What makes the Autoethnographic Analysis Authentic?

This paper engages with current issues raised, among others, by Delamont (Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Institute of Education, University of London, 5–8 September 2007), relating to the merits of autoethnographic accounts. Delamont criticizes much current work in autoethnographic styles on a number of grounds as, for example, “intellectually lazy” and unrooted in general theoretical and structural frames. This paper uses an analysis and comparison of two separate productions using autoethnographic methods to develop, support, and to nuance these critiques and draws attention to relevant uses of the autoethnographic mode in both scholarly research and pedagogy.