Abstract

This paper presents the initial outcome of a study started in 2007, which aims to elaborate conceptual tools and methodological devices that contribute to the develop the knowledge about the teaching practice. This first stage of study encompasses the analysis of 200 micro-biographies of primary and secondary school teachers from the South Italy district. These micro-biographies – called “stolen time writings” (Laneve 2009) – were freely produced over short intervals at work, during which teachers are capable of reconstructing and reflecting on the classroom life. The analysis of the material, attained through the narrative-biographical technique and the Quality Data Analysis (Siedel 1998), has focused on the “emerging categories, or classes of more frequent reference used by teachers to describe their teaching practice. These categories, as aspects of narrative practical knowledge (Shulman 1987), in other words help to discover the way in which teachers reconstruct past experiences as a means of elucidating their own teaching practice.