that she espoused as a university academic. This critical questioning was provoked through her interactions with postgraduate students from a range of contexts and academic traditions in a School of Education in a university in the United Kingdom. Through personal reflections and conversations with her 'selves' on her teaching and on her supervisory relationships with doctoral researchers, the author strives to show how she reduced her reliance on familiar ideas and changed the shape of her teaching through questioning her 'selves', beliefs and values. The value of autoethnography in enabling this critical exploration when working in an international European higher education context is highlighted. An aim is to encourage greater use of this methodological approach in European higher education research to enable greater sensitivity to our diverse constituencies.
Scene 1. A Conversation with Myself (selves) about Critical Thinking'Your writing would have more academic authority if you were to substantiate your anecdotal claims by making more consistent reference to previous research'. I flush with embarrassment as I re-read the words I have written on the feedback form for his assignment. I have a responsibility to give him this feedback. It will help him to develop his writing so that it is commensurate with the expectations of postgraduate level work. Good academic writing demonstrates a balance between consideration of the words and ideas of others and critical reflection on the extent to which they apply -or not -in one's own context and experience. It also necessitates the ability to question and challenge existing knowledge and the social order. But, I also believe that anecdote has a place in academic writing, in that it can generate new knowledge 'by insisting on the ... moment, as the site of productive thinking' (Gallop, 2002, p. 5). Each of these positions is mediated by a set of beliefs and values about what constitutes academic practice. The first one is a tradition that is privileged in my United Kingdom (UK) context and one with which many readers, in particular those in other European contexts, will be familiar. It is, however, an academic practice that is much less favoured in other parts of the world, in particular those where writers prefer consensus to dissension. The 'critical thinking', to which I attach so much importance, is 'inspired by Marxist tradition and based on the use of reason to examine historical and social realities to uncover hidden forms of domination and exploitation ' (Vandermensbrugghe, 2004, p. 419).'But', I asked myself, 'isn't he doing a degree with a British university? Surely that means he should adhere to our academic traditions?'.'Should he?'. 'Are those academic traditions considered to be so superior? Do we know what our "academic traditions" are and, if we do, why we con...