Biographical-narrative Methodologies for Adult Education. Between Personal Development and Critical Reflection

Abstract

In this paper I address the use of biographical-narrative methodologies in adult education and lifelong learning, from an interdisciplinary perspective. These methods are set in a critical and emancipatory model of lifelong learning and in an epistemological model based on the co-construction of knowledge from the analysis of personal and social experience oriented by a complex and systemic perspective. Critical and experiential learning is a powerful heuristic concept for confronting adult learning. Within this broad context, the paper explores the description and use of life histories, auto/biographies and narrative tools in both formal and informal adult educational contexts, pointing out its sociological, anthropological and pedagogical implications. Concepts such as collective memory, social change, cultural transmission, cohort generation, family communication, self and identity are explored in relation to personal growth and lifelong learning. Also, I outline some features of a pedagogical model based on an experiential an emotional framework. A central issue of the paper is to deal with transformations lived by adult learners in relation to social, cultural, economic and generational changes, as well as personal itineraries and educational transitions through the life-span course.