ABSTRACT
This chapter considers autobiography as a useful method for outdoor studies. It draws on educational texts as well as utilising perspectives from both geography and sociology to argue for its effectiveness. Our sense of becoming as an outdoor person becomes illuminated when we use autobiography. While this critical self-reflection is acknowledged as not the only way of knowing ourselves and our outdoor practice, it is an effective and practical approach in gaining awareness of one’s life as well as the contexts we inhabit. Criticisms of this method are addressed, as well as the related terms of autoethnography and hermeneutic inquiry.
