Biographical Research in Pedeutology. State and Trends of Evolution

Abstract

Biographical research in pedeutology involves collecting and exploring the narration (story) about life, its history, course and plot, but also about various areas or stages of life, professional, and social activity of teachers and educators in their own personal interpretation. Biographical research is a very wide, varied, and multi-paradigmatic topic. Reflections presented in the article are, above all, concerned with subjective and non-objective aspects of biographical
research. Those aspects are placed in the area of qualitative and interpretative methodology. Essentially, an attempt was made to describe certain fundamental issues, such as the autobiographical method, the principle of humanistic factor, and interpretation of qualitative data. In particular, such problems as: terminological considerations, definitions, methodological tendencies; the use of (auto)biographical method in pedeutology; analysis and interpretation categories in the research of teachers’ autobiographies and diaries; evolution tendencies in (auto)biographical researches within pedeutology, were described. Moreover, the growing importance of autobiographical researches in developing and enriching the knowledge about the teacher and the teaching profession in contemporary circumstances was emphasized. The significance of this research was also appreciated in the context of teachers’ reflective identity
development in the process of their education and further professional growth.