Life History Approach Research Articles

The lives and identities of UK Black and South Asian head teachers

This article reports on the preliminary findings from a national UK study of the life histories of 28 Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) educators who led schools across a 47-year period (1968–2015). BAME head teachers were grouped by generations (i.e. pioneer, experienced, and novice) and questioned about the critical life experiences that influenced their path to leadership, the intersection of their professional and social identities, and their metaphors for leadership. Participants claimed leadership metaphors which included the head teacher as parent, ambassador, moral steward, role model, and community advocate. Pioneer Black and South Asian headteachers narrated more collectivist identities as community leaders and race equality activists, while current BAME headteachers appear more individually focused on raising attainment for students who have been marginalized. A life history approach across generations emphasizes the influence of changing attitudes toward race and the shifting policy context on professional identities.

Biography and Borderlands: Chao Sone Bouttarobol, a Champassak Royal, and Thailand, Laos and Cambodia

AbstractAlthough biographical and life history approaches are potentially important tools for historical geographers, biographical methodologies have rarely been used to specifically investigate borderland dynamics. In this article, I argue that biography can be useful for understanding the ways in which borders have been recognised and negotiated historically. As a case study, I examine the life of Chao Sone Bouttarobol, a member of the Champassak Royal House, who was born in 1895 and died in 1979. As his life story illustrates, the emergence of new national borders had a significant impact on Sone, although family ties and relationships allowed him to cross the national administrative borders that now exist between Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, often with relative ease. Studying one individual makes it possible to explore the ways in which he interacted and negotiated with borders that cut across the Champassak Royal House's traditional space of influence.

The Process Grandchildren’s Growth: - Based on the Life History Approach -

The Process Grandchildren’s Growth: - Based on the Life History Approach -

“They Now Respect Me and Send Me to the Best Schools!”: Identity Construction of an Iranian EFL Teacher

ABSTRACTThis article presents the findings related to the identity construction processes of an Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher in the context of Iran. Data were collected using a life history approach with a critical-event focus and analyzed via social ecology of identity (Wenger, 1998). The findings indicated that the participating teacher’s identities are highly socially constructed and constrained with no room for personal agency. The findings suggest a different resolution as a narrative of the often-untold experiences of many teachers, which focus on inspirational stories of change, where teachers develop an identity that challenges or reworks hegemonic structures that previously constrained their agency as teachers. The authors indicate that the teacher’s agency has been mainly enacted in a schooled way shaped through the years of apprenticeship to teaching. They further illustrate that boundary crossing and adopting a brokering role are not as promising as they may be in contexts where different communities impose and make available almost similar sets of values and communication repertoires. Drawing on the data, the authors also argue that the difference between peripherality and marginality does not seem to hold valid wholesale in the EFL context of Iran.

Biogeochemical reconstructions of life histories as a method to assess regional interactions: Stable oxygen and radiogenic strontium isotopes and Late Intermediate Period mobility on the Central Peruvian Coast

Biogeochemical reconstructions of life histories of mobility offer a means to obtain nuanced information about regional interactions in the past. We test this method using the Late Intermediate Period Ychsma society on the central Peruvian coast as a case study. Archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence indicates that the Rimac and Lurín Valleys inhabited by the Ychsma served as a key regional hub for the religious and administrative activities of the Inca Empire and the Spanish Viceroyalty. The nature of regional interactions prior to Inca imperial influence, however, remains unclear. Well-known historical narratives describe populations from the adjacent Huarochirí highlands defeating coastal Ychsma populations for agricultural land, but archaeological evidence concerning the timing and extent of coastal-highland interactions is debated. Here, we assess the potential for radiogenic strontium and stable oxygen isotopic reconstruction of mobility over the life course to shed light on the regional interactions of coastal Ychsma groups during the Late Intermediate Period. We present 87Sr/86Sr and δ18O results for 61 regional environmental baseline samples and archaeological human tooth enamel and bone samples from 64 individuals buried at Armatambo and Rinconada Alta, in the Rimac Valley. Results reveal a broad isotopic range for baseline and archaeological samples likely due to diversity in water and bedrock sources. Nevertheless, one individual presents a non-local strontium value indicating mobility to an outside region. We discuss the advantages of a life history approach, the complications of using isotopes to assess mobility in the Central Andes, and suggested directions for future research.

Teachers talk back: Educational theory and teacher education

This article is about the teacher education experiences of a number of individuals over a number of decades. It begins with a brief exploration of the changing context in which "theory" is taught. Then, drawing on some of our interviewees' experiences as students, teachers and as teacher educators, we share some of their impressions of "theory" in their teacher education programmes. We also explore some examples of teachers, past and present, who developed a passion for theory, trace this to its sources, and speculate on what these have to teach us as we re-shape our courses and programmes in the new political and professional environment. Finally, w e illustrate how our life history approach in our recent book Teachers Talk Teaching provides some theoretical frames for understanding the diversity o f experiences in the domains of teacher education and teaching. We argue that contextualised life-history narratives provide a window of everyday realities that bring "theory" to life in way that is meaningful for students in teacher education, and teachers.

A life history approach to delineating how harsh environments and hawk temperament traits differentially shape children's problem-solving skills.

Harsh environments are known to predict deficits in children's cognitive abilities. Life history theory approaches challenge this interpretation, proposing stressed children's cognition becomes specialized to solve problems in fitness-enhancing ways. The goal of this study was to examine associations between early environmental harshness and children's problem-solving outcomes across tasks varying in ecological relevance. In addition, we utilize an evolutionary model of temperament toward further specifying whether hawk temperament traits moderate these associations. Two hundred and one mother-child dyads participated in a prospective multimethod study when children were 2 and 4years old. At age 2, environmental harshness was assessed via maternal report of earned income and observations of maternal disengagement during a parent-child interaction task. Children's hawk temperament traits were assessed from a series of unfamiliar episodes. At age 4, children's reward-oriented and visual problem-solving were measured. Path analyses revealed early environmental harshness and children's hawk temperament traits predicted worse visual problem-solving. Results showed a significant two-way interaction between children's hawk temperament traits and environmental harshness on reward-oriented problem-solving. Simple slope analyses revealed the effect of environmental harshness on reward-oriented problem-solving was specific to children with higher levels of hawk traits. Results suggest early experiences of environmental harshness and child hawk temperament traits shape children's trajectories of problem-solving in an environment-fitting manner.

Stressing out in medieval Denmark: An investigation of dental enamel defects and age at death in two medieval Danish cemeteries

The influence of early life stress on later life experiences has become a major focus of research in medicine and more recently in bioarchaeology. Dental enamel, which preserves a record of childhood stress events, represents an important resource for this investigation when paired with the information from adult skeletal remains, such as age at death. The purpose of this research was to use a life history approach to the exploration of sex differences in the relationship between childhood stress and adult longevity by examining accentuated striae of Retzius (AS). A medieval Danish sample (n=70) drawn from the rural cemetery of Sejet and the urban cemetery of Ole Wormsgade was considered for AS and age at death. The results suggest sex differences in survivorship, with more stress being associated with reduced survivorship in males and increased survivorship in females. A consideration of AS formation time also suggests a difference in the impact of developmental timing between males and females. These results are interpreted in terms of differential frailty and selective mortality, drawing in both biomedical and cultural perspectives.

Role of Abdullah Ahmad on the Modernization of Islamic Education in Minangkabau

The objective of this study is to explore the role of Abdullah Ahmad on the development of Islamic education in Minangkabau. The research used qualitative method with individual life history approach. All data was collected through a biography of the character, literatures, documents and evidence of object legacy in terms of both written and physical data . Data collection was conducted through the process of collect ing , reduct ing , and present ing the data and was followed by a conclusion. Overall, the result of the study show s that there are six methods applied by Abdullah Ahmad in developing the Islamic education in Minangkabau. The six methods are: i) religion-based education, ii) integration of classical and modern educational models, iii) educational consortium, iv) develop ment of a scientific culture, v) receptive ness to modernization, and vi) informal education. This study also proves that the Abdullah Ahmad’s six methods of education are the prototype of the establishment of today’s various modern educational institutions in West Sumatra. It is no wonder that Minangkabau was formerly known as the land for producing Islamic scholars, intellectuals and powerful politicians such as M. Yamin, Buya Hamka, M. Nasir, and Muhammad Hatta. Based on the historical facts, this study found that Minangkabau scholars, intellectuals and politicians are influenced more or less by the thoughts of Abdullah Ahmad.

The promise of lifelong learning

This paper explores how Peter Jarvis’s work offers a comprehensive grounding in many of the key principles and insights offered through the field of adult education. His work directs us to the different factors – psychological, social, economic and political required for understanding lifelong learning contexts. As scholars and educators, he argues, we can acknowledge the difficulty and reaffirm the promise of lifelong learning to create a better world through our struggles to understand the complexity of human learning processes. The article begins by examining how Jarvis’s research on topics such as wisdom and the meaning and purpose of lifelong learning. His analysis of how people learn provides a helpful theoretical and philosophical backdrop for researchers interested in biographical and life history approaches to understanding lifelong learning processes. Using examples from research on fiction writing, the importance of reflective, individual learning and meaning-making is discussed.

Personal support and expressions of care for pregnant women in Soweto, South Africa

ABSTRACT Background: Pregnancy is life changing, making great demands on women to adapt physically, psychologically, and socially. Social relationships and the support that flow from these provide a critical role in managing health problems in pregnancy. Isolation and lack of care, in contrast, may lead women to experience increased distress during this time. Objective: This study aimed to explore South African women's perception and experience of care and support in pregnancy. Methods: A life history approach was employed to explore women’s experiences of pregnancy and sexual behaviour, with each participant encouraged to narrate important life events from her own perspective. We drew on narrative interviews with 15 pregnant women, conducted between July and October 2015, in which we explored questions regarding pregnancy planning and the provision and receipt of care. A thematic approach was employed to code and analyse the data. Results: Themes that emerged from the interviews showed that participants gained a sense of stability in their lives when they had support in their pregnancy, especially when dealing with challenging situations. This support came variously from family, friends, and social networks. Overall, those participants who mentioned the most support, and its diversity across different groups, reported a better experience of pregnancy. Conclusions: Women emphasised the importance of social and emotional support in pregnancy. Understanding women’s experiences can assist in making pregnancy less overwhelming, and can add to a woman’s ability to deal with different challenges before and after the arrival of the new baby.

Future orientation as a mediator between perceived environmental cues in likelihood of future success and procrastination

Within the evolutionary framework of life history approach, procrastination—the purposive delay of an intended task—is seen as a life history trait characterized by prioritizing immediate benefits with little regard for long-term consequences under particular environmental conditions. The present study proposes that environment cues indicating a low likelihood of future success may lead to greater procrastination, and temporal orientation may represent a mediator underlying this relationship between likelihood of future success and procrastination. A total of 252 undergraduate students completed the Probability Judgments Scale to assess likelihood of future success in their environments, the Future Orientation Scale to assess future orientation, and three scales to assess procrastination. Structural equation modeling indicated that, as predicted, lower likelihood of future success in the environments predicted greater procrastination, a relationship that exhibited both a direct pathway and an indirect pathway through future orientation. These results define the life history origin of procrastination. Limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Eu, Alex, da etnia Guarani: o testemunho de um estudante indígena de administração e seu duplo pertencimento

Resumo A presença de indígenas nas universidades públicas brasileiras é um fenômeno recente, datado de 2002, com a inédita experiência de ingresso e permanência desses sujeitos nas universidades do Paraná. A trajetória dos estudantes de diferentes cursos de graduação reflete a existência de um duplo pertencimento: ser indígena e ser acadêmico simultaneamente. Este estudo apresenta o testemunho como estratégia do método de história de vida, fazendo uso do diálogo testemunhal e tendo como um dos autores um estudante Guarani do curso de Administração. A narrativa revela desafios, limites e possibilidades do percurso acadêmico de estudantes indígenas nos cursos de Administração, apresentando três aspectos principais decorrentes do testemunho: a afirmação de seu pertencimento étnico-comunitário no interior da universidade, a formação universitária, cujo intuito é preparar os estudantes indígenas como interlocutores entre sua comunidade, o Estado e outras instituições e a intenção empreendedora do acadêmico.

Experiencia pedagógica y voz multicultural: Pasos y palabras en historia de vida de maestra afrodescendiente

Este artículo plantea la constitución de interrelaciones multiculturales en contextos escolares; específicamente, con maestras afrodescendientes. Para esto, se plantearon ejes emergentes e integradores: subjetividades, multiculturalidad, territorio y experiencia pedagógica junto con el vigor formativo de la historia de vida en relación dialógica con los estudiantes. El trabajo tiene como objetivo indagar la cotidianidad y la interacción, desde el enfoque de la historia de vida, para visibilizar el entramado donde se tejen las prácticas y saberes escolares que constituyen subjetividades. Esta perspectiva sitúa la comprensión como posibilidad de trasformación, cimentada en la interpretación y el diálogo con los significados y los sentidos de lo que el otro quiere decir con sus palabras o sus silencios. Se originan, así, varias narrativas de una maestra afro del Colegio Ciudadela Educativa de Bosa en cuya ontología y epistemología se halla tanto la práctica como el concepto mismo de la experiencia pedagógica y se hace posible la emergencia de nuevas etnicidades afrourbanas que fortalecen las relaciones multiculturales.

대학 교수의 생애사 연구

대학 교수의 생애사 연구

Skeletal evidence of craft production from the Ch'iji Jawira site in Tiwanaku, Bolivia

The Tiwanaku culture in the Bolivian highlands was comprised of neighborhoods home to various groups laboring at differing jobs. Ch'iji Jawira, one site within this community, is described archaeologically as containing both a manufacturing center for pottery and a residential area home to these ceramic manufacturers. Prior bioarchaeological research has also noted that the people buried at the Ch'iji Jawira site show statistically significant differences in labor and activity from others who lived in the Tiwanaku capital. Using a life-history approach, this study explores the idea that Ch'iji Jawira was home to ceramic specialists by describing one individual from this community, a 30–39year old female (CJ-35250). This person has evidence of degeneration associated with osteoarthritis in her arms, wrists, hands, fingers, lumbar spine, sacroiliac, hip, and feet. The bones of her wrists, hands, fingers, and feet also have extensive skeletal changes at tendon and muscle attachment areas. The pattern on her bones suggests she worked at crafting, especially tasks involving repetitive joint movement and heavy use of arm, hand, and foot musculature. From her burial location and grave goods, it may be that CJ-35250 was one of the earliest potters at this site.

Journey Through Transformation

The study draws on life history, literacy studies, and ethnographic approaches to exploring social practices as a frame to explore the narratives of two UK adult literacy learners who provide a description of their engagement with a transformative curriculum and pedagogical approach. One of the learners reveals his frustration at the lack of transformative opportunities in his learning programme. The other offers an illustration of how transformative learning can be encouraged and how it can actually transform the life of its beneficiaries. In essence, both case studies highlight some of the characteristics of transformative learning. Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capitals, and habitus are applied. The critical elements of these concepts include tools for consciousness raising and increasing the flow of capital, and linguistic capital. The notion of spoilt identities based on neoliberal individual accountability, that fails to address the structures and hierarchies of power, is challenged.

Engaging the field through retrospective methods: a Cambodian story

This paper illustrates how sport may be associated with community development and peace building when marshalled by committed and influential local individuals. However, in keeping with the main theme of this special issue, the thrust of the paper is as methodological as it is substantive. Our beginning point is the argument that while innovative in many respects, the ‘sport, social development and peace’ (SDP) literature has been rather limited methodologically speaking. Paradoxically for a social arena that so obviously depends on the prolonged stewardship of key individuals, a life history or ‘storied’ approach has rarely been undertaken. In this paper, we attempt to redress this methodological imbalance by making a case for the potential usefulness of such ‘recall methods’ and, specifically, by both ‘chronologizing’ and ‘narrativizing’ the life of a man who has been central in promoting sport as a vehicle for community development in one of the most economically and politically challenged of all Southeast Asian countries – Cambodia. Thus, by arguing that life history approaches have the potential to make a meaningful contribution to knowledge and understanding, this paper engages and hopefully advances the methodological debate in the SDP literature.

‘Well everyone has something’: a case study of a collegiate athlete with congenital adrenal hyperplasia

In popular culture, two narratives have emerged about people with intersex conditions: female athletes being subjected to sex verification tests and adults born with ambiguous genitalia who had surgery as infants and were not satisfied with the long-term outcomes. A number of scholarly articles critique policy aimed at international calibre athletes who have or have been suspected of having one particular intersex condition (hyperandrogenism). What is missing is the voice of the athletes themselves. Framed within feminist cultural studies and transfeminism, our case study explored the experiences of a U.S. university athlete with an intersex condition. Amanda (a pseudonym), who has congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), competes in U.S. University NCAA Division III soccer. She participated in a semi-structured interview and follow-up e-mail discussion framed using narrative and life history approaches. Our narrative analysis identified three overarching themes presented as vignettes: The Medical Side of CAH tells of her experiences with medical personnel and her treatment. In Personal Experience with CAH Amanda addresses how she manages the discourse surrounding her CAH. The final vignette, the Sporting Experience vignette describes her sport involvement as an athlete with CAH. Overall, Amanda’s experiences are very different from international athletes with intersex conditions whose stories have been revealed in the popular press and other individuals with intersex conditions who were dismayed with their medical treatment.

To What Extent Can the January 25 Revolution Be Seen as a “Bifurcation” in the Life Stories of Egyptian Migrants in France?

ABSTRACTThe revolutionary process initiated in Egypt in 2011 triggered a surge in Egyptian-led organizations in the public arena in Paris. This article examines the issue of the “biographical impacts of commitment” and applies the “life history approach” to these Egyptian activists. Our basic hypothesis is that the opening up of political perspectives in Egypt may be understood as a bifurcation process in such individual trajectories. It may have entailed a series of disruptions in everyday life to the extent of causing these Egyptian migrants to reconsider their positions within the French context.