“Oh, I get it now!” — Autobiographical writing as fostering understanding of gender and leisure interactions

Abstract

The value of stories as a learning tool has received increased attention in the adult education literature. Narratives provide opportunity for learners to use their lived experiences to make sense of new information or knowledge. Students in an upper level Gender and Leisure course engaged in autobiographical writing as a means of exploring and understanding how gender interacted with their leisure behaviors throughout their lives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 students after the assignment had been completed. The purpose of this study was to understand students' experiences with writing narratives and how this contributed to their learning both related to and beyond the course content. Discussion relates to the identified roles that story construction played in enhancing students' understanding of key concepts as well as helping them make connections between the concepts and their future roles as practitioners.

Keywords:

• autobiographical writing
• gender
• learning tools
• evaluation