The Role of Reflection in Epistemological Change: Autobiography in Teacher Education

The authors promote the use of autobiography in the social foundations of education classroom as a means of connecting education to real life experiences, history, and fostering epistemological development of college students. Autobiography involves students’ awareness of the relationship between theory and lived experience. As a form of reflective knowing, autobiography may help students understand complex terms such as “learning,” “knowledge,” and “education” by exploring various contexts which influence such understandings. Reflective knowing explores some of the experiential and purposive contexts that influence knowledge creation. Intellectual maturity and self-awareness may arise from circumstances that can lead students to be more confident critical thinkers and problem solvers. The authors describe how they have used autobiography in their social foundations of education classrooms and explore how influencing the pedagogy of teacher education critiques traditional epistemologies toward a redefinition of education for a democratic society.