Out to See: A Journey to Critical Feminist Polyethnography

This methodological insight into critical feminist polyethnography demonstrates an expansion of critical feminist autoethnography to include queer and decolonizing theories, and reflexive praxis for social justice and transformative research with an interconnected culture group. Through critical feminist polyethnography, the researcher demonstrates a responsive and consent-based relationship with the culture group of study participants, feminist counsellors and therapists, as an insider/outsider to the research topic. A visual model of the methodology, inspired by the nautilus, assisted the participants and the researcher to engage with each theoretical chamber, ensuring consent and accountability were breathed into each step of the research. The research was reflective, responsive, and iterative, exploring how feminist counsellors and therapists engaged in learning about feminism, applied a feminist lens to psychotherapeutic modalities, and experienced peer and clinical mentorship and supervision. Using critical feminist polyethnography, the researcher was able to make ontological connections between the participant’s stories of feminist learning and transformative learning theoretical revisiting. Using a visual model as a pedagogical tool, the researcher and participants engaged with the research questions, transcriptions, and recommendations for emergent, transformative action.