Autobiostories Promoting Emotional Insights Into the Teaching and Learning of Secondary Science - Mellen Studies in Education

This work integrates autobiography and story, producing a hybrid narrative called autobiostory. This research interprets gender through the reflective writing process, and aims at understanding intentions within the social context where individuals act, interact, and give meaning to what they think and do. It distinguishes between gender and sex to minimize confusion within these two related but distinct terms. This study focuses on the non-physiological characteristics related to gender. A story that was originally told to the author is transformed into an autobiostory, and the author then uses elements of his own autobiography to interpret and translate the classroom story (in this case, a secondary school science class). The research methods consist of a critical reflection of personal experience that contributes to the construction of gender. Following the autobiostory, interpretations, synthesis and implications, sections address the research goals and highlight a need to foster middle school environments where children construct gender premised on principles promoting human dignity, care and respect.