Examines the nature of humor and jokes. Considers the benefits of humor in public moments. Analyzes aspects of humor that may determine its efficacy. (HB)

Attempts to step outside the debate about personal writing in academic discourse and rework its configurations. Suggests that academics think anew about writing as a place where the personal and the academic, the private and the public, the individual and the institutional, are always inextricably interwoven. (TB)

Touches on central arguments surrounding the debate over the expressive essay for composition instruction. Notes that a primary assumption about the expressive essay--that it is honest and truthful--remains unchallenged. Suggests that students themselves offer ways to address concerns of social constructivists while acknowledging what is valuable…

In this article the author argues that the current state of educational inquiry, particularly as it relates to action research and qualitative inquiry, is in high flux. If this were true, several possible implications follow. First is the idea that with this flux all inquiry occurs in a context that is political, organisational, and geographical.…

As part of a larger research project examining the biographies of university adult educators who entered the field between 1975 and 1985, the aim of this paper is to highlight a number of themes that have emerged from this investigation around the issue of sustaining commitment to social purpose. Our objective was to find out whether those in the…

Biography and other forms of life writing were once considered vital sources of information on leadership. However, early in the establishment of the pursuit of a "science of leadership" in the first quarter of the last century, they were abandoned as too subjective and hence unreliable. Recently, however, as scholarship regarding leadership has…

This essay demonstrates how American Indian autobiographical narratives work to construct a sense of American Indian subjectivity for competing communities--indigenous and white--by simultaneously promoting and protecting tribal knowledge. Both Black Hawk and Parker understood the power of print circulation in the dominant culture. One of the…

At the location of alter-native researcher in US higher education, the author interweaves two Korean women's transnational narratives that intersect with her autobiographical route. Through this re-narrativization, the paper discusses the material and ideological specificities that place each individual differently in engagements with various…

Letting the life stories of students or parts of those stories into composition courses not only helps students improve their writing skills, but also helps many of them connect with themselves--who they are, who they are becoming, what they want to become--in ways that enhance their abilities to learn in their own fields. Students who fail to ask…

Believing that the objective, analytical, and competitive modes have already been overemphasized in educational institutions, many feminist teachers stress the subjective, contextual, and collaborative. Such changes involve not only a commitment of energy and time, but also an important shift in a teacher's perception of what counts as knowledge,…

It was Friday, right before Memorial Day weekend. The Social Science Division was quiet. The author was standing in his office when he realized he had finished his 10th year of teaching a week before. He pondered the milestone for a minute. Like most faculty, he has floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in his office. His favorite shelf sits at the top of…

Camping's benefits apply to disabled and normal children, but mean most to youngsters who lack social relationships. The influences of integrated camping and camp-related activity on a quadriplegic male student are covered in this article, including autobiographical sketches giving insight into the child's thoughts and feelings about camping. (JMM)

Describes a writing exercise useful for students who have already shown some facility in writing about personal experiences and that emphasizes the narrowing of scope and time in a reminiscence and developing it with detail in order to make it more interesting for others. (HTH)

The autobiography or personal narrative is recommended as a medium of instruction in foreign languages because it: (1) is an authentic document using language close to daily spoken language and simpler than literary language, (2) has a rich and substantial cultural content, and (3) captures the relationship between language and civilization. (MSE)

Feminist researchers have demonstrated that reliable knowledge must include that derived from experiences of individuals and groups; autobiographical methods account for this source. However, only some autobiographical methods are sound: confessional, apolitical, and atheoretical ones are less useful than those that include theory and politics.…