My dog and I, or Paradise lost : An autoethnographic reflection on the clash between different ambitions and needs within an asymmetric relationship built on significant otherness
(2022) Oxford Ethnography and Education Conference 2022- Abstract (Swedish)
- Through an autoethnographical reflection the aim of this paper is to explore the clash between high ethical ambitions in educative relationships and demanding
behaviours. What happens when the map does not resemble reality, when, for
example, someone in the educative relation does not behave as expected and the
methods are challenged? What increases or decreases the risk that the teacher (or
similar) will act contrary to her or his convictions?
The background to this autoethnographical, substantive paper, goes like this:
Inspired of Donna Haraway’s (2003, 2008) writings about her relation with the
Australian shepherd Cayenne, I last fall expanded my family with a miniature
American Shepherd. I wanted to... (More) - Through an autoethnographical reflection the aim of this paper is to explore the clash between high ethical ambitions in educative relationships and demanding
behaviours. What happens when the map does not resemble reality, when, for
example, someone in the educative relation does not behave as expected and the
methods are challenged? What increases or decreases the risk that the teacher (or
similar) will act contrary to her or his convictions?
The background to this autoethnographical, substantive paper, goes like this:
Inspired of Donna Haraway’s (2003, 2008) writings about her relation with the
Australian shepherd Cayenne, I last fall expanded my family with a miniature
American Shepherd. I wanted to call her Kajan, as a Swedish wink to Haraway’s
Cayenne, but my daughters said no. In the end – and after long and intensive
deliberations – we all agreed on the name Lyra after the main character in Philip
Pullmans His Dark Materials (1995, 1997, 2000). Lyra has turned out to be a wellchosenname. This small, blue-eyed beautiful miniature version of the Australian shepherd has really brought some dark materials into our home and into my mind.
My last dog Lissie, born 2011, gave me already as a puppy a life changing
experience of alternative ways of being in the world with a different species. This led among other things, to a doctoral dissertation in educational sciences, in which I with ethnographical methods explore the paradigmatic shift that has occurred in parts of the dog-training world. Older methods built on domination and punishment, have been challenged and out dated by methods built on care, willingness to see the world from the perspective of the other, positive reinforcement and companionship (Bosseldal, 2019).
With Lyra, I dreamed about building a perfect companionship from the beginning,
built on what Haraway (2008) calls significant otherness. I intended to do this by
seeing the world from Lyras perspective, protect her from failures and use only
decent training methods where her voice could be heard. This has turned out to be much more difficult than I predicted. Lyra, my beloved dark material, has much more of significant otherness than I was able (or experienced) to foresee.
As far as I can understand, Lyra is interested in a companionship with me. But her
perspectives and reactions on the world, differs dramatically from mine. This has
been really challenging. I have some days failed to be the decent partner I intended to be. I have also met other people, especially other dog trainers, that has questioned my methods and mocked my ambitions. They have not been interested at all, in seeing the world from the eyes of Lyra and this has left me sad, anxious and angry. It is these experiences that I want to dig deeper into with the autobiographical methodology.
The relation between me and Lyra, and the clash between my ethical ambitions
about otherness in connection and the explosive and reactive little puppy together
with the dog trainers and others that question both my methods and ambitions and are willing to attack Lyra where she is as most vulnerable, is a unique experience, well suited for autoethnographical design. The paper will contribute to the autoethnographical field by connecting it to the self-study methodology (see below) and by using it to explore something that is difficult to grasp with more common ethnographical (or other) methods: namely the teachers/trainers ongoing reflection and inner monologue when trying to realize an educative ambition and especially when this realisation meets resistance and/or unexpected and demanding behaviours from both students and colleagues.
There are a few other examples in the field of human-animal-relationship-studies
where researchers have used autoethnography (see for example Tulloch 2016,
Zetterquist Blokhuis 2018, Hagström 2018, Lee 2019). The rich tradition of selfstudies in the field of teacher education also connects to this. Like the self studyresearchers, my focus lie on the self (myself) in action, in an educational context (Hauge, 2020).
(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/521b19d4-7216-4b45-9408-a6d455cf07b5
- author
- Bosseldal, Ingrid LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022-03-30
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- unpublished
- subject
- keywords
- philosophy of education, Companion Species, educational relations, human-dog relations, auto ethnography, Donna Haraway
- conference name
- Oxford Ethnography and Education Conference 2022
- conference location
- Oxford, United Kingdom
- conference dates
- 2022-09-12 - 2022-09-14
- language
- Swedish
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 521b19d4-7216-4b45-9408-a6d455cf07b5
- date added to LUP
- 2023-01-31 23:03:54
- date last changed
- 2023-02-14 10:30:40
@misc{521b19d4-7216-4b45-9408-a6d455cf07b5,
abstract = {{Through an autoethnographical reflection the aim of this paper is to explore the clash between high ethical ambitions in educative relationships and demanding<br/>behaviours. What happens when the map does not resemble reality, when, for<br/>example, someone in the educative relation does not behave as expected and the<br/>methods are challenged? What increases or decreases the risk that the teacher (or<br/>similar) will act contrary to her or his convictions?<br/><br/>The background to this autoethnographical, substantive paper, goes like this:<br/>Inspired of Donna Haraway’s (2003, 2008) writings about her relation with the<br/>Australian shepherd Cayenne, I last fall expanded my family with a miniature<br/>American Shepherd. I wanted to call her Kajan, as a Swedish wink to Haraway’s<br/>Cayenne, but my daughters said no. In the end – and after long and intensive<br/>deliberations – we all agreed on the name Lyra after the main character in Philip<br/>Pullmans His Dark Materials (1995, 1997, 2000). Lyra has turned out to be a wellchosenname. This small, blue-eyed beautiful miniature version of the Australian shepherd has really brought some dark materials into our home and into my mind.<br/><br/>My last dog Lissie, born 2011, gave me already as a puppy a life changing<br/>experience of alternative ways of being in the world with a different species. This led among other things, to a doctoral dissertation in educational sciences, in which I with ethnographical methods explore the paradigmatic shift that has occurred in parts of the dog-training world. Older methods built on domination and punishment, have been challenged and out dated by methods built on care, willingness to see the world from the perspective of the other, positive reinforcement and companionship (Bosseldal, 2019).<br/><br/>With Lyra, I dreamed about building a perfect companionship from the beginning,<br/>built on what Haraway (2008) calls significant otherness. I intended to do this by<br/>seeing the world from Lyras perspective, protect her from failures and use only<br/>decent training methods where her voice could be heard. This has turned out to be much more difficult than I predicted. Lyra, my beloved dark material, has much more of significant otherness than I was able (or experienced) to foresee.<br/><br/>As far as I can understand, Lyra is interested in a companionship with me. But her<br/>perspectives and reactions on the world, differs dramatically from mine. This has<br/>been really challenging. I have some days failed to be the decent partner I intended to be. I have also met other people, especially other dog trainers, that has questioned my methods and mocked my ambitions. They have not been interested at all, in seeing the world from the eyes of Lyra and this has left me sad, anxious and angry. It is these experiences that I want to dig deeper into with the autobiographical methodology.<br/><br/>The relation between me and Lyra, and the clash between my ethical ambitions<br/>about otherness in connection and the explosive and reactive little puppy together<br/>with the dog trainers and others that question both my methods and ambitions and are willing to attack Lyra where she is as most vulnerable, is a unique experience, well suited for autoethnographical design. The paper will contribute to the autoethnographical field by connecting it to the self-study methodology (see below) and by using it to explore something that is difficult to grasp with more common ethnographical (or other) methods: namely the teachers/trainers ongoing reflection and inner monologue when trying to realize an educative ambition and especially when this realisation meets resistance and/or unexpected and demanding behaviours from both students and colleagues.<br/><br/>There are a few other examples in the field of human-animal-relationship-studies<br/>where researchers have used autoethnography (see for example Tulloch 2016,<br/>Zetterquist Blokhuis 2018, Hagström 2018, Lee 2019). The rich tradition of selfstudies in the field of teacher education also connects to this. Like the self studyresearchers, my focus lie on the self (myself) in action, in an educational context (Hauge, 2020).<br/>}},
author = {{Bosseldal, Ingrid}},
keywords = {{philosophy of education; Companion Species; educational relations; human-dog relations; auto ethnography; Donna Haraway}},
language = {{swe}},
month = {{03}},
title = {{My dog and I, or Paradise lost : An autoethnographic reflection on the clash between different ambitions and needs within an asymmetric relationship built on significant otherness}},
year = {{2022}},
}