This approach is well documented in the literature on qualitative research. For example, Carolyn Ellis and Arthur Bochner (2000) describe a process called "reflexive ethnography" in which the researcher's experience helps to illuminate the situation being studied. They also describe how feminism has influenced research, giving researchers permission to use an autobiographical voice and to start research from their own experience. Stephen Brookfield (1995) encourages teachers to do autobiographical writing in reflective practice, describing it as a "visceral route into critical reflection" which helps to challenge assumptions about good teaching (p. 58). He finds it particularly useful for instructors to reflect on how they were taught. "We try to avoid reproducing the humiliations that were visited on us as learners. We attempt to replicate the things our own teachers did that affirmed or inspired us ..." (p.49).

After learning about the potential that autobiographical pieces can offer as a data source, the practitioner researchers had to decide where to begin in the process of writing our stories. Our first work in autobiographies was a branching exercise. After we did some writing with the group, we proceeded to write outside of the research team meetings, over the next month. Practitioner researchers each wrote between four and seven pieces, for a total of twenty-six autobiographical pieces. We used an electronic conferencing system, known as the Hub as a way to share and process our pieces amongst the research team members. Each of us posted our pieces and other research team members responded to them. This gave us the opportunity to read everything each other had written and react to it. We decided that if someone wrote something that resonated with us, it was not necessary for us to write a similar piece. Each practitioner researcher selected pieces of her autobiography and created a separate document explaining their teaching lives, for this report. These pieces are in the final chapter, "Who Are We?".

Journaling and its challenges

We wanted a daily account of what we did to see if shared themes would emerge. Given that we had our essence defined to some extent in our autobiographies, how did that play out in our day-to-day encounters with students and others? The practitioner researchers wrote descriptions and reflections about daily practice for a period of time as a way of obtaining a snapshot of the present.