This is a study of the process of biographical learning and how it can be observed in narration. There have not yet been empirical studies focused explicitly on the learning aspects of biographical learning, as scholars have focused more on the biographical part of the concept -- more on the question of what is learned than of how it is learned.…

This issue of the Bank Street "Occasional Paper Series" is a labor of love. It testifies love for Jonathan Silin, who for 17 years served as Editor-in-Chief. This issue has been designed to exemplify two commitments that have shaped the decades of Jonathan's career and that will resonate with readers of the "Occasional Paper…

Identity transformation from teacher to teacher educator is problematic as an 'expert become novice'. The need for professional development for neophyte teacher educators is accepted. The focus of such professional learning has been on the development of an academic identity and engaging in research; the transition in identity is assumed to…

We examine the benefits of developing critically reflexive learners through life story performance embedded in a Critical Reflexive Model. Students are invited to work with their life stories in a safe, dialogical space and to deconstruct various forms of power and its influence on their lives. Using a mix of creative and embodied methodologies,…

This paper examines the narratives/oral histories of three Latina teachers to help us understand how they negotiated and navigated their identity formation. We explore how they consciously constructed (Lee, 2013, p. 7) their professional identities, which are inextricably linked to their personal identities and their life stories or the "set…

Collective biography draws on memory work methods developed initially by feminist sociologists (Haug et al., 1987) where people collaboratively examined the social and discursive resources through which they take themselves up as particular gendered subjects in the world. Their own memories become resources to investigate processes of…

In this article, we introduce a narrative approach to biographical learning; that is, an approach that considers autobiographical storytelling as a practice through which claims about life history are performed and negotiated. Using insights from narrative theory, we highlight evaluations in those narratives and suggest their crucial role in…

In contemporary contexts, young people are accustomed to life story; indeed, their lives are saturated with constructions of their stories and those of others, whether created by themselves or their "friends" on social networks. Multimedia outlets convey often detailed stories of more-famous others, whether celebrities or those experiencing…

This study explores the tension between self-knowledge and self-expression, and how it manifests in the processes of storytelling that unfold in digital storytelling workshops offered to new immigrant women living in Toronto, Canada. Both in their multi-modal complexity and in the significant shifts from their original telling, the digital stories…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to analyze and interpret the stories told by one teacher, Ms. M, in a fifth grade science classroom. In this study, stories are defined as teacher utterances that are used in first person or third person narrative view, and are related to an experience that occurred outside the classroom. This research…

In this article, Enrique Sepulveda draws on an array of theological, anthropological, and cultural studies, and critical literacy frameworks, as well as on the voices of transmigrant youth through their poetic and autobiographical writing, to present an innovative pedagogy of "acompanamiento". Sepulveda shares narratives from his…

Judy P. Byers talks about the work of the late folklorist Ruth Ann Musick and her own work as a folklorist. She describes the gathering of Appalachian folklore, particularly ghost stories, and her task completing Musick's unfinished work. Byers advocates the importance of folklore as a bridge between one's personal history and the great stories of…

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…

New research on teaching involves qualitative, or ethnographic, methods. It is highly descriptive and often relies on narrative inquiry, which is embedded with messages about power, justice, and inequality. The new research relies on language and dialogue, using metaphors, stories, biographies, autobiographies, conversations, exemplars,…

Describes a rationale and method for crafting and analyzing personal/professional stories of leadership and administrative practice, based on doctoral students' interviews with experienced school administrators and educational leaders. Stories illustrate explicit rules used by administrators to manage problems and the more tacit assumptions…