Future homemakers and feminist awakenings: Auto-ethnography as a method intheological education and research

The author describes a project that illustrates the use of critical ethnogr aphy as a research methodology in religious education. The article focuses on a facet of critical ethnography known as autoethnography. Autoethnograph y refers to the researcher's use of portions of her own life story in an et hnographic project. It allows the researcher to interrogate her reasons for engaging in a specific field, in this case, female adolescent voice. In he r research with adolescent females, the author weaves memories of her own a dolescence, especially those memories of significant adult mentors who help ed her come to voice. Through the use of such autobiographical narrative, t he researcher acknowledges the situated nature of her observations and reve als the connections between herself and the topic under study. In keeping w ith significant work in the field of anthropology, the author argues that t his turn toward autoethnography allows for research that engages scholarly passion, enabling the researcher to effect change.