In this interview Craig Calhoun talks about universities, the Humanities and his own research. Universities reinvent themselves in the face of societal and technological change. In the midst of this change, however, universities are charged with maintaining old ideals, with informing the public and creating opportunities for human development. The…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to first consider how veterans use talk to shape interpretations of personal and social identity. Second, this paper seeks to gain an understanding of how veterans see themselves in a civilian world, their ability to re-conceptualise and realign their perspective on life to support their transition in to a…

Moral identity research to date has largely failed to provide evidence for developmental trends in moral identity, presumably because of restrictions in the age range of studies and the use of moral identity measures that are insensitive to age-related change. The present study investigated moral identity motivation across a broad age range (14-65…

The objective of the article is to determine the importance of students' identity development and self-development in the course of vocational training and identification of opportunities that the educational environment of a university for humanities may provide to develop the identity of subjects of vocational training. The leading methods of…

This study examines how graduates of a specific educational institution ("The Boarding School for the Gifted Disadvantaged" in Israel) integrate their school experiences into their life story. The in-depth interviews with the boarding school graduates demonstrate special use of the gift metaphor to describe their selfhood and their…

The use of entheogenic drugs in spiritual contexts among modern Westerners remains an understudied phenomenon. In order to explore these clandestine spiritual practices, 26 anonymous members of an internet discussion fora were interviewed regarding entheogen use and asked to describe their entheogen experiences. Interviewees self-selected for…

The article is aimed at analysing the qualitative interviews (in the form of short life stories) carried out within the Learning and Career Paths (LCP) project in Italy. Theories, such as those of reflexivity, agency, self-construction, competencies, and transformation put forward by relevant authors in the sociological and educational field, are…

Continuous learning and updating one's competences and abilities have become requirements for staying "up-to-date" and "at the top of one's game". Lifelong learning policy has been persuasive in its emphasis on equal learning opportunities for all: everyone has endless possibilities and capabilities to learn according to…

For the last ten years, language learning motivation research has focussed on how learners see knowledge of a language as part of their identity. This article presents the findings of a qualitative interview study that investigated whether personal growth is also a strong element in the motivation of Australian university students to learn German.…

History education experts are increasingly interested in the concept of "historical consciousness"--that is, how as individuals we orient ourselves in time and create for ourselves "historical identity". But is encouraging students to feel personally connected to the past potentially in tension with promoting their historical…

Much research has acknowledged the importance of self-concept for adolescents' academic behaviour, motivation and aspiration, but little is known about the role of self-concept underpinning the motivation and aspiration of higher education students in a specialised field such as medical education. This article draws upon a programme of research…

This study applies Baxter Magolda's theory of self-authorship (2001) from the literature of student development theory to examine the experiences of undergraduate adult learners. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of undergraduate adult learners enrolled in an adult degree program and whether their experiences were influenced…

This qualitative research explored how the retelling of a life story influenced teachers' self-understanding. Informed by the disciplines of psychology, anthropology, and philosophy I constructed a conceptual framework of life as a continuous narrative, reflected and focused by past and anticipated experiences. This framework was informed by…

Having a noble purpose in life is an important component of positive youth development; however, little is known about how noble purposes develop over time. Therefore, using three waves of interviews over a 5-year period with 9 adolescents (N = 9) who demonstrated intense commitments to various noble purposes, the present study developed a…

Undocumented migration is a major demographic trend, yet both under researched and under-theorized. This is particularly the case for undocumented students in the U.S., as most studies that target this population have spotlighted extraordinary adolescents (e.g., Gonzales, 2008). Much less is known about the everyday unextraordinary experiences of…