Occurring annually in Hawaii, the Hawaii International Conference on Education is to provide an opportunity for academics and professionals from various education related fields from all over the world to come together, learn from each other and share their projects and research with members inside and outside their own particular disciplines.
Over 1200 participants attended this year's conference, representing 47 countries, presenting papers, roundtables, workshops and posters on such broad ranging topics as the use of artificial intelligence in writing and language learning; racism and colonialism in an academic setting; fairytales, storybooks, and the development of handwriting among children; and enhancing emotional intelligence in business schools. The powerful keynote address was delivered by Dr. Ronald Williams Jr. of the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa, who spoke of the history of Queen Liliʻuokalani and the illegal annexation of the nation of Hawai'i.
There has long been an ongoing debate about the validity of autoethnography as a research method. Some have considered the method to be self-indulgent, while others value the benefits of this form of inquiry, such as deeper reflexivity, personal engagement and stronger impact to the reader. To even begin to understand the complexities involved in autoethnography, we must start by exploring the ways in which it is entrenched in how the self interacts with others, creating meaning, and how those meanings are both derived from and inform the evolution of the culture that defines day-to-day existence of the individual. These meaning-making interactions between the self and our environment, be they other individuals or cultures, shape and guide us in countless ways.
Called "The Analytic and Critical Self: How Autoethnography is Used in Reflexive Learning", the paper I presented uses my own autoethnographic experiences to plot my path in self-discovery and learning. Explored in this paper are the visibility of the complete member researcher, the continuous rigourous process of critiquing personal biases and memories, and the performative nature of remembering and recollecting. Autoethnography is compared and contrasted with other methods of qualitative research, such as institutional ethnography, self-narrative, and storytelling. It is through autoethnography, in its many different forms, that we can learn reflexively and develop a more tangible understanding of our own development as it relates to the people and culture around us.