Autobiographical method for the study of identity processes and socio-educational trajectories

Abstract

Based on our doctoral dissertation, which focused on analyzing the socio-educational trajectories and identity processes of Toba / Qom teachers in Chaco, we expect to outline in this article some of the developed theoretical-methodological reflections. Given the relevance, in our research, of the role of the subjects as indigenous teachers of the Chaco center, we will approach a set of discussions about autobiographies in the ethnographic perspective to think about their limitations and potentialities. Some issues concern the interpretative character of the story, the role of the interviewer, as well as some interesting epistemological ideas about the construction of the data and the notion of “objectivity”. On the other hand, we consider some debates about the notion of memory in the autobiographical narrative, and the affectivity and reflection in the exercise of remembering. Finally, we inquire positions that contemplate the material and symbolic conditions of production of a story, the hermetic nature of biographies and the suggestive philosophical aspects to think about the idea of “narrative identity.”