The self as data: a qualitative methodology

This paper explores ways in which recognition and involvement of the story of self means that the 'I' becomes data and methodology. I also look at the ways in which such a narrative of knowledge can legitimately add to the scholarly conversations within the academy. Increasingly, qualitative methodologies in the academy are looking towards newer and more diverse understandings of the ways in which we explore ourselves in the process of exploring ideas, practices, and scholarly questions so as to take an academic debate forward. This means that the self as data has become a mine for exploration and increasing knowledge-production as a result of analytic observation through the prism of self. It does not mean that there is a simple reductionist view of one's own observations as being significant in themselves alone. Rather, it is a recognition of the inevitability of the 'I' being involved in academic knowledge production.