This article discusses the relation between narrating a story and experiencing a learning process--for both the research subjects and the researcher--as an inherent feature of narrative biographical research. It is argued that in order to do justice to the particularity, the interpretation and the agency of the research subjects and thus to the…

This article describes the history and events behind the development and progress of the San Francisco Digital Center--now known as the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS). First-hand accounts and reactions from local educators and the director of technology for the county that houses CDS are provided. The article also demonstrates how digital…

This author, a teacher of American Indian and Alaskan Native literature at an all-native school, contends that suppression of Indigenous literary texts is an aspect of colonization, and that reclamation of Indigenous American literature is a critical component of cultural sovereignty. In her classes, she emphasizes the hybrid nature of…

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…

Autobiography is now debated as ultimately problematic, a charge that may impede the growth of a growing cultural pedagogy. As a tool in the classroom, it is under siege for many reasons: because it does not teach "real-world" skills; because in asking students to deal with painful memories, it may impede intellectual and emotional growth; and…

"Twelve Years a Slave" is a script intended to go with accompanying audio cassettes. It was developed for Voices of Liberty (a project of New Faces of Liberty) and was produced by the San Francisco Study Center as one of their "Cutting Edge Curriculum Materials." The story told by the script is excerpted from the 1989 edition…

Through the narratives of North American slaves a vivid picture of their lives, struggles, hopes, and aspirations emerges. The slave narrative arose as a response to, and a refutation of, claims that blacks could not write. Slave writings were often direct extensions of speech. Through a process of imitation and repetition, the black slave's…

For a composition teacher--comparing a passage from his Caucasian grandmother's (May Blossom Gould's) diary with the autobiographical narrative dictated by an African-American student's great-great grandmother (Violet McNeil) to a literate member of her family--racial politics and the privileges afforded by literacy irrevocably separate the two…

In the struggle to find an acceptably academic voice that still felt personal, an instructor started thinking about what it would mean to say that academic writing is always autobiographical. Reading student work for how the autobiographical is presented in academic discourse, the instructor thought about how autobiographical writing could be used…

This book is aimed at those who want to record personal stories, or for family and friends, or for fulfillment of higher literary standards. It is a book to open up conversations about memoir and a practical guide to the craft, the personal challenges, and the ethical dilemmas of writing true stories. The chapters deal with getting started,…

The effects of an author, writing in the first person, on adolescents reading history textbooks were studied with six high school sophomores. Data from think-aloud protocols and semi-structured interviews show that students interacted with the "visible" author and engaged in mental conversations. (SLD)

Contends social workers can help elderly people, especially those over age 85, to deal with the struggle for integration and avoidance of despair by using autobiographical writing in group settings. Describes process of client selection, group process of writing, and outcomes. (ABL)

Describes how one English teacher used exciting and stimulating reading materials about the "old West," including excerpts from Davy Crockett's diary. Describes a series of interdisciplinary activities in which students examined Crockett's life in their English class and history class. (HB)

Increasingly, academic scholars are turning to personal and autobiographical writing as a more fulfilling form of self-expression, as illustrated by the career changes of nine women and one man. One critic finds the personal tone an evasion of politics and lacking in rigorous analysis. (MSE)

Finds that students understand reading and writing as demonstrations of what they know, with the purpose of giving teachers what they want, and the hope of getting an "A." Shows that they begin to believe themselves so incompetent that they no longer enjoy reading and writing; indeed, they read and write as little as possible. (SR)