Rehearses some 20th-century narratives as they have appeared in United States history and as they have been represented in African-American literature. Suggests that some of these narratives are insufficiently critical in their construction of stereotypes or in their over-romanticized notions of racial memory, which mask the complications of color…

Reviews several recent academic autobiographies in an effort to correct conservative criticism of academia as elitist, ideologically rigid, and didactic. Works by Richard Rodriguez, Mike Rose, Alice Kaplan, and Julius Getman reveal a broad range of experiences and viewpoints. Discusses the rewards and drawbacks of academic teaching. (MJP)

The emergence of the Native voice in academia has provided much outstanding scholarship rising out of analysis of oral histories and textual authority of Native peoples. In the 1990s, however, attempts to discredit Native scholarship included the claim that "I, Rigoberta Menchu" was a willful fraud, debates over the Bering Strait theory…

Examines the use of narrative form to construct myths of self in autobiographies of religious conversion. Identifies two strategies of form relevant to personal mythmaking in conversion narratives and illustrates their operation in Charles W. Colson's autobiography, "Born Again." Concludes that the rhetoric of form in conversion…

Discusses the use of autobiography and personal memoirs as teaching tools in the history classroom. Presents information from Henry Watterson's autobiography that discusses the life of Jane Cazneau. Points out flaws in which incorrect information is presented as true. Includes a complete lesson plan for use with the example. (DK)

Explores the themes of accommodation and resistance in stories of autobiographers' early schooling, illustrating how educational autobiographies enhance understanding of childrens' normalization experiences in school. The essay examines conceptual components of normalization, outlines discursive problems of the autobiographical genre, and analyzes…

Examines how composition courses help students to change and effect change through writing about themselves and issues immediately relevant to their lives, whether that be the college campus, or, in the case of inmates, low socioeconomic living. Argues for a student-centered activism through language and ethnographic, hands-on research. (TB)

Illustrates the use of auto- and biographical materials as part of a research process concerned with problematic aspects of learning science. Draws on an extended study of graphing among university students and research scientists, and on the autobiography and interview data from one of the authors to point out some of the sources of difficulties…

Describes primary source materials available through the Federal Depository Library Program, including oral histories, interviews, letters, diaries, journals, and autobiographies. Includes an annotated bibliography of 90 titles as well as a subject index to the titles. (LRW)

Autobiographical memories retrieved by bicultural Russian-English bilinguals were compared across languages. Results suggest that bilinguals' languages may influence cognitive styles, so that when speaking a language associated with a more individualistic culture, bilinguals produce more individualistic narratives, whereas when speaking a language…

The three voices presented here are those of women teachers affiliated with Hebrew-speaking and Arabic-speaking branches of the Israeli educational system at different levels. Brought together when a curriculum on multiculturalism oriented to narrative as a teaching tool was implemented and tested in an in-service programme, each of the three had…

This paper examines how a group of mostly white, (upper) middle class pre-service teachers expressed resistance in one multicultural education course. We analyze how these students re-evaluated their educational autobiographies upon comparing their educational "story" with that of an "other" of a different race and social class whom they had…

Research shows that social circumstances influence the development of an individual's high abilities. This paper identifies the micro-social1 factors in the development of entrepreneurial giftedness. Specifically, the paper considers the family milieu, 'significant others' and great contemporaries in the case of Richard Branson, the most…

This paper uses oral history and documentary materials to develop a cross-cultural comparison of the experiences of two self-advocates who spent significant parts of their lives in learning difficulty institutions in England and Iceland. Anne Lewthwaite and Eyglo Ebba Hreinsdottir, born in the same era (1948-1950), were linked through the Open…

Drawing on students' literacy autobiographies, this article critiques the premise that academic discourse and working-class identity are not only static but also in complete opposition. The author argues for a more performative theory of class, a theory that would, she explains, recognize that academic discourse creates social class distinctions…