2.1 Autoethnography as Method

The methodological rationale for using autoethnography as story to describe the new approach to teaching the Listening to the SONG of Life course is embedded in two assumptions. First, language is a primary medium by which we are conscious, understand the world, and communicate our learnings to others in stories.^[1] Second, there are many signs in the teacher-student learning context that, when read with the assistance of the imagination, can open new understandings of the relationship between teacher and student in the ongoing story of life.^[2]

I hold four criteria for “good” autoethnography as a personal standard.^[3] First, autoethnographies that I narrate should be rooted in the personal experience of the author (auto) and in the lives of others (ethnography). Second, the autoethnography needs to connect with a stream of ideas in scholarship or some system of ideas (e.g., a philosophy, religion, or spirituality). Third, the autoethnography should engage readers in ways that facilitate mindful reflection and life-enhancing praxis. And fourth, the autoethnography should be grounded in the human mystery of the interconnections between mind, body, and spirit. To summarize, for me, a good autoethnography is a personal and emotionally engaging story about meaningful events in the author’s life that connects with the story of others within a conceptual framework, theory, or stream of ideas for some worthy purpose.

The present autoethnography on developing and teaching the Listening to the SONG Life course fulfills, at least to some degree, each of the four criteria for a good autoethnography. The story of teaching the Listening to the SONG of Life course is rooted in my teaching experience as a professor (auto) and in the lives of my students (ethno). There are connections in the autoethnography to a body of literature that uses formal (e.g., scholarly journals and books) and informal sources (e.g., nonacademic books and digital resources like TED talks). The verses of Listening to the SONG of Life organize the content of the story as a song. And the description of the listening activities, and student responses to them, hopefully inspire teachers to reflect and consider new options for learning in teaching their listening courses (praxis). The autoethnography is a holistic representation of the interconnections of listening to the SONG of life in the contexts of self, others, nature, and the Divine.

In the next sections, I demonstrate the need for the new Listening to the SONG of Life course by reviewing literature in listening pedagogy and by narrating two personal stories about planting seeds.