PERSPECTIVES ON CHILD WORK
4.2 LIFE HISTORIES
The use of life history is aimed at what Carter (1993) and Coles (1998) refer to as letting the case tell its own story. Learners tell their stories in this research. The ethos of interpretive study, seeking the emic rather than the etic held by people within the case study, is strong. Stories are the closest we come to understanding
expenence. The expenences of learners mlxmg school and work are very important for this study too. In music, the people who sing the songs are more important than the songs themselves. To understand the songs, one needs to understand the singer (Sherman & Webb, 1988). The people who are the subjects of research are more important than any detached analysis of their actions. The use of life history approach enables access to the identities of the research subjects. It is no mistake that part of this research is conducted through the life histories of working learners. The main assumption of this approach involves the study of what and how something happened in the life of one person, one groupI one organisation (Denzin, 1989b). It is a retrospective account by the individual of his life in whole or part in writing or oral form that has been elicited or prompted by another person (Watson& Watson-Frank, 1985).
An intensive interview is conducted with one person for the purpose of collecting first- person narrative (Helling, 1988). It can be for famous or ordinary people like learners. In the case of ordinary people, researchers seem to be more interested in how history appears from the point of view of the "common person".
Biographical work must always be interventionist, seeking to give an opportunity to those who may otherwise not be allowed to tell their stories or who are denied a voice (Bertaux, 1981). This approach is appropriate for this study as it is about the silent majority in education, namely, learners, especially poor or disadvantaged learners. This type of case study is usually directed at using the person as a vehicle to understand basic aspects of human behaviour or existing institutions rather than history. The subject's life stages are constructed by emphasising the role of organisations' critical events and significant others in shaping the subject.
All these involve definitions of"the self"and their perspectives on life.
A life history approach is not at all new. It is rather a reaffirmation of the continuing tradition. In the 1920s and 1930s, a number of anthropological life histories were published, for example, Sutherland's (1937) "Life history of Chic Conwelf', the story about a professional thief, and Shaw's (1930) "The Jack
Roller". But from the 1940s until the present day, the life history approach has been somewhat unfashionable. A parallel trend occurred in sociology. With the use of quantification and rigorous empirical measurement, sociologists in succeeding years turned away from this method. However, there has been a revival recently with studies appearing, for example on the transsexual (Bogdan, 1974) and in post-apartheid South Africa, tracking development in black teacher education through the life of a black teacher educator (Dhanpath, 1999), and success of black scientists in apartheid times (Reddy, 2000). It regained popularity in feminist studies that challenged the traditional authoritarian methodologies characterised in patriarchal and capitalist society (Cole& Knoules, 2001). The voices of the previously marginalised individuals gained entry through life history research. Ithas been popular in many disciplines where there has been recognition of marginalised voices where the need to understand human perspectives is considered important and valid (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994) and where there has been an acknowledgement of the need for an interdisciplinary emphasis. A life history emphasis is about the interaction concerning the researcher's relationships to others.
The life history approach must also be differentiated from other types of biographical inquiry. A life history priority is to gain first hand, retrospective and historical accounts of the individual's personal experiences elicited via the interview (Reddy 2000; Smith, 1994) and supplemented with other expressive forms the participant chooses to admit. It is clearly distinguished from autobiography, which is often written on the basis of questions provided by the subject's own interpretations of hislher life experiences. There are three types of life histories, namely, the complete, the topical, and the edited (Allport, 1947).
They all contain the person's own story of his life, the social and cultural situation to which the subject and others see the subject responding to and the sequence of the past experiences and situations in the subject's life. A complete (full life course) approach is used here.
Sparkes (2005) differentiates between life story and life history. Life story deals with fictions, while histories deal with what happened and how it happened.
Though they are both telling a story, life history deals with the experiences of not only persons, but also groups and organisations. It studies how these units interpret and relate to a particular body of experience, for example mixing school with work. Life story, on the other hand, provides interpretive accounts of lived experiences, but tends to exclude the social structures and processes, which shaped that experience and have the danger of romanticising the subject's reality.
The analysis of the social, historical, political and economic context of a life history by the researcher is what turns a life story into a life history (Hatch &
Wisnieski, 1995).
A life history is distinguished from other forms of narratives because of its connection to social circumstances (Hatch & Wisnieski, 1995). It, therefore, goes beyond a personal account. The focus on the individual allows for a deeper understanding of the complex relationships between ideology and culture, the self and society. Life history data is produced in the form of a narrative. Stories as means of accessing subjective experience are never "just there" and "ready- made ", but are constructed via a dialogic process through which the researcher and participants create meaning. The construction is therefore inter-subjective. In other words, we cannot just get a good story, but rather create dialogue inter- subjectively.
A narrative is defined in different ways, depending on the subject and the purpose of the study. There is no rigid recipe for what counts as a story. To understand the meaning of a narrative, one must grasp its two main components: plot and sequence of events. A plot is an overall structure within which the constituent parts make sense. The plot is constructed out of a succession of events. Narratives can refer either to the process of making a story or to the result of the process in written stories. Following Polkinghorne (1988), in this study narratives are used to refer to both the process and results.
The material used for life histories is divided into secondary and primary sources.
Secondary material refers to public archival records, while primary refers to private records. A complete life history will combine as many primary and secondary sources as possible, while focusing the report around the subject's own personal documents. The most important data for a life history are private records or documents. They include autobiographies, questionnaires, interviews and verbal reports, diaries and letters, and artistic and projective materials. In this study, autobiographies, questionnaires, interviews, diaries, and letters were used.
While none of these sources is likely to provide a complete picture of the subject's life experiences, a combination of them will approach it closely.
4.2.1 Life History and Truth
Stoll (1998) states that learners have to acknowledge that there are no alternatives to judge opposing versions of events. Analysis of contradictions between narrative and experience need to be explored and examined in any document.
However, one wonders if "truth" in a life history is to be defined in the manner that Stoll (1998) does, especially in a postmodern world where such terms are inevitably contested and critiqued. Life histories are situated within a series of complex and ambiguous political and cultural relations. Subjects have to be interrogated, but the interrogators at the end should not be the exclamation of a learnedly "gotcha" when they find contradictions; rather they should piece together how these multiple presentations account for contested versions of reality (Stoll, 1998). For example, in her text about 5 women, Bateson (1990) states that she has not attempted to validate the narratives apart from attending to issues of internal consistency and checking them against her understanding of individuals.
The accounts are shaped by each person's choices and selected memories.
How do self-story researchers know when and if the stories they hear are true?
Every storyteller has two options when telling a story: to tell a story that accords with non-fictional accounts about his or her life, or to tell a story which departs
from those accounts. Researchers are seldom in a position to tell the difference between these two narrative forms, for all people tell self-stories. The researcher's task thus cannot be one of determining the difference between true and false stories. All stories are, in a sense, fictions. From a fiction perspective, the researcher's task then involves studying how persons and their group culturally produce warrantable self and personal stories which accord with that group's standard of truth.
Researchers usmg life history begin with the assumption that it is helpful to remember that narrative documents indicate a past that existed whilst humanity is always in the present. This is true even in an age consumed by the present, where individuals develop historical amnesia. Traditional learners see life histories as important for the creation of a sense of nostalgia. It has been used as fleeting memory by a society that has been deeply absorbed in transformation and renewal (society that existed at the end of the 20th century). The purpose of life histories revolves around portal and process approaches (Tierney, 2000). The portal approach assumes that the author and the reader are different from the person whose story is told. This approach exoticises the "Other" and tries to enable the reader to understand the life fantasy. This privileges the researcher to take control over the final production of a text about someone else's life story. Because of its nature as a personal narrative, the process approach to life history fits within a postmodern framework and enables the development and encouragement of texts such as testimonials. The life history text then exists between history and memory. Memory is not a spontaneous word association. Speakers and researchers build memory from a shared perspective ofthe present.
Memories are recalled for reasons that are important to someone: either the speaker, or the interviewer. They serve to constrain identities. In creating ourselves, we always rely on our memories (Bruner, 1994). The self is always a remembered self. Tutu (2001) points out to the importance of memory in the context of identity formation in a changing world, thus:
And what happens if I lose my memory and forget who I am or to whom I am related? My identity is very intimately linked to my memory, and relationships would be impossible if memory went that is why Alzheimer's disease is such a horrible, distressing ailment. .. , Without memory it would be impossible to learn; we could not learn from experience because experience is something remembered .... WhatIknow is whatIremember and that helps to make me who Iam.
4.2.2 Life History as a Process
Life history research is a process where the researcher exammes the cultural scripts and narrative devices that speakers use to make sense of their own life experiences. This makes it possible for the researcher and the reader to reflect on his or her own lives. In this study, for instance, after reading the life histories of learners, I reflected on my own life. This resulted in me writing my story as a former working learner, and this is included in the study. Life needs to be seen as a personal narrative whose nature as spoken interactions between two or more individuals helps create, define, reinforce, or change reality. This process approach to life enables personal development and satisfaction.
If one were to read only formal histories, one might mistakenly presume, for example, that African American Indians, lesbian people, and other marginalised groups, did not exist prior to a generation ago. The mere "naming" of silent lives is insufficient. Life histories are, therefore, helpful for enabling societies to come to terms with individuals and groups who have been omitted from official versions of the past. Life histories have the ability to re-fashion and reclaim denied identities (Dhanpath, 1999).
4.3 CONDUCTING THIS STUDY