(AUTO) BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH AND ( SELF) EDUCATION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER

This paper aims to establish relations between autobiographical research and critical self-education of EFL teachers. Here the term "critical" is taken in the Marxist sense that Paulo Freire adopted. Such critical self-education is a process that places the teacher in the central role of his own education; a process that pushes the teacher towards what we will call political-pedagogical engagement. Autobiographical research intends that, through the narrative of oneself, the narrator revisits his own history, education and professional practice to re-signify them. While telling his experiences, the narrator is subjecting himself to a process of reflection and (self) education - building his educative biography (Dominice, 1984, and Josso 1986, apud Josso, 2010). The present research points to an important potential of transformation and critical reflection within the autobiographical approach as a tool in teachers' self-education.