Explores what writing teachers want to know about the ways cultural realities, such as gender, influence literary practices, such as writing autobiographical stories for composition classes. Argues that what they want to know affects how they read gender narratives and that reversing the terms would make a difference in their reading practices.…

Describes a first-day assignment for writing courses called a "writing autobiography" in which the student is asked to identify and assess their own strengths and weaknesses as writers. Argues for the value of having students consider their processes as writers. (HB)

Discusses a new approach to studying the principalship that embodies a dialectic of biography and autobiography. The head (or principal) is not regarded as merely the subject of another's research but rather as a full partner within the research process. The article discusses the full partnership idea against the backdrop of Great Barr Grant…

Examined peer abuse as sociocultural phenomenon. Two cohorts (1974 and 1989) of 90 undergraduate students each wrote recollections of what had made them most unhappy at four stages in their lives. Found far more negative peer treatment than negative parental treatment. Results were even more salient for 1989 cohort than for 1974 cohort. (Author/NB)

Presents, in the first section, an autobiographical narrative about the author's mother and herself and her own daughter. Discusses, in the second section, issues raised when writing about and thus sharing aspects of a private life. (SR)

Summarizes a study that interviewed a group of 10 self-selected college students exhibiting a range of disabilities. Findings revealed the importance of the faculty-student relationship as a means of establishing identity within the classroom and university. A significant factor was the students' desire to tell their stories, attesting to…

Analysis of descriptive reports about individuals with autism included case studies, diagnostic reports, single-subject research studies, family accounts, and autobiographies. Seven distinct types of descriptions were identified, including a child on a specific occasion, typical behavior, what a child should have done, how behavior was…

Discusses emerging characteristics of early adolescents from a Montessorian perspective. Considers adolescents' revelations related to cosmic education, their need to serve, their need to think and to feel, and their need to know the cosmos through finding one's place in it. Discusses samples from students' cosmic autobiographies. (KB)

Autobiographies are useful in teaching middle school reading and writing since middle school students tend to focus on topics about themselves and their place in the world. Autobiographies offer a powerful mechanism for self-reflection. This paper presents activities demonstrating how to use autobiography to motivate students to express their…

Discusses Jean Fritz's book "Homesick" as a work of art on the borderline between biography and fiction. Suggests young readers should be provided accurate historical knowledge in order to (1) understand the characters' emotions and experiences, and (2) prevent traditional misconceptions from being perpetuated. (NH)

In this paper, I share stories that provide sites of inquiry for the (re)interpretation of my own educative experience. Crossing time, I (re)visit and (re)construct seminal events in my life using knowledge gleaned in the intervening years to come to see how these life stories inform and guide me in the present. I use my own stories to enhance my…

A composite technique blending photography and autobiography, known as autophotography, was used to unleash individual and group potential in a twelve-year participatory community.

This descriptive study uses narrative analysis to examine the nature and quality of pre-service teachers' initial attempts at reflection via the genre of memoir writing in a social studies methods course. The paper begins by reviewing other uses of narrative reflection and autobiographical writing in teacher education. This is followed by an…

This comparative study (i.e., three age groups, three measures) explores the distribution of retrospective and prospective autobiographical memory data across the lifespan, in particular the bump pattern of disproportionally higher recall of memories from the ages 10 to 30, as generally observed in older age groups, in conjunction with the…

This article describes activities and experiences that encourage students to construct and reconstruct knowledge of self and teaching through community building and reflective practices. Following the assumption that teacher education should focus on the human and ethical dimensions of teaching, and the conscious development of a sense of self,…