Identidade, relação e contexto: uma releitura epistemológica dos métodos biográficos

The paper develops theoretical, episte-mological and methodological ideas about biographical oriented methods in adult education research, from a systemic and constructivist perspec-tive. The aim is to create a framework to understand basic assumptions in researches that are based on these methods, focusing on the quest for identity that is interpreted here as embodied, relational/conversational and contextual. Education and identity are deeply interconnected; in fact, we can read ontogenesis (the process of developing one’s own identity throughout life) as a process of learning. But this also means that it happens in relation to others: biographical narratives are co-constructed. We can read research through the lenses of different metaphors: as describing a trajectory or as developing a path; other two metaphors are proposed here to interpret the research relationship: the “pact” and the “view”. Both imply reciprocity. Methodologically, different researchers (coherently with their paradigmatic backgrounds) face this aspect in different ways, from a massive use of personal reflexivity to a full participants´ engagement with a cooperative research.