The education of adults confronted by the biographical imperative
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1517-97022006000200010Keywords:
Adult life, Educative biography, Life history, Biographical constructionAbstract
The focus of this text is the issue of adult education in our days. It aims at offering elements to contribute to form someone, by considering that every educator needs to know what was formative in his/her own life history. The text defends the idea that the biographical construction tends to become the main purpose of the education of adults, but that we have to seek new horizons of biographical construction, because the course of life has experienced, in consequence of the rupture of linearity that has characterized most professional paths, new tensions, but also unsuspected possibilities. In this sense, the article considers the biographical plurality that is a feature of the social contexts of contemporary life. The ambient instability, the loss of cultural references, the speed of emergence of new technologies, all force a kind of readaptation of the educative basis upon which life histories are founded. The process of formation then becomes a prolonged search for oneself in a world that demands a strong personal consistency to face the challenges posed to each person in today's society. Such existential experimentation will certainly bring surprises, particularly in contexts of social conformity. We shall be, at any rate, before a confrontation of generations which, by virtue of their biographical divergences, may have difficulty to recognize each other. The educative biographical report practiced at Geneva's higher education offers countless illustrations of the biographical challenges faced especially by the professionals of education.Downloads
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Published
2006-08-01
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Section
Focus on: Life histories and formation
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How to Cite
The education of adults confronted by the biographical imperative . (2006). Educação E Pesquisa, 32(2), 345-357. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1517-97022006000200010