Over the last 25 years, autobiography has gained increasing epistemological and methodological popularity and legitimacy in teacher education. Although this trend has opened up valuable new lines of inquiry, it has not been unproblematic. We have moved beyond the romantic, uncritical celebration of stories to the recognition of autobiographies as…

This article describes the history and events behind the development and progress of the San Francisco Digital Center--now known as the Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS). First-hand accounts and reactions from local educators and the director of technology for the county that houses CDS are provided. The article also demonstrates how digital…

The genocide of American Indians over the last five centuries is documented by the persecutors in myriad historical media: diaries, audiotapes, autobiographies, photographs, books, essays, and newspaper accounts. Many authors believe that their stories convey an objective reality but scholarship has illustrated that writers construct history more…

There has been a strong faith in the power of education to create and maintain many kinds of progress in society: social cohesion and order, economic growth, equality, justice, etc. The history of education is in many ways involved in the history of religion and churches. Along with the rise of the lifelong learning policy, adult education has…

This article argues for a decolonizing multicultural education pedagogy, which engages the interstices in-between, hybrid spaces that emerge at the intersections of different cultures, histories, and locations. It also examines how those who work for social transformation are implicated in the very systems and structures they are attempting to…

Susan Friedman, a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Florida, has found through her own teaching experience that incorporating autobiographical texts and self-writing into her pedagogical practices can foster a classroom environment that pays attention to subjectivity to promote mindful, ethical behavior in both…

Heart disease is the leading cause of illness, disability, and death among women in Canada. Myocardial infarction (MI) accounts for almost half of these deaths yearly. The purpose of this study was to understand younger women's experience of recovery from MI. A purposive sample consisting of six younger women diagnosed with MI participated in …

This paper draws on research which took an auto/biographical and narrative approach in order to investigate mainstream teachers' and teaching assistants' experiences and understandings of inclusion. Throughout the 2003/04 academic year, three researchers made three visits to one primary and one secondary school to talk with individuals and groups.…

The relationship between research and autobiography is explored. The planned study was a qualitative study of literacy methods instruction at the college level, a case study of one class of students and their professor. The study was based on the premise that preservice teachers need experience-based learning opportunities in the classroom in…

Autobiography is now debated as ultimately problematic, a charge that may impede the growth of a growing cultural pedagogy. As a tool in the classroom, it is under siege for many reasons: because it does not teach "real-world" skills; because in asking students to deal with painful memories, it may impede intellectual and emotional growth; and…

These memoirs of Gordon Selman, a nationally and internationally recognized practitioner and scholar in Canadian adult education, give insight into his thoughts and feelings during a 40-year professional life in university extension work and historical scholarship in adult education. Chapter 1 describes his activities before he entered the field…

"Twelve Years a Slave" is a script intended to go with accompanying audio cassettes. It was developed for Voices of Liberty (a project of New Faces of Liberty) and was produced by the San Francisco Study Center as one of their "Cutting Edge Curriculum Materials." The story told by the script is excerpted from the 1989 edition…

Through the narratives of North American slaves a vivid picture of their lives, struggles, hopes, and aspirations emerges. The slave narrative arose as a response to, and a refutation of, claims that blacks could not write. Slave writings were often direct extensions of speech. Through a process of imitation and repetition, the black slave's…

For a composition teacher--comparing a passage from his Caucasian grandmother's (May Blossom Gould's) diary with the autobiographical narrative dictated by an African-American student's great-great grandmother (Violet McNeil) to a literate member of her family--racial politics and the privileges afforded by literacy irrevocably separate the two…

How can classrooms and the educational system be made more productive, humane, enabling, and equitable for all students, particularly through writings studied and produced? The values of inclusive feminist pedagogy can lead to answers. Women emerge from high school with higher grade point averages but lower self-esteem than men. Female and male…