Personal Narratives and Policy: Never the Twain? (original) (raw)
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Using personal narrative and other stories in educational research:
In this paper I argue that stories are essential in educational research, for policy and improving practice, including in (indeed especially in) those parts of the world which are not self-defined as ‘the West’. I also argue that it is essential that educational researchers are clear about the difference between the use of stories as research and their use as anecdote, rhetoric or journalism. Or, in the case of stories in other modes, researchers are clear about the difference between the use of songs, dances or visual arts as research and their use in performances or exhibitions. These ideas were developed for the First International Conference on Educational Research for Development, which was organised and held in Addis Ababa. The argument addresses a central aim of the conference: to create a global discussion forum on the roles of research for policy and for improving practice. The paper is predicated on the assumption that discussion is meaningful when the participants acknowledge differences and explore where useful similarities occur. Mindful of this, the paper focuses on issues of research methodology that are relevant globally, but grounds them in some specific contexts to be found in sub-Saharan Africa and in the Arab region, as well as in the continents of Europe and North America. This argument itself points to the significance of contextual as opposed to generalizable knowledge. The argument also points to the significance of positionality in research, and it is therefore important to acknowledge that I, the author, live and work in the UK and that this will influence and constrain my perspectives and understanding.
Educação e Pesquisa, 2022
The present work intends to present as a perspective of the field of social sciences, the biographical-narrative approach of lives, has the founding potential-when applied in teaching-to activate and make meaningful (and significant) both learning and the lives of students and educators. Based on an interpretive and reflective reading, the methodology is based on a broad discussion about dealing with biographical narratives. Along with this, the relational possibilities that narrating and reconstructing trajectories reveal are pointed out, added to the understanding of how these are intercrossed in contexts and relationships at the micro and macro level, in the private and public spheres, encompassing traditional, popular and cultivated knowledge. This fact leads to the pedagogical latency of this methodological experience of teaching-learning-research. Therefore, it is intended to point to ways of operationalizing-disciplinary and also inter-, multi-and transdisciplinary-the processes and tools, as well as the gains in interests and contextualization of the contents proposed by the curricula and school calendars. These procedures have the relevant role of revealing the socio-historical present of the trajectories and of the agents that circulate educational life, but also of the families and, especially, of the students themselves, and place them as historical agents filled with subjectivities built in the daily interrelationships and intercoms. In this way, it is pointed out, finally, how the biographical-narrative approach has the potential to constitute itself as an active, interpretive and reflective methodology, without forgetting to be critical and to produce openings for the emancipation of the agents (educator and student).
This bibliography has been composed based on the consultation of the ERIC database (1966-2007) and the Milbank Library catalogue (Teachers College, Columbia University). Since 2002, many references have been added, based on additional research on the Internet (including commercial websites), in books, or through personal contacts. The third version of this bibliography has been organized by themes and by types of sources (chapters, books and documents; papers, journals and conference proceedings). Despite the fact that this bibliography brings together approximately 450 references it is not an exhaustive one. Instead, its purpose is to introduce a broad field of study illustrating its diversity, as it can be observed in the English-speaking field of education and mainly in the American, Canadian and British field of education. From an international perspective, this bibliography can also be a complement to non English-speaking bibliographies already existing.
Some reflections on autobiography as an interpretative tool in the history of education
In contrast to more classical historiographical-educational currents, constituted by narratives in which a pristine will that embodied equally pristine pedagogical ideals prevailed, the new and reinforced versions of history highlight the ambiguous and contradictory character of political-pedagogical discourses. The narratives made available here do not refer to biographies of destiny, monolithic and finished; rather, they propose visions where life is traced as a trajectory, as a project, traversed by chance. In order to make these events intelligible, the toolbox used gradually includes more and more devices that allow us to approach the evanescent character of life, the account of vicissitudes or the account of events. To this end, autobiography comes to our aid to broaden the horizon of intelligibility
1996
The relationship between research and autobiography is explored. The planned study was a qualitative study of literacy methods instruction at the college level, a case study of one class of students and their professor. The study was based on the premise that preservice teachers need experience-based learning opportunities in the classroom in order to acquire a practical teaching pedagogy and knowledge base. As the study progressed, it became not just an observer's account of another teacher, but a self-reflective and open-ended research narrative. The issue of the researcher's subjectivity became an important dimension of the work. Unless the researcher understood herself in relation to the study, there was no basis for judging alternatives, initiating change, and responding to students' needs in the learning process. Autobiography became a link between theory and practice in the dual roles of teacher and researcher. It played a role by allowing the researcher to make sense of experience after the fact. (Contains three handout pages and nine references.) (SLD)