ABSTRACT
In this chapter a concrete narrative-biographical research procedure for the study of teachers’ professional development is presented. Through collecting and analysing teachers’ career stories I aimed at understanding how teachers developed a personal interpretive framework (encompassing a professional self and a subjective educational theory) by which they perceive their job situation and act in it. Apart from the description of the research procedure, I discuss a number of methodological issues and their specific appearance in biographical research: the central role of the research relation; the production of autobiographical data as an interactive process of creating meaning; specific ethical issues and finally the question of the quality norms in biographical research. Throughout the chapter I strongly invite fellow researchers to be more explicit about the concrete methodological procedures they use in the publications on their research. I conclude that descriptive and reflective papers on concrete research designs constitute as valuable a contribution to the discussion on the scientific forum as do reports on research findings and theoretical conclusions.
