Autoetnography, social sciences and critical formation

a review of the scientific production of physical education

Abstract

This study discusses the particularities of autoethnography and its relation with the autoethnographer formation, who is the author and subject of the research. It was elaborated based on a review of the academic production of social science in Physical Education, held in 2017. In the virtual platform of the 25 selected journals with A2, B1 and B2 qualifications in the Physical Education knowledge area, we found only 5 studies on the autoethnography, whose reading allowed discusses about three points: autoethnography and scientific knowledge; autoethnographic text; and critical training of the autoethnographer. The analysis is based on the
foreign literature of autoethnography and, in a conclusive way, allows us to understand that autetnography emerges in the social sciences as a theoretical-methodological contribution of sustained research in the cultural experiences of the researcher. Contrasting positivist models, supported by scientific neutrality, the
autoethnographer elaborates the research from lived situations, feelings and reflexive analyzes, based on the research problem, theoretical framework and methodological rigor. Experience, subjectivity and reflexivity confirm the role of the autoethnographer and mobilize processes of awareness – characteristics that we understand as a critical process formation of the researcher throughout the self-research.