Writing the self in Higher Education: critical reflection on experience as a contribution to (self-)formation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5212/PraxEduc.v.21.26212.060Abstract
This article examines autobiographical writing as a formative practice in Higher Education, investigating the extent to which narratives produced by students in a Pedagogy degree program contribute to the reflective elaboration of experience and to an understanding of their own historicity. Adopting a qualitative, interpretive approach, the study is based on documentary and narrative analysis of written work produced as part of the assessment activities in a first-year course. The findings indicate that school memories are organized primarily around pedagogical relationships and experiences of recognition or institutional violence, highlighting the centrality of the relational dimension of education. The articulation between theory and experience is found to occur unevenly and is strengthened when writing is accompanied by pedagogical mediation that encourages the critical problematization of lived experience. The study concludes that autobiography can serve as a valuable pedagogical resource in teacher education, provided that it is embedded in practices that foster critical dialogue among experience, knowledge, and social context.
Keywords: Autobiographical writing. Historical consciousness. Formative practices.
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