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…

Recently the author was working with a group of elementary bilingual teachers along a remote section of the Texas/Mexico border. She had been asked to facilitate the development of their social studies curriculum for their new dual-language program. She realized that although these teachers had experience working with culturally and linguistically…

An excellent way to teach history is by focusing on the lives of individual historical figures. History is the story of living persons, who for good or ill have made history as it is. To understand history, students must learn about the men and women who shaped events. (RM)

The author reminisces about her aunt Stella Bolstridge (1894-1989), who came from a large poor family in rural Maine, yet completed high school and nurses' training, served as an Army nurse in France during World War I, and became a lifelong advocate of women's education and women's rights. (SV)

"Kappan" editors recommend Michael Ignatieff's biography of Isaiah Berlin and insightful novels by Barbara Kingsolver, Pat Conroy, Wally Lamb, Edwidge Danticat, and Doris Lessing. Neil Postman's "The End of Education" (1995) advocates exploiting diversity to define standards. Ernest House's "Schools for Sale" (1998)…

In an age of specialists, Robert Saxon Taylor has been one of the great generalists in the theory and practice of information transfer and use. This sidebar discusses his seminal scholarly contributions, influence on students and senior colleagues alike, memberships and chairmanships, tenure as dean (1972-1981) and professor at what became the…

In this article, the author focuses on one of the riches of the country: its people. She interviewed five adult educators who have made significant contributions in Jamaica. The author's interest in this research began from the opportunities that she had to meet some of the participants through their programme's connections with JAMAL (the…

An autobiographical writing assignment given to fourth-year BSW students is described and evaluated. Its purpose is to encourage students to reflect upon their life experience and identify significant values and life principles embedded in their personal narrative, and explore these as a foundation for social work practice. The limitations of…

The sameness of and difference between autobiographical and biographical research methods were studied in this exploration of the researcher's work with six recent female immigrants to Canada, herself and her mother included. The self-study of autobiography and the biographical study of the researcher's mother and four other subjects were similar…

Nine women whose lives have contributed to West Virginia history are profiled in these collected essays. These women have made significant contributions to history as: midwife, physician, journalist, photographer, educator, musician, civic activist, and social reformer. The stereotypical image of a powerless, barefooted, uneducated girl is proven…

This collection of essays chronicles the contributions of 14 West Virginia women active in individual and group endeavors from 1824 to the present. Because the achievements of these women are absent from previous histories of West Virginia, their stories constitute missing chapters in the state's history. Some of these women made contributions in…

Outlines a method for the study of teaching, which reconstructs the meaning of specific classroom activities for students and teachers in terms of narrative unities (i.e., the union of all that a person has been and undergone with the past of the society that shaped him/her). Contrasts narratives and biographies. (DMM)

One task facing persons who would employ oral sources for writing and teaching the history of the Pacific is the use of testimonies from Pacific Islanders. Discusses issues that should be taken into consideration: memory, testimony as performance, teller as hero, and testimony as conversational narrative. (RM)

Examines educational life-writing in two leading history-of-education journals. "History of Education Quarterly" pursues objectivity and publishes only principle-case studies and collective biographies, resulting in stale and lifeless texts that meet traditional academic standards. "Historical Studies in Education" accepts both…

The relationship between a theory of learning and the theory of contemporary society as late modernity is explored, describing a research project in adult learning. Learning is then related to biography in a general way and in relation to the types of learning that occur as a result of experience. (SLD)