A history of biographical research in the United Kingdom

Abstract

Biograpahical researchers in the United Kingdom have been influenced by symbolic interactionism, feminism, oral history, critical sociology, psychoanalysis and what we term an auto/biographical imagination. The latter involves reflexively situating the researcher and her influence, via power, unconscious processes and writing, into the text and by acknowledgeing the co-construction of stories. The focus of much research has been on marginalised peoples, as part of a democratising project to bring more diverse voices and stories into the historical or contemporary social record. It is important to avoid too rigid a distinction between mainland Europe and developments in Britain. Collaboration and dialogue have been extensive, across various research networks, including in the European Society for Research in the Education of Adults (ESREA).

What is biographical research and why is this method important in teachers’ and professors’ formation?

“…In sum, the use of narratives calls the attention to the history of ordinary people, dissatisfying a common sense of only telling and announcing the outstanding ones, as well as stated by Merril and West (2018) Secondly, the narrative research is a way of proportioning the teaching reflection and the constitutive process of being a teacher/professor. For instance, Maffioleti and Abrahão (2016) point out that in the act of narration embraces a moment of reflection and self-formation about the own identity, the same perspective stated by Chené (2014) who claims that is in the narrating time that the narrator or the narrated person understands him/herself and reappropriate his/her own identity.…”