Biographical narrative approach for the construction of life stories of Cuban educators

Abstract

Objective: To clarify the moments to be taken into account for creating life stories of educators in the context of Cuban universities.

Methods: Interpretative documentary analysis focused on reviewing specialized literature on life stories, biographical-narrative methodologies, and studies on exemplary educators, using as main sources indexed scientific articles in databases such as Scielo, Redalyc, Dialnet, and Google Scholar. As analysis procedures: in the exploratory phase, the search for literature using key terms 'life stories' AND 'educators', 'biographical methods' AND 'education'; in the synthesis phase, the findings were organized around methodological moments or stages, and the reflective phase allowed for establishing moments for future research and the elements that should not be missing in life stories of Cuban university teachers.

Result: It consists of the presentation of the key methodological moments in the construction of life stories of university teachers and the explanation of each of them. These are: design and epistemological foundation; collection of testimonials; analysis and interpretation; and validation and feedback. In the explanation, each one appears with its own tasks, challenges, and theoretical foundations.

Conclusion: The life stories of educational personalities are insufficient; theoretical studies prevail in relation to biographical-narrative research. There are biases due to the insufficient research intent of a theoretical, epistemological, and praxiological nature, as well as the limited methodological foundation aimed at the scientific research study of teachers. Actions are needed to highlight, from research in the history of education, the contributions of recognized figures of teaching from the 20th and 21st centuries in Cuba.

Keywords: life stories, educators, biographical method, biographical-narrative research, university professors