Those are two key topics that were discussed in seminars in the past two weeks. As we are preparing for 3 months of independent study, it feels like we’re packing different techniques(food, water, clothing, weapons etc) into our brains like heroes in storybooks preparing for a very long journey ahead.

autoethnography

My initial understanding of autoethnography was to tap into our own experience when doing a project. The actual definition is as follows:

Autoethnography is an approach that seeks to describe and systematically analyze(graphy) personal experience(auto) to understand cultural experience(ethno).

This somehow reminds me of a novel I read when I was 16… It’s called “Spirit Walker” (from the series “Chronicles of Ancient Darkness”) by Michelle Paver. The story is based on mythology and history in the New Stone Age. In this book, every human has three souls inside them: the name soul(on the heels), the clan soul(on the heart,representing who you belong with, your environment and surroundings), and the world soul(on the forehead). If anybody loses one of those souls in this world, they will forget what it’s like to be human and morph into demons and ghosts.

So, autoethnography, to me, is using our name soul to understand our clan soul.

(I’m just putting this here because I genuinely think like this, I’ve been told that I leap onto a different topic reeeaaally fast)

I have used autoethnography in my own project(unconsciously if I might add, because I wasn’t aware at the time that what I was doing was a method called autoethnography) when I went back to my high school in Beijing during spring break. Physically being back there did wonders in reawakening my old memories of the place. I drew from my own experience and insider knowledge on the topic, and am now at a loss of what to do next, and which area to research next. I’m probably at what I would personally like to call a stalemate.

time management

We used the Eisenhower Matrix in class to map out what would eventually be our schedule for independent study. As you can see below, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do:(

I do tend to get to this point in previous projects where my topic is too scattered for me to continue. So the next step is to gather all the info and research and other titbits I had collected(rather kleptomaniac behavior actually) and to reframe my research question into a cohesive sentence.

Right now it has stretched to 3 different topics, not unlike 3 jigsaw puzzles where I’m trying to force them together. In my own head they piece together quite well in fact…

Fiction, Psychology, (Education) Systems

How can dystopian fiction be used to disrupt the psychological impact of result-based systems on younger individuals?

The Eisenhower Matrix told me I need a more concrete plan. FAST.

The education planner test we did on the right told me I was a Tactile Learner, which means I learn best by taking action. Which I guess was right because the intervention on May 13th had a huge boost on my project as well as my personal feelings about the project. Action and physical movement does push my project forward a lot.

This is the layout of my mind map right now(I linked my Box of Uncertainties to my project recently):

I sense an adventure in the independent study period. While my thoughts and the scattered pieces of research I found are chaotic to the extent that I couldn’t succinctly describe it, they are there, and they come like the tide. I’ll just have to figure out how to take advantage of it.

We are also required to:

• Draft plan/design of your project management strategy
• Draft timeline with your goals/milestones mapped out over the Summer Independent Study Period

Honestly not quite sure how to do that yet. I will update this as soon as possible.

TBC.

References:

Spirit Walker (Chronicles of Ancient Darkness) Michelle Paver