The authors have come to believe, based on several years of collaborative work in an alternative literacy program, that developing the multiple literacies of struggling youth requires a curricular playfulness with students' ideas, biographies, and imaginations across genres and media. Social literacy and multiliteracy theories are powerful and…

This study examined the emergence of cultural self-constructs as reflected in children's remembered and conceptual aspects of the self. European American and Chinese children in preschool through 2nd grade participated (N=180). Children each recounted 4 autobiographical events and described themselves in response to open-ended questions. American…

As part of a larger research project examining the biographies of university adult educators who entered the field between 1975 and 1985, the aim of this paper is to highlight a number of themes that have emerged from this investigation around the issue of sustaining commitment to social purpose. Our objective was to find out whether those in the…

The Mass-Observation Archive at the University of Sussex sends regular "directives" to its panel of volunteer correspondents around the UK asking them to reflect on various issues relating to the day-to-day lives of ordinary people. Two directives from the 1980s and 1990s relate to libraries, books and reading habits. These sets of…

This article argues that while social entrepreneurship shares concerns similar to those of social justice activism, the corporate and business ethos in the idea of entrepreneurship is not suited to the social concerns that teachers and other educators deal with in their everyday lives. The article points out characteristics of social…

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…

This essay demonstrates how American Indian autobiographical narratives work to construct a sense of American Indian subjectivity for competing communities--indigenous and white--by simultaneously promoting and protecting tribal knowledge. Both Black Hawk and Parker understood the power of print circulation in the dominant culture. One of the…

In 1916, May Wynne, a 27-year-old teacher, traveled from Seattle, Washington, to Akiak, Alaska, to teach in a government native school. This book presents her account of the 3 years she spent in Akiak, which consisted of an Eskimo village on one side of the Kuskokwim River and a white settlement of miners, trappers, and traders on the other. Her…

Despite a long history in the arts and humanities as curricular mainstays and a continuing presence as sociocultural mythological anchors, biographies and other forms of life writing have been neglected as sources for teaching educational leadership. Besides biographies, these include autobiographies, portraits, profiles, case studies, memoirs,…

This study analyzes Israeli students' memories of television in the context of family life, and considers culture and systems as well. The study was geared toward broadening the understanding of individuals' perceptions of the role of television in the family, as well as gaining insight into the collective story or stories of life with television…

The common thread that runs through the activities in a literacy course for undergraduate preservice teachers is text. One such activity is a literacy autobiography in which students focus on themselves as learners and teachers. Students are treated as professionals and make their own decisions about how they want to present themselves to their…

Techniques for encouraging personal writing in a non-threatening setting are discussed. (JH)

This paper demonstrates the use of the autobiographical method for understanding the complex personal perspectives of teachers as they reflect upon their lives as teachers and individuals. The perspective includes the intellectual, ethical, and emotional stance of the teacher who is engaged in, and reflecting upon teaching. The subjective…

Many students view writing as limited to utilitarian ends: writing to please a teacher or to pass a composition course. They often perceive little inherent value in their writing. However, experience teaching high school and college students reveals that many students recognize some inherent value in writing when it is used as a means of…

This book is an autobiographic account of thirty years spent in the field of physical education. Relating her personal experiences from her student days at the turn of the century through her years as a physical education teacher, the author traces the history of women's involvement in sports and health education and their contributions to this…