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Learning from Our Lives: Women, Research, and Autobiography in Education

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This book does something new. It presents 11 autobiographical chapters by prominent female educational researchers, who write about the role of educational research in their lives, and the ways in which their lives have influenced the research that they do. The accounts are moving, and reveal much of the "backstage" of the academic life. And although each author's voice is distinctive, the editors treat the chapters as "data", looking across them to show how readers can learn from the accounts. This analytic edge, and the personal nature of the accounts, distinguishes this volume from other collections of academic autobiographies. It's a wonderful book.

This book is a poor substitute if you want to get a real appreciation for the sense of women in education. It's a collection of writings poorly edited. The stories are choppy and unrelated, written in a way that uses academic prose in a most unproductive way. One can only assume that the editors know little about education and the book is but a collection piece for a resume.