“To Find My Own Way of Teaching!”: An Autoethnographic Experience in the Study of Physical Education Teacher Training in a Foreign Territory

Purpose : The article illustrates why it was necessary to use an autoethnographic approach in the study of initial training for future Finnish physical education teachers, and demonstrates how a researcher’s self-reflection can initiate an investigation, and how personal narratives can serve as both a research method and a means of data collection in a foreign research setting. Method : In support of a qualitative survey conducted in Finland, we will show that the autoethnographic method is based on a written text valuing the narrative of the self, and on careful, and detailed descriptions of the context we investigated. Results : The article will show how the reflexivity of the researcher and inquiry narrative can become a fundamental aspect of the investigation. The results highlight why engagement in autoethnography has become an emergent need for us to study the practices of Finnish teacher educators, and how my lived experiences, in relation to the existing literature, have allowed for a better understanding of a foreign professional culture in physical education, which is based on a culture of collaboration and reflexivity. Conclusion : The experience illustrates how autoethnography encourages the physical education researcher working in a foreign setting to distance themselves from their own professional culture to better understand the culture they are studying with the aim of proposing perspectives for change within their own professional culture.