University of Tampere
Department of Education
ESREA –Biography and Life History network
Meeting in Geneva
2002, March 7 th
- 10 th
Jukka Tuomisto
Motto: No social study that does not come back to the problems of biography, of history, and of their intersections within a society, has completed its intellectual journey. (Mills 1971, 12)
1.
Theoretical points of departure
Tradition of participation research
Participation in adult education (PAE) and adult learners’ motives for studying have been studied a great deal. Generally this research has consisted of cross-sectional studies based on empirical questionnaire surveys in which studying has been observed strictly as an activity related to a specific time period. Earlier participation research has suffered from some shortcomings, such as:
1) Studies have mainly focused on educational motives, while broader aspects, such as social reasons, have not been given much attention.
2) Cross-sectional studies have enabled only a narrow picture of participation and factors influencing it.
3) Participation has not been observed in the social context in which it takes place.
4) The process of participation and learning has not been given due attention.
5) The goal of the research has been to guide adult learners’ studying; in other words, adult learners have been considered primarily from the perspective of educational policy and as objects rather than subjects who set their own goals and aim at achieving them. Consequently, research has not made it easier to understand the significance of studying and its changes in the life history of adult learners; quite conversely, research has mainly served educational planning and planners.
6) The developmental history of individuals and society remain detached since their integration cannot be achieved in traditional participation studies. What is needed is a longer-term life history approach.

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Studies which observe the status of studying in the whole life cycle of adult learners – in the different stages of their life history – continue to be rather rare (Courtney 1992).
One reason for this may be that the life history approach is quite demanding: the researcher must be able to approach and interpret the development and life problems of individuals from the viewpoint of several different disciplines (e.g. sociology, psychology, etc.). At the same time the historical context must also be taken into account.
Life history research
Life history research has long traditions. It was apparently first used by anthropologists, but sociological, medical and psychological researchers have also approached their research problems from the perspective of life history. In his article,
Warren has described the development of life history research related to North
American adult education (Warren 1982, 214-228; see also Courtney 1992, 71-75).
Life history research in adult education in North America has evidently been most strongly influenced by sociologists of education who have studied the process of man’s socialisation (ibid; Donnefer 1991).
European researchers, in contrast, have approached life history research from a slightly different angle. Alheit and Dausien (1990) associate it with the long tradition of European biographical literature and its research which date back to ancient
Greece. According to them, educational research, too, has used the biographical paradigm at least since the early 19 th
century in the research on personality development. In the 1980s, in particular, the biographical life history approach seems to have become increasingly common among European adult education researchers
(see e.g. Alheit 1983; Armstrong 1987).
In Finland, life history research in the social sciences and sociology of education began in the 1980s. It was influenced by the discussion and research of the way of living in the 1970s. In the early 1980s, several studies were published which focused on the way of life, and changes in it, of different groups of population, such as industrial workers, residents of new housing areas, rural-urban migrants and women
(see Kasvio 1982; Kortteinen 1982; Ahponen & Järvelä 1982; Strandell 1983). These studies aimed at observing individuals’ action in the social context, but the timerelated, historical development was left outside their observation. Biographical research as such was initiated by Roos (Roos 1980) with an analysis of the changing ways of life as depicted in Finnish autobiographies. Roos divided the authors into different generations according to their date of birth and their central life experiences, and then compared the groups with each other. He thus observed individuals and their life history in a sociohistorical context.
From the perspective of adult education, the most important studies were a biographical follow-up study of a given student generation by Häyrynen (1983), started in the 1980s, and a research project conducted by Antikainen which, among other things, focused on significant life experiences of adult people, as well as on the status of education and learning in their lives (Antikainen 1991; Antikainen &
Huotelin 1996). In addition, there are a few studies made of specific groups of adult learners (e.g. Nieminen 1990; Kankainen 1990; Vivolin 1994).

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Life history research may be based on autobiographies of the individuals themselves
(see e.g. Roos 1985; Warren 1982) or on biographical data obtained from their interviews. Both approaches involve problems, however. Autobiographies are always stories written by the individuals in question and are thus their own interpretations of their lives. In analysing them the researcher has to ponder the extent to which they are
”true” or just ”facades”, put up for appearances. The techniques of interviewing run the risk of the analyst not succeeding in his or her work and/or misinterpreting the respondent. The ”profoundness” or thoroughness of the interviews may also vary considerably. If the goal is a really in-depth interview, it should be made on the conditions of the interviewee, really hearing and listening to his or her interpretations.
The role of the interviewer is restricted to necessary note-taking. It is generally believed that an interview is properly carried out only when the so called point of saturation has been reached: nothing new comes up any longer but the respondent begins to repeat what he or she has already said. Often there is not enough time for such a long dialogue, and the interviewer will have to be content with a considerably shorter and more ”superficial” interview. Even in this case, however, it is possible to obtain some information more or less accurately, but the respondent’s own interpretations and meanings may remain unclear.
Creating an acceptable autobiography is part of an ongoing process of identity building which continues through life. Although risks are involved, breakdowns in the course of life and threats to identity in the pressures of modernisation may also generate biographical opportunities. The crises stemming from this interaction of structure and subjectivity have, however, been interpreted along with the increased erosion of biographical environments and breakdowns in the course of life. At the same time, life history and the continual redefining of identity have more and more obviously become the precondition for coping. From the individual’s perspective, the decrease of old cultural bonds and the breakdown of traditions require continual building of identity. Obvious examples of this are periods of unemployment, change of jobs and continuing education; from the individual’s perspective, the future seems open-ended and uncertain. (Huotelin 1994, 80)
2.
Purpose of the study
Using the life history approach, this study aims at linking the general development of society to the individual, psychological development process of people of different ages and, in particular, to their study interests. This study clarifies, how and why studying has become a central part in some adults’ way of living and life history and what kind of meanings they give to their studying in different stages of their lives.
The way of life generally means that the individuals’ various daily activities have become more or less established and form an essential part of their lived world. For this reason, the group of subjects selected for the research consists of people for whom studying has become a permanent and central activity in life. These people are truly lifelong adult learners. The subjects of this research met the criteria of having studied continuosly for about ten years without breaks.

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The status of studying in the adult learners’ life history is observed by examining their study orientation and changes in it, the progress of their learning process, and the meanings they had given to their studying. a) S tudy orientation and changes in it
1) beginning of study and reasons for it,
2) expressed motives and learning/motivational orientation,
-individual vs. collective motives,
-learning-oriented, goal-oriented, activity-oriented (see Houle 1961),
3) interwoven and emphasised motives, and changes in them (dominant study orientation, combinations of orientations),
-number and content of subjects studied and their combinations,
-changes in motivational and learning orientations,
4) relationship of individual and societal developmental tasks,
-general picture,
-differences between generations. b) Progress of the learning process (deepening)
in-depth learning / superficial learning,
-emancipation / subordination & alienation,
-increased / decreased self-directiveness,
-improved / weakened life control,
-general personal development / community development,
-change related to psychology of learning (fluid / crystallised intelligence). c) Meanings given to study and learning
-focal role of study in life,
-meaning of the learning experience.
The 1 st stage of the research (data collected in1988-89) mainly focused on the changes that had occurred in the adult students’ motivation and learning orientation
(section a).
The 2 nd stage of the research (replication study, data to be collected in 2002) will observe the changes that have taken place over time in the study orientation of active students, and in addition the changes in the individual students’ learning processes
(sections b and c).
Both stages are based on the subjects’ own ideas and perceptions, and on their interpretations.
3. Research data and their collection
The subjects of the research are active ”lifelong adult learners”. In other words, these adults had continued their studying without breaks for about ten years. The choice of the group (N=20) may be justified from two different points of view. First, this study was initiated from the perspective of way of life. The research problem was then formulated as follows: Why does studying begin to play a central role in some

people’s lives? If the aim is to observe studying as a way of life, the subject group must consist of active adult students. Secondly, choosing active adult students as the subjects may be justified in the same way as studying the activity of leading companies. In other words, by studying them we try to understand what the ”secret” of their success is and to discover at least some basic truths which can explain the success. It can be assumed that the example of active students can help us to understand, how and why some adults turn into ”lifelong” learners and students.
The subjects were chosen from among the students of two adult education centres in
Tampere. Both of them offer versatile study opportunities for adult students who may thus satisfy their widely differing educational needs. The centres provide education in academic subjects as well as in different arts. The list of subjects includes, for example, home economics, needlework and woodwork, physical education, human relations, foreign languages, arts (music, dance, theatre, painting, drawing, sculpture, violin building, etc.), courses leading to a university qualification, vocational studies, yoga, computer studies, etc.
The 1 st stage of the research was conducted in 1988-89 as a theme interview involving the following topic areas :
1) life history, 2) work and livelihood, 3) social relationships (childhood home and family, present home and family, collaeagus, and friends), 4) everyday life and leisure (use of time, hobbies and interests), 5) studying (beginning & length, reasons and motivation, social relationships, subjects studied, meaning of study), and 6) self-image, world image (control of life, future, values & norms, essential things in life).
The data were collected by adult education students who attended two of my courses on qualitative research methods in 1988-89. The data were collected by means of theme interviews dealing with the above list of topic areas. The interviewers were encouraged to let the respondents speak as freely as possible of their own life and studying. However, if the themes did not come up spontaneously in the subject’s narrative, the interviewers were expected to ensure that all of them were adequately dealt with during the interview. Because of the tight course schedule, one interview per person had to suffice, but lacking information was later added by telephone contacts when necessary. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim
(about 300 pages of text); later on the text was rewritten by themes.
The 2 nd stage of the research is to be completed in 2002 as a replication study. In other words, the aim is to re-interview the same people by using the same list of themes (see above) as in the first stage. Since it is about twelve years from the first interview, it is obvious that all the subjects cannot be found any longer. However, if some 13 to 15 subjects can be contacted, their re-interviews will give a clear picture of the changes that have taken place in the interval. Even though a long time has passed since the first interviews, it will not distort the outcome because the subjects’ life history until the time of the first interviews has naturally remained unchanged.
The subjects’ interpretations of their lives prior to the first interviews may of course have changed, and they may also interpret their subsequent life differently now. The extent to which this has happened is one of the central objects of the second stage of the research.
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3.
Research method
Life history research is usually based on qualitative analysis consisting of two stages: reduction of observations and interpretation of meanings related to phenomena
(Alasuutari 1993, 21-37). In the reduction of observations we can distinguish two phases.
First, the data are observed from a certain theoretical perspective; in other words, the research aims to focus primarily on what is essential and central from the viewpoint of the theoretical frame of reference. The theoretical framework of this research is provided by the earlier ”participation studies” of adult students’ studying and the meaning of study to them. In the second phase, the aim is to make an interpretation of the meaning of the pehnomenon on the basis of analyses generated. The interpretation may be founded on either earlier studies or it may lead to an entirely new view of adult education and its basic character. The analysis methods of life history research mentioned by Roos (1985), namely thematisation and typology , may be of use here.
A replication study can be justified on the following grounds, among others:
1) Expansion of life history method. The research enables a long-term study of adult students’ motivation, learning process and meanings given to learning.
2) Studying the changes in interpretations. A replication study enables the comparison of the similarity/difference between the earlier (1988-89) and the recent life history narrative (2002).
3) Societal development. The 1990s was a decade of recession and breakdown, which also affected adult students’ study opportunities (study fees, for example, went up). How did the respondents manage in this period and what was the significance of studying and learning in this process?
In studies related to autobiographical memory, one of the central questions has to do with the equivalence of memories and the real lived past. A variety of different theories have been presented on this equivalence (Huotelin 1996, 26-27):
1) According to copy theory , memories are considered copies of past events.
2) According to reconstruction theories , memory does not record past events accurately, but rather interprets, organises, reshapes and selects them.
3) According to partial construction theory , personal memories are seen as referring to experienced meanings of external events. Memories contain information on the original experiences, but they have over time been complemented with elements which were not part of the original experience. As such memories do not therefore correspond to the experienced past but are rather experientially in harmony with the selfimage manifested in them.
4) Collective or social memory refers to images or memories of past events which a person feels he or she has personally experienced but which in fact are second-hand impressions.
5) When talking about memory as constructor of social reality , memory is understood from a sociohistorical perspective which is particularly interested in how memory produces versions of the past. The main attention is given to verbal descriptions and ways of speaking. Lived life events and past experiences can be grasped as memories which are filtered

7 through the present, interpreted and rebuilt. Consequently, memories are not permanent, fixed or clearly outlined but, rather, continually changing and open to reinterpretation.
In a personal biography, an individual describes his or her life within the framework of individual experiences, but also as belonging to a certain age group, sex, socioeconomic group and culture. In Goffmann’s (1990: cited in Huotelin 1996, 25) terms, social identity refers to the social, societal and cultural contents of an individual’s awareness, whereas personal identity is a unique combination of the individual’s life history, events and experiences. How all these aspects are shaped and linked to the general development of society provides an interesting research object.
It is clear that the on the basis of this research it is not possible to make any farreaching generalisations. This can be said of more or less all qualitative research.
However, compared with earlier research, the life history approach does give a much more vivid and diverse picture of adult students, their motives and study orientations, as well as of the changes that have taken place. This kind of research also helps adult educators to understand in more concrete terms the entity of adult students’ life, their status as students and learners, and as representatives of their own time and generation.
4.
Future progress and research schedule
The central results of the first stage of the research were presented to a wider audience in an international conference held in Lahti in 1995 (Tuomisto 1995). The second stage is being launched at the moment. It will focus on how long-term adult students’ study activity has continued, how their study orientation has changed, what kind of changes have taken place in their topics, and what role in general studying now has in their lived world. The aim is to make the theme interviews in the summer and autumn of 2002, as well as to to transcribe the recorded interviews. The research report will be finished in 2003.
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