This article explores the process through which John Steinbeck wrote "The Grapes of Wrath." This process can be viewed as a learning process with elements of self-directed and transformative learning. Using primary and secondary sources, including a journal Steinbeck kept while writing the book, four themes are discussed: (1) Steinbeck's…

Going beyond the static, dangerous version of a single story about who an African child inmate is, is an ethical responsibility -- especially when we consider the structural and material forces that are tangled in this evil deed. Drawing on a sociological framing of self and Foucault's theory of ethics, we take a narrative inquiry stance to…

Teaching and learning are frequently treated as processes that are separate from each other, while teachers and learners are considered as disembodied entities with a neutral position towards the content which is negotiated. In collective biography writing (CBW), a very different approach is taken. Writing, reading and learning are seen as an…

There are two dimensions of positioning: self-identity (reflexive) and, events and interaction between people (discursive). Positioning may become socially restrictive when disruptive discursive episodes have a negative impact on individual self-identity. An interpretive biographical study of 11 participants in a transitional residency (temporary…

This paper deals with the professionalization of human service work. It analyses learning processes and identity development in the emerging profession of child care with concrete examples from empirical research, based on a life history approach. It discusses examples of careers mainly based on students' life experience, pointing out that their…

The biographical method derives information from life histories to understand how and why adults transform themselves. Three types of transformation are (1) old-new, transforming new information to a familiar, safe environment; (2) home-abroad, achieving emancipation by exploring unfamiliar environments; and (3) inside-outside, elaborating a…

The question of how to theorize the subjective side of work within a life history perspective was explored. The findings of a study on engineers' subjective recognition of their lives, their education and jobs, and their life perspectives and the findings of a study of continuing education within a number of white-collar and semiprofessional work…

The process by which people construct and reconstruct their identities when they face cultural changes resulting from education, learning, or moving to another culture was examined through a study of narratives from immigrants to Sweden and students who were in the process of learning to become researchers at a well-established university, as well…