Portraiture & Autoethnography: Student Voices Painting the Picture
Abstract
While much attention is paid to the “brain drain” regarding students from rural areas who leave to attend college in a metropolitan/urban setting, often opting not to return to their roots, (Carr & Kefalas, 2009; Petrin, Schafft, & Meece, 2014), there has been little research regarding students who have decided to attend rural colleges. It is these individuals’ personal stories where we might find answers to questions regarding a means to retain the brightest and most promising for rural futures. Through a combination of the qualitative methodologies—autoethnography and portraiture—the authors of this study sought to examine the shared experiences of undergraduate students who hail from and attend college in rural Southeast Nebraska. This study further examines the impact of service-learning pedagogy on shaping their future careers. The use of autoethnography is an attempt to obtain a rich description of the participant’s lives by asking them to “reflexively explore their personal experiences and their interactions with others as a way of achieving wider cultural, political or social understanding” (Pace, 2012, pg. 2). Additionally, the use of portraiture seeks to “capture the richness, complexity, and dimensionality of human experience in social and cultural context” (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997, pg. 3).
Location
Rooms 113 & 115
Recommended Citation
Ryan, Kyle; Grotrian-Ryan, Sheri; Henry, Rachel; Beethe, Kesha; Sunneberg, Preston; and Theye, Jamie, "Portraiture & Autoethnography: Student Voices Painting the Picture" (2015). SoTL Commons Conference. 86.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/SoTL/2015/86
Portraiture & Autoethnography: Student Voices Painting the Picture
Rooms 113 & 115
While much attention is paid to the “brain drain” regarding students from rural areas who leave to attend college in a metropolitan/urban setting, often opting not to return to their roots, (Carr & Kefalas, 2009; Petrin, Schafft, & Meece, 2014), there has been little research regarding students who have decided to attend rural colleges. It is these individuals’ personal stories where we might find answers to questions regarding a means to retain the brightest and most promising for rural futures. Through a combination of the qualitative methodologies—autoethnography and portraiture—the authors of this study sought to examine the shared experiences of undergraduate students who hail from and attend college in rural Southeast Nebraska. This study further examines the impact of service-learning pedagogy on shaping their future careers. The use of autoethnography is an attempt to obtain a rich description of the participant’s lives by asking them to “reflexively explore their personal experiences and their interactions with others as a way of achieving wider cultural, political or social understanding” (Pace, 2012, pg. 2). Additionally, the use of portraiture seeks to “capture the richness, complexity, and dimensionality of human experience in social and cultural context” (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Davis, 1997, pg. 3).
