Some people think that a complete autobiography has at least four elements: [①] First, the life story should be true; Second, write your own personality, especially your own soul; Third, objectively and fairly evaluate their interpersonal relationships and their position and role in social life and historical development; Fourth, literature and art, especially delicate language.

Supposedly, "educational autobiography" should also have the above elements. The "educational autobiography" pays more attention to telling "the story of educators" and "the story of educated people". The autobiography of education is a story of remembering my childhood and school days, and it is also a story of being a parent or a teacher. These stories can be classified into three categories: (1) How my grandparents, my parents or my brothers and sisters educated me when I was a child; (2) How did the teacher educate me when I was a student? (3) How did I educate my children when I was a parent? Or, how did I educate my students when I was a teacher, and how did I spend my school life?

2. Start by studying yourself

Sociology or pedagogy research often refuses to study "acquaintances", fearing that familiarity will lead to insensitivity to the research object, which will lead to a large number of meaningful life details being omitted.

People often say that "truth becomes fallacy when you take a step forward", and I believe that "fallacy returns to truth when you take a step forward".

It is in those difficult places that difficult breakthroughs are needed. In fact, "biography" (including "autobiography") has become the focus of modern sociology and pedagogy in recent years.

Starting with the closest people and the most familiar events may be regarded as a phenomenological attitude of "returning to the fact itself". This is a breakthrough attitude, which makes familiar places strange and makes daily life abnormal or abnormal.

3. autobiography is freedom

Rousseau asserted that "people are born free, but they are everywhere in chains". [②]

The significance of autobiography is that people are born in chains, but they can recall and imagine freely.

People live within the system and are not bound by the system, rules, laws and public opinion all the time. Autobiography is a free memory without system, rules, law and public opinion. You don't have the freedom to make any fiction, which is the destruction of autobiography; But you have the freedom to write and not to write. There have been so many events in your personal life history. Why only write these events and give up other events? This is your freedom.

If you don't like it, you can give up those events that you don't want to remember and record. Nine times out of ten, life is unhappy, but autobiography doesn't accept everything. There are so many unspeakable events, you just say what you want to say. This is your freedom.

You like it, so you use this shape to write your autobiography freely. Autobiography is a kind of spiritual memory and self-liberation. Liberation means explanation and indulgence.

If you look at it this way, then autobiography has the effect of psychotherapy. Herbs can heal the body, and reading biographies and writing autobiographies can liberate the body.

4. There is an autobiography called Education Confessions.

Hobbes said, "The only passion in my life is fear." [③]

In fact, the passion of life is not only fear, but also "sin" and "regret". Sin is always associated with repentance. Once a person has "sin" and "repentance", the passion of "gratitude" will grow in his heart. If you have seen the movie The Call of the Distant Mountains, you will understand why the only passions in life are "sin" and "regret".

Educational autobiography is sometimes just an educational confession.

5. Is the biography true?

The Frenchman Barthes said: "Any biography is a novel that dare not call it a novel." [4] milosz said seriously: "Obviously, all biographies are forged, and my own biography is no exception." [⑤]

Any biography comes from imagination. Biography swayed with imagination and rejected imagination, which almost eliminated the writing of biography.

What's the use of autobiography if it's not true?

However, who says all autobiographies are false?

Any biography must respect biographical facts. Autobiography is always imagined in the chain of facts.

6. Focus on the narrative research of "people's problems"

We once advocated primary and secondary school teachers to write "three kinds of articles". These three articles are actually "three types of research".

The first kind of research is about teaching materials. If this research is systematized, it can be made into "school-based curriculum development".

The second research is about classroom teaching. This kind of research is roughly equivalent to the current "school-based teaching and research". This kind of research focuses directly on the classroom and points to "effective teaching".

The third kind of research is about "people" in education. This kind of research is often called "student case study" or "teacher case study" in traditional research.

It is of course important for teachers to study teaching materials and teaching, but almost all research takes "human problems" as the basic premise and purpose.

What is there to learn in the textbook? The focus of studying teaching materials is not to examine whether the teaching materials are logical, but to pay attention to whether the logic of teaching materials matches the psychological logic of students.

What is there to learn in teaching? The focus of inquiry teaching is not whether teachers' teaching is organized or not, but whether the real purpose of inquiry teaching is to pay attention to the survival and development of students and teachers in classroom life. Even if we study the teaching details, we only pay attention to the relationship between students and teachers, and the relationship between students and teaching materials.

From this, it can be generally believed that all educational research will have the premise and direction if we understand the "human problem". If we don't understand the "human problem", all educational research will lose its premise or direction.

In fact, traditional educational research has already included the study of "human problems". Didn't traditional educational research submit a large number of "student case studies", "teacher observation studies" and "teacher experience summaries"?

These traditional studies are certainly meaningful, but have we ever wondered whether these research reports on "people's problems" can be further transformed into "educational biographies"?

What is the difference between "Biography of Education" and previous studies such as "Student Case Study", "Teacher Observation Study" and "Teacher Experience Summary"?

Or: How many changes can "student biography", "teacher biography" and "teacher autobiography" bring to the traditional "student case study", "teacher observation study" and "teacher experience summary"?

It's hard to say. If you read or write a biography that you think is satisfactory, you can generally judge for yourself.

7. My favorite word

The first word is "doubt". The reason is: for every existence, there must be an opposite existence, so you can remain suspicious anytime and anywhere.

The second word is "depression". The reason is that where there is repression, there are hidden events in educational narrative research.

The third word is "forgetting". The reason is: put brackets around the system, deliberately forget history, and make your own voice in your own words.

The fourth word is "very" The reason is: pursue the extraordinary phenomenon in daily life and consider the abnormality and impermanence around you.

The fifth word is "anxiety". The reason is that a life without introspection is not worth living. Once you live an introspective life, you are in anxiety. Anxiety is the only way to make people become people.

The sixth word is "bitter". The reason is that suffering is the fate of human beings, and the gesture you have to choose is sympathy, ridicule or even gloating.

The seventh word is "defamiliarization". The reason is: making familiarity strange or even amazing is the basic element to keep the enthusiasm of life.

The eighth word is "death". The reason is that the real meaning of death is to let the habit die. The real meaning of letting habits die is to derail thoughts.

The ninth word is "imagination". The reason is: If you want to change your life, your only choice is to make time to go back, or make time meaningless. After nothingness, you lose time and gain free imagination.

The tenth word is "wandering". The reason is that living a life of free imagination is the best quality of vagrants.

……

thank you

First of all, I would like to thank Mr. Kong, Mr. Wang for allowing me to publish their autobiography of education. Without their educational stories, this book is not only thin but also isolated.

This series is funded by Guangdong Modern Education Research and Development Center. Thank you for your encouragement and support.

Thanks to the teachers of CERSP for participating in the discussion of each chapter of this book. Limited by space, I can only attach five "Sepp Comments" at the end of each section. Salute to all "Sepp judges".

Thanks to Mr. Tao Mingyuan from Sichuan Education Publishing House for his long-term concern and supervision. But for his concern and urging, the publication of this book may be postponed indefinitely.

My life story

My grandparents